> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Debra Yang will miss the trials and the SM judges - URL: https://www.smdp.com/debra-yang-will-miss-the-trials-and-the-sm-judges/ - Published: 2002-05-28T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:18:22.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import replacement, Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor. Yang, 42, has come a long way since she started her career at a small law firm at Second Street and Santa Monica Boulevard almost two decades ago. She has been a law clerk, a trial attorney, a federal prosecutor and a municipal judge throughout Los Angeles’ Superior Court system, including West Los Angeles, downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood. Even though she grew up in Los Angeles, Yang considers herself a true Santa Monica resident. She lived here before the “Promenade was the Promenade” — a statement made by those who classify themselves as locals. Yang has presided over six trials since she was assigned to the civil court last September. When she was handling civil cases under $25,000, mostly evictions and small insurance claims, Yang was hearing about six trials a week. “We had a lot of soft tissue cases,” she said. “I had those down pat. I had them in and out in three days.” As a trial judge, Yang always tried to get the attorneys to settle their clients’disputes. But when they couldn’t, the young judge was always ready for the fast-paced action of a trial. Her love for trials stems from watching good lawyering. “If they can’t settle it, then it’s 12 in the box, let’s go,” she quipped. “I’m fascinated to see lawyers hone their craft. I love trials because that’s when it all comes together for me.” And while Yang is excited about her new position as U.S. Attorney, her leaving Santa Monica was bittersweet. “The judges in this courthouse are just terrific... they just do the work,” she said. “This was the best assignment, bar none.” She noted that Santa Monica, where she has lived for 20 years, becomes much smaller when she is faced with people who have appeared before her. “I’d be shopping on the Promenade and someone would come up to me and say, ‘you sentenced my friend,’ or I would be on the pier and run into witnesses,” Yang said. Her goal always was to send a message even after everyone left her courtroom. “In criminal courts especially, often times you are sentencing them unfavorably but if you treat them with respect and decorum and abide by the law they understood a little better about why I did what I did,” she said. “At the end of the day, they are still people.” The week prior to leaving the Santa Monica Courthouse, Yang presided over a dispute between two neighbors. “When I see that, it troubles me because their pride and dignity get in the way so I take the extra time to talk to them,” she said. “I don’t have to do that... it’s not just the message in court, but it’s when they leave too. I want them to take it with them.” Yang’s skills on the bench in Santa Monica included carefully listening to attorneys while also keeping cases from getting bogged down. During a recent trial, she took care to humor jurors during what can be a tedious process. She also spent time explaining carefully the minutia of the jury experience, including instructions on the law, and the frequent occurrence of “sidebars” — privately whispered conferences during which she conferred with attorneys over sticky and technical legal issues. Yang came to feel a particular bond with the Santa Monica Courthouse. She said she’ll miss grabbing a quick burrito at the food truck behind the courthouse with workers there. Because she lives in Santa Monica, she will now join the legions of commuters who have to travel round-trip to downtown Los Angeles to work. Most of her experience bespeaks a fast and somewhat lucky ascent through the judicial system since her 1981 graduation from Pitzer College in Pomona and her subsequent 1985 law degree from Boston College Law School. She began her legal career in 1985 at Haight, Brown, Dickson & Bonesteel, which was based in Santa Monica before the firm moved to Culver City. She was a clerk and associate at various law firms until she joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles and spent the next six years prosecuting crimes including arson, kidnapping, securities swindles and computer hacking. Yang was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court bench in 1997 by former Gov. Pete Wilson. With the consolidation in the Los Angeles court system, by 2000 she became a superior court judge in Santa Monica. Yang first handled unlawful detainer (eviction) cases, then moved to other civil trials running the gamut from disputes over apartment mold damage to action in tossing out Santa Monica’s challenge to an anti-corruption law. Many of Yang’s colleagues say her young age and appearance is a running joke throughout the field. Retired Court of Appeal Elwood Lui, who chaired both nominating committees for Yang’s selection for both U.S. Attorney and a federal judge, remembered the response from the Chief Justice when he introduced Yang to him at a Chinese lawyers dinner a few years ago. “He came up to me and whispered, ‘now she’s a judge?’” Lui said. Among Yang’s most unique trials was a case heard last February involving a Persian Jewish couple whose two-week trial lasted longer than their marriage five years ago. The spurned husband sued for return of a Mercedes and cash he felt cheated out of, given the short relationship. But his ex-wife returned fire, winning the jury’s sympathy after claiming he had effectively raped her and that the experience turned her life inside-out. Yang said she loved that case because the lawyers presented their arguments well. She also noted that a woman sat in the courtroom every day taking copious notes. It turns out that she was a producer looking for a good story. “It had everything you’d want for a made-for TV movie,” Yang said. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 28, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052802.pdf?ref=smdp.com)