A Complete List of the Judges in Contra Costa County

The list of Superior Court judges includes some who started out in Municipal Court. This consolidation was the result of a state initiative in the June 2, 1998 election.

* indicates the date the judge was elevated to a higher court

District Judges

John Watson 1850-1851

Craven P. Hester 1851-1853

Elisha McKinstry 1853 – 1863

Thomas A. Brown 1863 – 1865

Samuel H. Dwinelle 1865-1879

County Judges 

F. M. Warmcastle 1850- 1854

J. F. Williams 1854 – 1854

R. N. Woods1854- 1855

George F. Worth 1855 – 1856

Thomas A. Brown
1856 – 1864 and 1874-1880

Mark Shepard 1863- 1870

Cyrus W. Lander 1870 –  1874

Superior Court Judges

1. Thomas Allen Brown
1880- 1886

2. Francis M. Warmcastle
1886- 1886

3. Joseph P. Jones
1886 – 1900 

4. William Sewall Wells
1900 – 1909

5. Randall H. Lattimer
1908- 1923

6. Alfred Bailey Mckenzie
1914- 1935

7. Henry V. Alvarado
1923 – 1932

8. Thomas D. Johnston
1932 – 1941

9. Absalom Francis Bray
1935 – 1947

10. Harold Jacoby
1941 – 1959

11. Homer W. Patterson
1945 – 1967

12. Hugh H. Donovan
1947 – 1963

13. Wakefield Taylor
1951 – 1963*

14. Nonnan A Gregg
1951 – 1980

15. Thomas F. Fraga
1957 – 1971

16. Betsy FitzGerald Rahn
1958 (Muni)-1979

17. Martin E. Rothenberg
1959 – 1982 

18. Salathiel Charles Masterson
1959 – 1972

19. Richard E. Arnason 1963 – 1995

20. Joseph Genser
1963 – 1972

21. Robert J. Cooney
1964 – 1985

22. Thomas Francis McBride
1965 – 1981

23. George D. Carroll
1965-1985 (Muni)

24. Samuel Conti
1967 – 1970

25. William R. Channell
1970 – 1984

26. Max Wilcox, Jr.
1971- 1987

27. Jackson C. Davis
1971 – 1977

28. Coleman Ferrell Fannin, Jr.
1972 – 1988

29. Sam Hall
1972 – 1981

30. Richard Patrick Calhoun
1973 – 1980

31. Bessie Dreibelbis
1973 (Muni)- 1993

32. John C. Minney
1975 (Muni) 1987 (Sup) – 2006

33. Ellen Patricia Herron
1977 – 1987

34. David A Dolgin
1977 – 1993

35. Mark Simons
1980 (Muni) 1987 (Sup) – 1995*

36. Richard L. Patsey
1980 – 1989

37. Wayne A. Westover, Jr.
1980 – 1998 

38. Norman Spellberg
1980 –  1991

39. Gary E. Strankman
1980 – 1988*

40. Robert G. McGrath
1982 – 1999

41. Ellen S. James
1982 – 1997

42. Patricia McKinley
1982 (Muni) – 1986

43. Edward L. Merrill
1982 – 1996

44. Walter Rogers
1982 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2002

45. David E. Pesonen
1983 – 1984

46. Dennis Cunningham
1983 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2005

47. Richard S. Flier
1985 – 2005

48. William A. O’Malley
1984 – 1994

49. John Allen
1984 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2004

50. Michael J. Phelan
1985 – 1992*

51. Douglas E. Swager
1987 – 1995*

52. Garrett J. Grant
1987 (Muni) 1997 (Sup) – 2005

53. Bruce Van Voorhis
1976 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2003

54. Merle Eaton
1987 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2006

55. James J. Marchiano
1988 – 1998*

56. Peter L. Spinetta
1989 – 2007

57. Patricia K. Sepulveda
1989 – 1998*

58. Irene Takahashi
1989-1991

59. James R. Trembath
1990 – 2003

60. Harlan Grossman
1991 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2012

61. John Van de Poel
1992 – 

62. Lois Haight
1993 – 2019

63. Ignazio John Ruvolo
1994 – 1996*

64. Peter Berger
1994 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2012

65. Barbara Ann Zuniga
1994 – 2014

66. William Kolin
1994 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2013

67. Bruce Mills
1995 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2018

68. Diana Becton
1995 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2017

69. Laurel S. Brady (Lindenbaum)
1996 (Muni) 1998 (Sup) – 2024

70. Maria Rivera
1997 – 2002*

71. David Bernard Flinn
1997 – 2014 

72. Judy S. Craddick
1997 – 2018

73. Gerald Belleci
1998 – 1998

74. Michael Coleman
1998 – 2013

75. Joni Hiramoto
1998 – in office

76. Joyce Cram
1998 – 2013

77. Mary Ann O’Malley
1998 – in office

78. Terrence L. Bruniers
1998 – 2009*

79. Steven K. Austin
1998 – 2022

80. Tom Maddock
1998 – 2017

81. George Spanos
2000 – 2017

82. John Kennedy
2001 – in office

83. Barry Baskin
2002 – 2022

84. Cheryl Mills
2002 – 2022

85. Theresa Canepa
2002 – 2023

86. John Sugiyama
2002 – 2020

87. Leslie Landau
2003- 2023

88. Jill Fannin
2003 – 2024

89. Nancy Davis Stark
2004 – 2023 

90. Susanne Fenstermacher
2005 -2024

91. Charles Treat
2005 – in office

92. Charles Burch
2005 – in office

93. Lewis Davis
2005 – 2022

94. Patricia Scanlon
2005 – in office

95. John Laettner
2006 – 2019

96. Brian Haynes
2007- in office

97. Clare Maier
2007 – 2024

98. Barbara Hinton
2008 – in office

99. Trevor White
2008 – 2017

100. Edward Weil
2009 – in office

101. Rebecca Hardie
2010 – in office

102. Christopher Bowen
2010 – in office

103. Judy Johnson
2012 – 2022

104. Terri Mockler
2012 – in office

105. John Cope
2013 – in office

106. Danielle Douglas
2014 – in office

107. Anita Santos
2014 – 2022

108. David Goldstein
2015 – in office

109. Benjamin Reyes, II
2017 – in office

110. Wade Rhyne
2017 – in office

111. Virginia George
2017 – in office

112. Leonard Marquez
2018 – in office

113. John Devine
2018 – in office

114. Wendy Coats
2018 – in office

115. Julia Campins
2019 – in office

116. Linda Lye
2020 – 2021

117. Jennifer Lee
2021 – in office

118. Kirk Athanasiou
2021 – in office

119. Glenn Kim
2021 – in office

120. Colleen Gleason
2022 – in office

121. Ayana Young
2022 – in office

122. Shara Beltramo
2022 – in office

123. Frank Riebli
2023 – in office

124. Palvir Shoker
2023 – in office

125. Gina Dashman
2023 – in office

126. Peter Chang
2023 – in office

127. Melissa O’Connell
2023 – in office

128. Jesse Jen-Yen Hseih
2024 – in office

129. Nichelle Holmes
2024 – in office

130. Stephanie Clarke
2024 – in office

Contra Costa Lawyer magazine expresses heartfelt thanks to the Contra Costa County Historical Society for their help in compiling this list and scanning so many historical photos in this issue. 

If you find an error or omission in this list, please contact Carole Lucido, CCCBA Communications Director with updated information at clucido@cccba.org or (925) 370-2542.