Criminal
Jul. 25, 2002
Ex-Cop Co-Founded Hispanic Bar Association
SANTA ANA - Michael Silvas, who co-founded the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County, has died. He was 60. "He was a remarkable person," said Jess Araujo of DiMarco Araujo & Montevideo in Santa Ana. "You had to love the guy. His opponents even loved him. He was an extremely diligent but humorous man. And he loved singing mariachi music."
"He was a remarkable person," said Jess Araujo of DiMarco Araujo & Montevideo in Santa Ana. "You had to love the guy. His opponents even loved him. He was an extremely diligent but humorous man. And he loved singing mariachi music."
Araujo said he and Silvas launched the Hispanic Bar to help attorneys form coalitions at a time when fewer than 10 Hispanic attorneys practiced in Orange County.
"We realized as Hispanic lawyers that we shared a common responsibility to the community," Araujo said
Silvas died Friday of a cerebral hemorrhage at University of California, Irvine, Medical Center in Orange. The longtime criminal defense lawyer also served as a police officer and district attorney investigator.
Born in Santa Ana, Silvas graduated in 1970 from the Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu.
He was a military police officer in the U.S. Army from 1959 to 1961, stationed in Virginia.
On his return to California, he worked as a Santa Ana police officer from 1964 to 1968. In February 1967, he saved the life of a 2-year-old girl by giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until paramedics arrived.
After working for the Orange County district attorney's office for five years as an investigator, Silvas passed the bar in December 1972.
He opened Silvas & Eaton with partner Phillip Eaton and worked there until his death.
His daughter, Michelle Halkett, who worked as a court reporter for Orange County Superior Court, occasionally ran into Silvas, and they would share a laugh at showing up to the same deposition at the same time.
"We would show up at the same depo, and we wouldn't know it ahead of time," Halkett said. "The other attorney wouldn't have any of it, and we had to get another reporter. It was neat. Growing up, [all the attorneys] knew me.
"He was an inspiration in lots of ways."
Jenna Bordelon
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