Judicial Profile: Department 28
Honorable Richard E. Arnason
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- Biographical Information
-
- Date of Birth:
- October 4, 1921
- Place of Birth:
- Hansel, North Dakota (farm; one room county grade school, 1 teacher from grades 1-8)
- Education:
- University of North Dakota, BA in Business Administration 1943
Boalt JD 1946 - Pre-bench Legal Experience:
Dannenbrink, Price and Conella (associate, civil law)
Partner at Hamm & Arnason (1949-1956) in Antioch, (his partner was a mortician, no high school degree, during the war he became a probation officer and was allowed to audit law school--he was not enrolled in law school, but he became a senator). Firm became Hamm, Arnason and Waldie (1956-60), then became Hamm, Arnason, Waldie & Rockwell (1960-1962). General law. They had the case Dow Fiberboard, Linde Air and US Steel
- Political Affiliation:
- Registered democrat: appointed by Gov Edmond G. Brown, Sr. in 1962, retired but accepts cases on assignment, continuous assignment law provided for him to retire at 70 or lose ½ of pension
- Judicial Experience
Judge Arnason came to California in the enlisted officer’s reserves program but was color blind so he worked in the shipyards in Oakland. Then he went to Cal to see what was going on and got a call from Boalt, they gave him credits for sitting in classes.
The Chief Justice of the CA Supreme Court had the power to allocate judges on yearly assignments. Judge Arnason was assigned to all criminal cases, including for San Quentin—the Shoot Hawk cases in Marin, Solano, and Santa Clara and the Soledad cases the judge was murdered and people were indicted. Angela Davis was tried.
- Pre-bench Civic & Professional Activities
- Antioch USD Board, 1958-62
City of Antioch personnel chair 1951 – 1962 - Current Civic & Professional Activities
- No political activities has always been his rule.
- Continuing Legal Education Faculty
- Was faculty for the Hastings College of Advocacy.
- Courtroom Policies
- He is not big on policy, before there were 17 judicial districts and only three had judges who were lawyers. He mostly rules from the bench. He only issues written instruction to attys in major case.
- Teleconferencing
- Not viable, it all has to be on the record.
- Motions (and Sentencing)
- Evidentiary rulings only on Fridays.
- Settlement Conferences
- Readiness conferences 10 days before trial.
- ADR
- No.
- In Limine Motions
- In capital case, he tries to get them out of the way in advance so in before voir dire.
- Jury Instructions
- No invete them but he prepares his own. Only 1/5 of the judges do it.
- Witnesses
- Mostly witnesses are outside the courtroom until called in. (except parents, stay in after they check in with the attorneys).
- Sanctions
- No troubles, no need to find in contempt.
- Documents
- During course of trial, generally mark in advance of trial.
- Computers
- Yes.
- Audio-visual
- Great because jurors retain more. A lot of studies in the last 25 years regarding communications. They interviewed jurors and found that at the end of the first day the average juror has 30% retention and at the end of the third day it is only 10% but computers and audio visual increase this to 50%.
