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Adams added to recall attempt
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By Guy
Ashley Add Superior Court Judge Verna Adams to the list of jurists targeted
in Marin's first-ever judicial recall campaign. A petition was
filed with the Marin Registrar of Voters on Friday announcing a recall
campaign against Adams, who responded quickly by calling it "an improper
attempt to influence judges' decisions." The petition
was filed by Sausalito marine salvage specialist Peter Romanowsky, treasurer
of the Citizens Judiciary Review Board, a group that previously had launched
recall drives against three other judges and Marin District Attorney Paula
Kamena. The petition
asserts that Adams, a longtime Marin family law attorney who was appointed to
the judge's post last October, should have had to run for election in March. Adams,
however, called this view "misguided" and "inaccurate,"
noting that a review of the matter by lawyers for the county indicated that
according to the state Constitution she does not have to seek election until
2002. County Counsel
Patrick Faulkner confirmed yesterday that he was consulted and that he
determined that Adams and Judge James Ritchie, who also was appointed last
year, were not required to run in the March primary election. "During
my brief tenure, I have received accolades from colleagues, jurors, counsel
and litigants," Adams said in a written response to the recall
petitions. John
Montgomery, administrator of the Marin courts, said yesterday that the real
reason for the Adams recall effort is payback for decisions she made in the
recent trial of Carol Mardeusz of Novato. Mardeusz, 44,
was convicted July 21 of attempted child abduction, perjury and contempt of
court in connection with a long-running child custody battle she's had with
an ex-boyfriend. Romanowsky, a
close friend of Mardeusz, said nothing to counter that claim in an interview
yesterday. "We
believe (Mardeusz) was railroaded," Romanowsky said. Romanowsky
said during the Mardeusz trial that his group was considering a recall effort
against Adams, but that a final decision would depend on the outcome of the
Mardeusz case. Adams becomes
the fourth judge in Marin to be targeted in a recall campaign. Earlier,
petitions were filed launching campaigns to recall judges Michael Dufficy,
Terrence Boren and Lynn Duryee, and District Attorney Kamena in a special
election next year. Don Solem of
Mill Valley, who runs the consulting firm that has been retained by the
judges to counter the recall campaign, said he was not surprised by the new
petitions because rumors about a campaign targeting Adams had been
circulating for weeks. Solem says the
recall petitions each appear to have grown out of the dissatisfaction of
litigants who don't like rulings that have been handed down in court. "It
appears as if they're on the way to trying to recall everybody in the Marin
County court system -when none of them have been found by any independent
authority to have done anything wrong," Solem said. County
elections officials say recall leaders must gather about 13,000 signatures
for each judge and about 14,000 for Kamena in order to force a recall
election. Recall
organizers have until later this month to gather the needed signatures
against the judges and until mid-September to collect signatures against
Kamena. A special election on the matter could cost as much as $500,000,
elections officials said. Contact Guy
Ashley via e-mail at [email protected]
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