Managing partner at civil firm, longtime prosecutor competing for judge’s seat
The candidates vying to fill the seat of retired Stanislaus Superior Court judge Roger Beauchesne both say they are experts in their area of law, one criminal and one civil.
Jeff Mangar has worked 22 years as a prosecutor, the majority of it in the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office. That includes time spent in the homicide team, drug unit, welfare fraud unit, civil asset forfeiture unit and real estate fraud unit.
Colleen Van Egmond, a managing partner of a Modesto law firm, has 13 years of civil experience and has worked nearly every type of civil law case.
Mangar said his experience is more valuable because the vast majority of cases that go to trial, 97 percent in 2018, are criminal cases. He said he has been the prosecutor on more than 60 jury trials, including six murder cases.
“Working and being in court every single day, I have real world experience,” he said.
Van Egmond said she has worked both trials and arbitration, about 30 combined, during her career, and has law and motion experience including a published opinion with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
During a debate at The Modesto Bee last month the candidates were asked how they would ease the backlog of criminal cases. The Bee last reported in 2017 that the number of pending murder cases in Stanislaus County is twice the statewide average, adjusted for population.
Van Egmond said she would handle cases with the same efficiency she does in her law firm.
“I am accountable to people who can walk in and fire me if we are not efficient, if we don’t move those cases along,” she said.
Mangar said he knows how important it is to present evidence to a jury in a timely manner because witnesses’ memories fade or they move out of the area and can’t be located.
He told a story about a judge who once showed a wedding video to counsel in his chambers while a jury, court staff and all the involved parties waited for the trial to resume.
“If I am elected judge, that type of abuse would not happen,” he said.
The candidates were asked how they’d get up to speed on the other’s area of expertise if elected. The presiding judge determines which courtroom the other judges are assigned to so Mangar could end up in civil court or Van Egmond in criminal.
Mangar said he is a quick learner, his experience as a bar exam grader exposed him to areas of civil law and he has taken continued education classes through the bar association, which primarily focus on civil topics.
Van Egmond said she already has experience working as an judge pro tem in traffic court and presided over arraignments and trials there. She also said she is a quick study who, multiple times, had to take on 60 to 100 cases when an attorney left her firm.
“It might not be my area of law that I practice …but when (an) attorney leaves it’s been my job as managing partner over a weekend or a week to get caught up on all those files and protect those cases,” she said.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 11:40 AM.
