Modesto Bee Superior Court judge endorsements: Mangar, Carrillo and Rees. Here’s why

The Modesto Bee has confidence that Jeff Mangar, Jared Carrillo and Annette Rees will make good judges in Stanislaus County Superior Court.

Their opponents are smart, respected members of the legal profession who have provided valuable service to our judicial system. All presented themselves well in candidate forums before Bee editors, which can viewed at youtube.com/user/TheModestoBee/videos.

Mangar and Rees are chief deputies to District Attorney Birgit Fladager. The fact that their election could hurt an office already struggling to recruit and retain prosecutors must not be held against these excellent candidates. Both deserve judgeships because their depth of courtroom experience outshines their otherwise impressive opponents.

Office 2

Colleen Van Egmond is running against Mangar for Office 2. She is a civil attorney, has managed a respected Modesto law firm for 10 years, and serves as a judge pro tem, presiding in traffic court. Her one year in that position pales next to Mangar’s 22 years in the courtroom, including 60 jury trials.

Our courts need judges with experience in both civil and criminal law. But last year, Stanislaus courts hosted 168 criminal trials, next to only five civil trials.

“That’s what Superior Courts are all about — trials,” Mangar said. “Someone with more trial experience is a key difference.”

Office 5

With three candidates — Carrillo, Ken Hara and John R. Mayne — the race for Office 5 is the most crowded. If one candidate fails to net more than 50% of votes on March 3, the top two will run off in the November presidential election.

Hara would slip naturally into the job of judge because the former prosecutor has spent nine years as a court commissioner. That position is sort of like an apprentice judge, handling arraignments, child support and nonviolent drug cases, but a commissioner doesn’t do full trials or pronounce sentences.

Mayne’s prosecution of 65 jury trials also is worthy of respect. Carrillo admiringly calls him “a walking encyclopedia.” Perhaps Mayne’s name is familiar because his high-profile cases have kept him in the news, or because he challenged his boss in an unsuccessful run for DA two years ago.

Carrillo stands out not so much for his depth of experience, which rivals his opponents’, but for its breadth. Before his 14 years as a prosecutor, Carrillo spent five years on the other side, as a deputy public defender. And for the past couple of years, he has managed a legal team at the Stanislaus Family Justice Center, representing abused women and children.

When people leave his courtroom, Carrillo said, he hopes they “think to themselves, `I may not have been victorious, but at least I was treated with respect, I was treated fairly, he listened to my arguments. I may not win, but I’m walking away feeling that at least I got a fair hearing.”

Office 6

Here is one measure of Rees’ experience: Among the prosecutors she has supervised are Mangar, Mayne, Carrillo, and her current opponent for Office 6, Sam Getrich. Rees’ life in law came after she owned and ran a medical billing company. Her many years as a boss will translate well to presiding in court.

But Rees also relates to some of the most vulnerable people in any courtroom. For many years, Rees has overseen the Special Victims Unit and has herself prosecuted countless heart-wrenching cases, working with victims of rape and molestation. Her vast experience simply outpaces Getrich’s nine years in the DA’s office and two years in civil law; he now is a defense attorney.

Asked for her vision of our courts’ future, Rees said, “Greater access, transparency and allowing more people to be a part of and understand our judicial system.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Modesto Bee Superior Court judge endorsements: Mangar, Carrillo and Rees. Here’s why."