Dennis Perluss
Dennis Perluss was a judge for Division 7 of the California 2nd District Court of Appeal. He assumed office on October 22, 2001. He left office on November 1, 2023.
He was appointed by former Governor Gray Davis, taking his oath of office on October 22, 2001. Perluss was retained by voters in 2002 and became presiding justice on January 10, 2003.[1] He successfully ran for retention in 2014 to a term that expires on January 3, 2027.[2][3]
Education
Perluss graduated from Stanford in 1970 and received his J.D. from Harvard in 1973.[4]
Career
Perluss was a law clerk for Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Shirley Hufstedler from 1973 to 1974. After this, he was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. From 1975 to 1999, Perluss was an attorney with the law firms Hufstedler & Kaus and Morrison & Foerster. He served as a judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County for two years before his appointment to the court of appeal.[4][5]
Awards and associations
Associations
- Member, American Law Institute
- Past president, Barristers (Young Lawyers) of the Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Past board member, Association of Business Trial Lawyers
- Past board member, Los Angeles County Bar Foundation[4]
Elections
2014
Perluss was retained to the 2nd District Court of Appeal with 67.9 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014. [3]
Noteworthy cases
California man detained 17 years released under Mathews v. Eldridge precedent (2018)
A three-judge panel of the California Second District Court of Appeal ordered the release on September 12 of George Vasquez, a California man who had been detained for 17 years awaiting trial for commitment as a sexually violent predator, on the grounds that the state had violated Vasquez’s due process rights under the 14th Amendment. The panel consisted of judges Gail Ruderman Feuer, Dennis Perluss, and Laurie Zelon.[6]
Vasquez was convicted in 1995 of committing lewd acts on a child and served 12 years in state prison. Prior to his scheduled release in 2000, Los Angeles County prosecutors petitioned to have Vasquez committed to a state hospital as a sexually violent predator for two years. Instead, Vazquez’s hearing and trial dates were delayed for the next 17 years in order to allow for a series of six court-appointed attorneys to prepare for trial. Vasquez objected to the delays in his case in 2016.[6]
Superior Court Judge James N. Bianco dismissed the prosecutors’ petition in January 2018. Bianco argued that the breakdown in the state’s public defender system had violated Vasquez’s right to timely proceedings. The appellate panel later upheld Bianco’s decision, which was based in part on U.S. Supreme Court precedent concerning due process in the 1976 case Mathews v. Eldridge. The U.S. Supreme Court developed a three-part test in Mathews v. Eldridge for lower courts to apply when determining whether or not an individual has received due process during administrative proceedings. Courts must consider (1) the private interest at stake, (2) the effect on the private interest in the event of an erroneous determination as well as the value of any additional procedural safeguards, and (3) the government's interest, including the potential administrative burden of additional procedural safeguards.[6]
The California appellate panel applied the three-part Mathews v. Eldridge test in the context of Vasquez’s pre-trial delay pending an involuntary civil commitment. According to the test, the panel found that (1) detainment awaiting trial put Vasquez’s liberty at stake, (2) the length of Vasquez's detainment deprived him of his liberty, and (3) the government would not have suffered an additional administrative burden by going to trial in two years as opposed to delaying the trial for 17 years.[6][7]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "California Judicial Branch 2014 Roster," accessed November 17, 2014 Scroll to page 3
- ↑ Judicial selection in California
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 California Secretary of State, "General Election -November 4,2014 Official Certified List of Candidates," August 28, 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 California Courts, "Dennis Perluss biography," accessed November 17, 2014
- ↑ League of Women Voters, "Dennis Perluss Profile," accessed November 17, 2014
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Courthouse News Service, "Man Held 17 Years Without Trial Ordered Free by Appellate Court," September 12, 2018
- ↑ SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION SEVEN, "THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY v. GEORGE VASQUEZ," September 12, 2018
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California
State courts:
California Supreme Court • California Courts of Appeal • California Superior Courts
State resources:
Courts in California • California judicial elections • Judicial selection in California
