Legal News

O.C. Judge Pamela Lee Iles retires

By Jason Siegel

Orange County Superior Court Judge Pamela Lee Iles is retiring, after 25 years on the bench, next month, the Orange County Register reported.

Iles started out as a public defender and deputy district attorney in Orange County in the 1970s. While there, she prosecuted child abuse and sex crimes against juveniles. When she was appointed to South Orange County Municipal Court in 1983 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, one of her first acts was to ease the strain put on abuse children.

As the O.C. Register tells it, she met with colleagues at the Sacramento bar and plied them with booze until they agreed to create the multi-disciplinary Child Abuse Services Team. Rather than having kids repeat their stories of abuse to police, social workers and prosecutors, all the agencies came to the abused child.

Additionally, Iles presided over the county's first courtroom focused on domestic violence, according to the O.C. Register.

Iles leaves the court as a controversial figure, celebrated for her work on domestic violence but criticized for having been disciplined by the California Commission on Judicial Performance five times, more than most judges.

After retiring, she plans to focus on The Family Violence Project that she created five years ago, which works on early recognition of family violence and resources.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 23, 2008 (boomark / email).