Legal News

Famed O.C. criminal defense attorney Gary Proctor kills himself

By Jason Siegel

Attorney Gary Proctor, who was called "the most prominent criminal defense attorney in Orange County" by news magazine "60 Minutes," shot and killed himself on Sunday, officials told the Orange Count Register.

Proctor, 63, had chronic back pain and was depressed about criticism in the San Jose Mercury News over his management of the juvenile defenders' contract in San Jose, Proctor's friends told the O.C. Register.

Proctor told the Mercury News he would resign as head of a publicly funded legal firm representing parents in Santa Clara County Juvenile Dependency Court after the newspaper's mid-February series critiquing the firm. The series reported that attorneys at the firm lacked experts and investigators and often met parents the day of their hearings.

Proctor worked for the National Labor Relations Board and the Orange County Public Defender's Office before entering private practice. He was on the Newport Beach City Council from 2000 to 2003 and, during Jerry Brown's tenure as California's governor, his recommendation was key a lawyer aspiring to become an O.C. judge, defense attorney Ronald Brower told the O.C. Register.

?He was very well respected ? the best. Everyone in Orange County knew who Gary Proctor was,? Orange County Superior Court Judge David Thompson told the Daily Pilot.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 11, 2008 (boomark / email).