News
Judges and Judiciary
Jul. 23, 2002
One-Room Courthouse
MERCED - Long before he became the district attorney and then a superior court judge in Merced County, Frank Dougherty grew up on a farm in the remote northwestern corner of Montana.
Frank Dougherty
Superior Court judge
Merced County
Career highlights: Appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, 1997; appointed to municipal court by Gov. George Deukmejian, 1990; elected Merced County district attorney, 1986; named supervising deputy district attorney, Merced County, 1981; hired as deputy district attorney, Merced County, 1978.
Law school: Ventura College of Law, 1977
Age: 57
By Hudson Sangree
Daily Journal Staff Writer
MERCED - Long before he became the district attorney and then a superior court judge in Merced County, Frank Dougherty grew up on a farm in the remote northwestern corner of Montana.
Neither of his parents had gone to school beyond the third grade, and his family had little money, said Dougherty, who is now 57.
"We considered ourselves rich because we had land and cattle, but we were really very poor," he said.
After school, Dougherty's parents required their three sons to do farm work, not homework. As a result, the judge said, he had a D-plus average in high school.
"I didn't bring home books," he said. "There were chores to do, cows to milk, fences to fix. I'd be done at 11 p.m. and be back at work at 5 a.m."
Moreover, Dougherty said his ambitions at the time were limited to what he saw around him.
"As a kid, I never thought I would amount to much," he said. "I thought I would work in the logging industry or farming, like the rest of my family. I never thought I'd have a steady job."
That began to change in 1964, when Dougherty enlisted in the Marine Corps and spent 22 months in Vietnam. Along the way, he decided he wanted an education, and, more than that, he wanted to be his own boss.
Law seemed like an obvious choice, so after he was discharged in 1967, Dougherty moved to California and took a job as a bailiff in the Ventura County courts.
He spent 10 years there, all the while attending night classes on the GI Bill of Rights.
First he earned an associate degree from Ventura College in 1971. Then he received a bachelor's degree from La Verne College's extension campus in 1973. And finally, in 1977, he earned his J.D. from the Ventura College of Law.
After graduating from law school, Dougherty accepted a position as a deputy district attorney in Merced County, where over the last 35 years he has steadily climbed the legal ranks.
He made supervising deputy district attorney in 1981 and was elected district attorney in 1986. Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Dougherty to the municipal court in 1990, and Gov. Pete Wilson elevated him to the superior court in 1997.
Such a record of achievement and overcoming early disadvantages is surely a sign of a strong internal drive. Yet Dougherty today is low-key, affable and quite happy as the only judge in the small town of Los Banos, where Merced County's sole branch court is located.
As a cost-saving measure, there are no jury trials in Los Banos; all are held in Merced. Instead, Dougherty presides over a full calendar of felony and misdemeanor hearings, small claims cases, traffic violations and assorted civil matters.
All of the cases arise in the western part of the county, an agricultural landscape crossed by Interstate 5 and dotted with small towns such as Gustine, Dos Palos and Santa Nella.
It may sound like a sleepy place, but Dougherty and the attorneys who practice there say it has its challenges.
Methamphetamine use, for example, is a huge and growing problem, accounting in one way or another for 75 percent of all felony cases Los Banos, Dougherty estimates.
Nearly as troubling is an epidemic of truancy and gang involvement among the children of Silicon Valley commuters.
In recent years, Los Banos has become one of the most distant bedroom communities for people who work in the Bay Area. Some parents have nearly a two-hour commute to work, meaning they depart by 6 a.m. and often don't get home until after dark.
That leaves their children without supervision before and after school, causing all sorts of problems. Recently, the district attorney's office has been taking a more aggressive approach to prosecuting parents whose children are chronic truants.
"There is a lack of concern," Dougherty said. "Commuters are not as committed to the schools and the community as much as other residents. Even on weekends they are back up in the Bay Area for work-related events."
Alfred Whitehurst, a 44-year-old Los Banos attorney who grew up in the town, agreed with Dougherty and said things have definitely changed in the last 10 years.
The population has nearly doubled, from 12,000 to 20,000, and the average price of a four-bedroom home has gone from around $110,000 to $250,000, he said.
At the same time, the crime rate and gang activity has skyrocketed.
"The volume of cases that run through our court is astounding," Whitehurst said "A third of the criminal cases in the entire county go through this court, even though we only have a fraction of the population.
"I hate to point to fingers at people from San Jose, but I think by default there's no other way to explain what's going on," he said. "The parents aren't around. The schools are overcrowded, and the administration is having a hard time keeping track of the kids."
Dougherty was assigned to Los Banos in December 2000 on a full-time temporary basis, replacing Dennis Cornell, who was elevated to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno.
From time to time, however, Dougherty is called back to Merced to preside over jury trials. This summer, he'll be hearing a death-penalty murder case, his first in about 10 years, he said.
His last big criminal case was two years ago, when the district attorney's office prosecuted a man for murdering his girlfriend, even though the victim's body was never found.
The defendant was convicted, with Dougherty commenting at the time that there was "overwhelming circumstantial evidence of guilt." The conviction, in People v. Martinez, was later upheld by the 5th District in an unpublished opinion.
Although Dougherty made evidentiary rulings in the case that went against the defendant, the man's lawyer said Dougherty was fair, at least for a former prosecutor.
"Given the state of the law, I can't say he was outrageous in any of his decisions," said Maria Fonseca, a Redwood City criminal defense attorney. "He was conscientious with his jury instructions and his cautionary admonitions to the jury about evidence that was admitted for a limited purpose."
In addition, Fonseca, who has handled a number of cases in Merced, said Dougherty is "always very cordial" in his dealings with her and other lawyers.
Other attorneys who have appeared before Dougherty also said he is fair, along with being practical, highly intelligent and an all-around nice guy.
"I've known him well for over 20 years, and I've tried a lot of cases against him," said Wayne Eisenhart, the Merced County public defender. "We each won some, and we each lost some, and I've developed a great deal of respect for Frank Dougherty.
"If there's one word, he's 'decent,'" Eisenhart said. "He would like to see the world be a decent place. He recognizes people make their mistakes, but he thinks that they should be treated decently too."
Other lawyers said Dougherty hasn't lost touch with his roots as a trial lawyer.
"He's just a good guy to sit down with and have a conservation," said Merced attorney Michael Mason. "Sometimes guys leave our midst as practitioners and put on robes and they become different people. He's never forgotten where he came from."
Attorneys also praised Dougherty's quick thinking in the courtroom.
"He is technically a top-flight trial judge," said Whitehurst, a general civil and criminal practitioner. "He can rule intuitively, but he also rules properly and according to the law."
Whitehurst also described Dougherty as "one of the best trial attorneys in the county before he went to the bench."
"He was a hands-on DA," Whitehurst said. "He did a lot of cases himself."
As a prosecutor, Dougherty gained a reputation for battling corruption among public officials.
When he was a deputy and then district attorney, he successfully prosecuted a county tax clerk for embezzlement, a community college president for misusing funds and a city manager for abusing his travel privileges.
While he was the county's top prosecutor, Dougherty also went after the county sheriff, who was using a lieutenant to drive him to rendezvous with his lover.
Dougherty tried the case himself, rather than handing it over to a deputy.
"The sheriff was a powerful political figure. He had a lot of friends," Dougherty said. "If someone was going to get hurt by it, I wanted it to be me."
Dougherty also prosecuted the farm worker who killed Steven Stayner, the childhood kidnap victim and brother of Yosemite killer Cary Stayner, in a motorcycle accident.
Such high-profile cases brought Dougherty media attention and acclaim. But Dougherty says he now just wants to stay behind the scenes.
"I don't want to bring attention to myself," he said. "I don't want to read about myself in the newspaper."
Dougherty and his wife, Judy, have been married for 35 years. They live on a one-acre property outside of town and have a daughter, Lisa, 36, and a son, Frank, Jr., who is 33.
For relaxation, Dougherty says he likes to spend as much time as possible hiking and camping in nearby Yosemite National Park. He has completed the difficult hike up the backside of Half Dome four or five times.
On the steepest part of the climb, a single misstep could leave you dead, but "when you get through it's just incredibly satisfying," he said.
Dougherty says he is satisfied with his low-key job.
"I consider myself just a plodder," he added. "I try to run an efficient courtroom.
"I also try to earn the respect I get," he said. "I don't insist on formality. Lawyers like me because they know I'm not going to embarrass them. At the same time, they know I move cases along."
Dougherty said he might eventually be brought back to Merced full time. But if he has anything to say about it, he wants to remain in his small-town environs and give others a shot at the big cases in the county seat.
"After 13 years as a judge, it's incumbent upon me to make sure younger judges get experience," he said.
"Besides," he said, "I like Los Banos. I want to stay put."
Here are some of Dougherty's recent cases and the lawyers involved:
People v. Huitron, 23460
District attorney: James Martin, Merced
Defense attorney: William A. Davis, Merced
People v. Ybarra, 20299
District attorney: Larry Morse II, Merced
Defense attorney: Terrance McCleerey, Monterey
Victoria v. Turlock Irrigation District, 138394
Plaintiff's attorney: Timothy Salter, Modesto
Defense attorney: Matt Emerich, Modesto
People v. Martinez, 24165
District attorney: Hal Nutt, Merced
Defense attorney: Maria Fonseca, Monterey
People v. Singh-Hundal, 25032
District attorney: James Martin, Merced
Public defender: Martin Grilli, Merced
Superior Court judge
Merced County
Career highlights: Appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, 1997; appointed to municipal court by Gov. George Deukmejian, 1990; elected Merced County district attorney, 1986; named supervising deputy district attorney, Merced County, 1981; hired as deputy district attorney, Merced County, 1978.
Law school: Ventura College of Law, 1977
Age: 57
Neither of his parents had gone to school beyond the third grade, and his family had little money, said Dougherty, who is now 57.
"We considered ourselves rich because we had land and cattle, but we were really very poor," he said.
After school, Dougherty's parents required their three sons to do farm work, not homework. As a result, the judge said, he had a D-plus average in high school.
"I didn't bring home books," he said. "There were chores to do, cows to milk, fences to fix. I'd be done at 11 p.m. and be back at work at 5 a.m."
Moreover, Dougherty said his ambitions at the time were limited to what he saw around him.
"As a kid, I never thought I would amount to much," he said. "I thought I would work in the logging industry or farming, like the rest of my family. I never thought I'd have a steady job."
That began to change in 1964, when Dougherty enlisted in the Marine Corps and spent 22 months in Vietnam. Along the way, he decided he wanted an education, and, more than that, he wanted to be his own boss.
Law seemed like an obvious choice, so after he was discharged in 1967, Dougherty moved to California and took a job as a bailiff in the Ventura County courts.
He spent 10 years there, all the while attending night classes on the GI Bill of Rights.
First he earned an associate degree from Ventura College in 1971. Then he received a bachelor's degree from La Verne College's extension campus in 1973. And finally, in 1977, he earned his J.D. from the Ventura College of Law.
After graduating from law school, Dougherty accepted a position as a deputy district attorney in Merced County, where over the last 35 years he has steadily climbed the legal ranks.
He made supervising deputy district attorney in 1981 and was elected district attorney in 1986. Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Dougherty to the municipal court in 1990, and Gov. Pete Wilson elevated him to the superior court in 1997.
Such a record of achievement and overcoming early disadvantages is surely a sign of a strong internal drive. Yet Dougherty today is low-key, affable and quite happy as the only judge in the small town of Los Banos, where Merced County's sole branch court is located.
As a cost-saving measure, there are no jury trials in Los Banos; all are held in Merced. Instead, Dougherty presides over a full calendar of felony and misdemeanor hearings, small claims cases, traffic violations and assorted civil matters.
All of the cases arise in the western part of the county, an agricultural landscape crossed by Interstate 5 and dotted with small towns such as Gustine, Dos Palos and Santa Nella.
It may sound like a sleepy place, but Dougherty and the attorneys who practice there say it has its challenges.
Methamphetamine use, for example, is a huge and growing problem, accounting in one way or another for 75 percent of all felony cases Los Banos, Dougherty estimates.
Nearly as troubling is an epidemic of truancy and gang involvement among the children of Silicon Valley commuters.
In recent years, Los Banos has become one of the most distant bedroom communities for people who work in the Bay Area. Some parents have nearly a two-hour commute to work, meaning they depart by 6 a.m. and often don't get home until after dark.
That leaves their children without supervision before and after school, causing all sorts of problems. Recently, the district attorney's office has been taking a more aggressive approach to prosecuting parents whose children are chronic truants.
"There is a lack of concern," Dougherty said. "Commuters are not as committed to the schools and the community as much as other residents. Even on weekends they are back up in the Bay Area for work-related events."
Alfred Whitehurst, a 44-year-old Los Banos attorney who grew up in the town, agreed with Dougherty and said things have definitely changed in the last 10 years.
The population has nearly doubled, from 12,000 to 20,000, and the average price of a four-bedroom home has gone from around $110,000 to $250,000, he said.
At the same time, the crime rate and gang activity has skyrocketed.
"The volume of cases that run through our court is astounding," Whitehurst said "A third of the criminal cases in the entire county go through this court, even though we only have a fraction of the population.
"I hate to point to fingers at people from San Jose, but I think by default there's no other way to explain what's going on," he said. "The parents aren't around. The schools are overcrowded, and the administration is having a hard time keeping track of the kids."
Dougherty was assigned to Los Banos in December 2000 on a full-time temporary basis, replacing Dennis Cornell, who was elevated to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno.
From time to time, however, Dougherty is called back to Merced to preside over jury trials. This summer, he'll be hearing a death-penalty murder case, his first in about 10 years, he said.
His last big criminal case was two years ago, when the district attorney's office prosecuted a man for murdering his girlfriend, even though the victim's body was never found.
The defendant was convicted, with Dougherty commenting at the time that there was "overwhelming circumstantial evidence of guilt." The conviction, in People v. Martinez, was later upheld by the 5th District in an unpublished opinion.
Although Dougherty made evidentiary rulings in the case that went against the defendant, the man's lawyer said Dougherty was fair, at least for a former prosecutor.
"Given the state of the law, I can't say he was outrageous in any of his decisions," said Maria Fonseca, a Redwood City criminal defense attorney. "He was conscientious with his jury instructions and his cautionary admonitions to the jury about evidence that was admitted for a limited purpose."
In addition, Fonseca, who has handled a number of cases in Merced, said Dougherty is "always very cordial" in his dealings with her and other lawyers.
Other attorneys who have appeared before Dougherty also said he is fair, along with being practical, highly intelligent and an all-around nice guy.
"I've known him well for over 20 years, and I've tried a lot of cases against him," said Wayne Eisenhart, the Merced County public defender. "We each won some, and we each lost some, and I've developed a great deal of respect for Frank Dougherty.
"If there's one word, he's 'decent,'" Eisenhart said. "He would like to see the world be a decent place. He recognizes people make their mistakes, but he thinks that they should be treated decently too."
Other lawyers said Dougherty hasn't lost touch with his roots as a trial lawyer.
"He's just a good guy to sit down with and have a conservation," said Merced attorney Michael Mason. "Sometimes guys leave our midst as practitioners and put on robes and they become different people. He's never forgotten where he came from."
Attorneys also praised Dougherty's quick thinking in the courtroom.
"He is technically a top-flight trial judge," said Whitehurst, a general civil and criminal practitioner. "He can rule intuitively, but he also rules properly and according to the law."
Whitehurst also described Dougherty as "one of the best trial attorneys in the county before he went to the bench."
"He was a hands-on DA," Whitehurst said. "He did a lot of cases himself."
As a prosecutor, Dougherty gained a reputation for battling corruption among public officials.
When he was a deputy and then district attorney, he successfully prosecuted a county tax clerk for embezzlement, a community college president for misusing funds and a city manager for abusing his travel privileges.
While he was the county's top prosecutor, Dougherty also went after the county sheriff, who was using a lieutenant to drive him to rendezvous with his lover.
Dougherty tried the case himself, rather than handing it over to a deputy.
"The sheriff was a powerful political figure. He had a lot of friends," Dougherty said. "If someone was going to get hurt by it, I wanted it to be me."
Dougherty also prosecuted the farm worker who killed Steven Stayner, the childhood kidnap victim and brother of Yosemite killer Cary Stayner, in a motorcycle accident.
Such high-profile cases brought Dougherty media attention and acclaim. But Dougherty says he now just wants to stay behind the scenes.
"I don't want to bring attention to myself," he said. "I don't want to read about myself in the newspaper."
Dougherty and his wife, Judy, have been married for 35 years. They live on a one-acre property outside of town and have a daughter, Lisa, 36, and a son, Frank, Jr., who is 33.
For relaxation, Dougherty says he likes to spend as much time as possible hiking and camping in nearby Yosemite National Park. He has completed the difficult hike up the backside of Half Dome four or five times.
On the steepest part of the climb, a single misstep could leave you dead, but "when you get through it's just incredibly satisfying," he said.
Dougherty says he is satisfied with his low-key job.
"I consider myself just a plodder," he added. "I try to run an efficient courtroom.
"I also try to earn the respect I get," he said. "I don't insist on formality. Lawyers like me because they know I'm not going to embarrass them. At the same time, they know I move cases along."
Dougherty said he might eventually be brought back to Merced full time. But if he has anything to say about it, he wants to remain in his small-town environs and give others a shot at the big cases in the county seat.
"After 13 years as a judge, it's incumbent upon me to make sure younger judges get experience," he said.
"Besides," he said, "I like Los Banos. I want to stay put."
Here are some of Dougherty's recent cases and the lawyers involved:
People v. Huitron, 23460
District attorney: James Martin, Merced
Defense attorney: William A. Davis, Merced
People v. Ybarra, 20299
District attorney: Larry Morse II, Merced
Defense attorney: Terrance McCleerey, Monterey
Victoria v. Turlock Irrigation District, 138394
Plaintiff's attorney: Timothy Salter, Modesto
Defense attorney: Matt Emerich, Modesto
People v. Martinez, 24165
District attorney: Hal Nutt, Merced
Defense attorney: Maria Fonseca, Monterey
People v. Singh-Hundal, 25032
District attorney: James Martin, Merced
Public defender: Martin Grilli, Merced
#325814
Hudson Sangree
Daily Journal Staff Writer
For reprint rights or to order a copy of your photo:
Email
Jeremy_Ellis@dailyjournal.com
for prices.
Direct dial: 213-229-5424
Send a letter to the editor:
Email: letters@dailyjournal.com