Candidate for
Superior Court Judge; County of Orange; Office 21

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Barry Kohn has announced his write-in candidacy for Orange County Superior Court Judge Office No. 21. The incumbent, Ronald C. Kline, is currently under a cloud due to Federal and Orange County criminal investigations.

Kohn, a Laguna Beach resident, has spent 20 years on the bench as a California Superior Court and Municipal Court Commissioner, presiding over preliminary hearings, arraignments, criminal and civil trials, extraditions, emergency protective orders, and civil law and motion. He is known in the judicial community as an innovator of criminal sentences, being the first to sentence a "slumlord" to jail time. In spousal abuse cases, he would not accept fines as a sentence but required Caltrans road work and programs for anger management before these kinds of sentences were required by law.

He is a member of the California Judges Association, the California Commissioners Association, and a founding member and director of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges. Kohn states that he based his decision to run on his belief that his extensive experience better qualifies him for the office than other candidates.