Among the many races that Los Angeles County voters will decide on in November is the race for Superior Court Office No. 65.
Public defender Justin Allen Clayton and deputy county counsel Anna Slotky Reitano have advanced to the General Election with about 37% and 30% of the votes respectively. Reitano previously ran for the Superior Court in 2022 where she lost after receiving about 45% of the vote.
On paper, there is not a lot that separates the two candidates. Both have served as public defenders and were rated “Qualified” by the L.A. County Bar. Both have also had quite unique paths to running for Superior Court judge.
Reitano is a former actress who featured in movies like “Home Alone” and T.V. shows like “Sister, Sister.” She has 20 years of criminal and civil courtroom experience and served as public defender for over a decade. In 2024 she took a position in L.A. County’s Justice and Safety Division as deputy county counsel where she advises the county on public safety and youth violence prevention.
Clayton grew up in the perilous streets of South Central L.A. (near Main and Slauson) and later played safety and linebacker for the University of New Mexico Lobos. After football and law school, he worked as a criminal defense attorney for over 10 years and has been a public defender in L.A. County for 12 years – he’s now the deputy in charge of the Inglewood branch of the Public Defender’s Office.
Dreams of Litigation
Despite Reitano starting as an actress and Clayton as an athlete, both of our candidates have always had their sights set on the legal profession.
According to Reitano, coming from a working-class family, acting was a stepping stone that allowed her to afford an education and pursue her interest in law.
Clayton’s interest in the legal profession also began at an early age. He told me about how growing up in South Central L.A. gave him an early awareness of the justice system along with his admiration for his godmother who was a lawyer and is now a judge.
“I always saw her as someone that I would like to be,” said Clayton. “So it started at a very early age that I would speak about being a lawyer and wanting to be a lawyer without even knowing what that was.”
Reitano and Clayton spoke passionately about their early dreams of becoming lawyers and those aspirations translated to a deep respect for the justice system – both candidates emphasized the importance of treating people in their courtrooms with dignity and that respect goes a long way to maintaining trust in the justice system.
Diversifying Perspectives on the Bench
Yet another way in which Clayton and Reitano converge is in their view that the bench would benefit from having more diversity of perspectives, particularly in finding a better balance of judges with defense backgrounds versus judges with prosecutorial backgrounds.
Reitano raised eyebrows during her run in 2022 by her association with a group called “The Defenders of Justice,” a progressive reformer slate of four women running for the L.A. Superior Court. Most public defenders that I’ve spoken to have expressed at least some views that are in line with those of the group – the need for more criminal defense attorneys on the bench and the importance of understanding how relevant circumstances such as mental illness may require nuanced rulings.
Most L.A. County Superior Court judges are former prosecutors and every public defender that I’ve spoken to this election cycle has, in one form or another, spoken about how this has led to the bench being excessively punitive or even biased in favor of the prosecution.
What’s important is that even though both Slotky and Reitano spoke about these general problems, they insisted that they would apply the law faithfully while taking a case-by-case approach rather than defaulting to rehabilitation.
Reinforcing this, Reitano stated, “No endorsement, organization, or past campaign relationship would influence how I decide a case. A judge’s responsibility is to apply the law fairly and impartially, regardless of who supported their campaign.” She continued, “If elected, every decision I make will be based on the law and the facts before me, not on who endorsed me, supported me, or campaigned alongside me.”
Even though Clayton has no association to any such groups, he provided an example of how having people from different walks of life may impact a court decision.
“If I can relate to the person who’s in front of me because I have had experience … with people with mental illnesses compared to the person who has not, they may see that it’s fair for this person to go to jail for thirty years where I may see that it’s fair for this person to have a shot at treatment because they haven’t had a shot at treatment.”
Reitano also stated that the benefits that people like her could bring to the bench would come from impartiality itself rather than diversity of prosecutorial and defense backgrounds alone.
“If you’re a hammer, then everything’s a nail, right? So if you’ve only done defense, you’re going to think one way because that’s how you’re trained to think. If you’ve only done prosecution, you’re going to think one way because that’s the only way you’ve been trained to think. And so, you know, when you’re able to see different sides and perspectives, you really can see the bigger picture and it does lead to less bias.”
What to do?
Reitano and Clayton did to me what they did to my colleague Larry Wilson when he spoke to them – by both being perfectly capable and reasonable individuals with extensive experience and unblemished records, they provided no grounds for me to conclude that one would be a better judge than the other.
Voters should feel confident that whoever they choose, Superior County Office No. 65 will be in good hands.
Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. Write to him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com