Judges[edit]

Santa Clara County, California

Superior Court[edit]

Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California

Judge	Tenure	Appointed By
David A. Cena
Erica R. Yew	2001 - Present	Gov. Gray Davis (D)
Helen E. Williams	2012 - Present	Jerry Brown
James E. Towery	2012 - Present	Jerry Brown
Peter H. Kirwan	2006 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Carol W. Overton	2005 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Shawna M. Schwarz	2006 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Julianne Sylva	2015 - Present	Election
Kenneth Paul Barnum	1995 - Present	Gov. Pete Wilson (R)
Drew C. Takaichi	2011 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Thomas E. Kuhnle	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Matthew S. Harris	2015 - Present	Election
Socrates Peter Manoukian	1993 - Present	Gov. Pete Wilson (R)
My-Le Jacqueline Duong	2007 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Stuart Scott	2015 - Present	Election
Thang Nguyen Barrett
Elizabeth Peterson	2017 - Present	Jerry Brown
Franklin E. Bondonno	2005 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lori E. Pegg	2013 - Present	Jerry Brown
Roberta S. Hayashi	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Christopher G. Rudy		Jerry Brown
William J. Monahan	2007 - Present	Election
Nona Klippen	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Griffin M.J. Bonini
Maureen A. Folan	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Paul R. Bernal	2000 - Present	Election
Theodore C. Zayner	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Julia A. Emede	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Brian J. Buckelew	2021 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Hanley Chew	2021 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Shella Deen	2021 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Jessica M. Delgado	2021 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Rafael A. Sivilla-Jones	2021 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Vanessa A. Zecher
Javier Alcala	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Daniel T. Nishigaya	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Micael Estremera		Gavin Newsom
Andrea E. Flint	2011 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Patricia M. Lucas	2003 - Present	Gov. Gray Davis (D)
Jose Franco	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Cynthia A. Sevely	2013 - Present	Election
Julia Alloggiamento	2011 - Present	Election
Arthur Bocanegra
Jesus Valencia	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Kelley Paul		Gavin Newsom
Benjamin Williams	April 7, 2023 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Evette Pennypacker	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Nahal Iravani-Sani	2019 - Present	Election
Audra Ibarra	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Nicole Isger	January 1, 2019 - Present
Johnny Gogo	October 25, 2019 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Christine Garcia-Sen	January 4, 2021 - Present	Election
Brooke Blecher	2020 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Carrie A. Zepeda	2003 - Present	Gov. Gray Davis (D)
Stephen V. Manley
Sunil R. Kulkarni	2013 - Present	Jerry Brown
Eric S. Geffon	2015 - Present	Jerry Brown
Deborah A. Ryan	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Cindy Seeley Hendrickson	2019 - Present	Election
Shelyna V. Brown	2012 - Present	Jerry Brown
Mary Arand	2007 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
L. Michael Clark	2008 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Charles F. Adams	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Robert Hawk	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Frederick S. Chung	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Rebeca Esquivel-Pedroza	2022 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Kimberly Parker		Gavin Newsom
Ram Fletcher		Gavin Newsom
Vinita Bali	2023 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Stephen Lowney	2023 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Luis Ramos	2020 - Present	Gavin Newsom
Panteha E. Saban	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Amber Rosen	2018 - Present	Jerry Brown
Johnene Stebbins	January 6, 2025 - Present
JoAnne McCracken	2010 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Beth A.R. McGowen	2009 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger
Jacqueline M. Arroyo	2008 - Present	Arnold Schwarzenegger

External links[edit]

Santa Clara County Court Records

Footnotes[edit]

Elections[edit]

See also: California judicial elections

California is one of 43 states that hold elections for judicial positions. To learn more about judicial selection in California, click here.

Election rules[edit]

Primary election[edit]

Only candidates for the superior courts compete in primary elections.

If a superior court judge runs unopposed for re-election, his or her name does not appear on the ballot and he or she is automatically re-elected following the general election.^[1]^[2]

Write-in candidates may file to run against an incumbent within 10 days after the filing deadline passes if they are able to secure enough signatures (between 100 and 600, depending on the number of registered voters in the county). In that case, the incumbent would appear on the general election ballot along with an option to vote for a write-in candidate.^[2]

In contested races, the candidate who receives a majority of all the votes in the primary wins the election. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes in the primary, the top two compete in the November general election.^[3]

General election[edit]

Superior court candidates who advance from the primary election compete in the general election.

Superior court incumbents facing competition from write-in candidates appear on the ballot.^[2]^[3]

[1] Los Angeles Times, "Safeguarding California's judicial election process," August 21, 2011

[electioncode-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 California Elections Code, "Section 8203," accessed April 22, 2014

[electioncode2-3] 3.0 ^3.1 California Elections Code, "Section 8140-8150," accessed April 22, 2014

[1]

[2]

[3]

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Santa Clara County, California (Judicial)