Stealth_Chopper
100 W
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2019
- Messages
- 283
Countdown for his release
Congratulations to his attorney from Gavin:
SANTA CRUZ — Gov. Gavin Newsom has named a new jurist to fill the vacancy left by the 2022 retirement of Judge John Gallagher.
Leila Sayar, 46, a Santa Cruz-based criminal defense attorney who has worked in solo practice since 2016, is believed to be Santa Cruz County’s first Iranian-American judge and potentially its first immigrant judge, though historic records are not clear on the matter.
After years of civil unrest and in the midst of a war, Sayar, her sister and her mother emigrated from Iran to Los Angeles, a transition that changed Sayar’s life, she said, dramatically and fortuitously. Now, in seeking a judicial appointment, Sayar said her decision was based on “nothing less than an emphatic answer to a long-standing calling.”
“Ever since (arriving in the country), it’s been my personal mission to give back to the community and the country that has given me and my family so much,” Sayar said. “Especially as an attorney or as a legal professional, doing the work and being a part of such a functional system when I have seen the other side — where systems are not functional — has been the absolute honor of my life.”
Flanked by court-appointed defense attorneys Larry Biggam and Leila Sayar, teenager A.J. Gonzalez appears in Judge Timothy Volkmann's court in October 2015 for the setting of a preliminary hearing for his charge of murdering 8-year-old Mddie Middleton at the Tannery Arts Center apartments in Santa Cruz. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Flanked by court-appointed defense attorneys Larry Biggam and Leila Sayar, teenager A.J. Gonzalez appears in Judge Timothy Volkmann’s court in October 2015 for the setting of a preliminary hearing for his charge of murdering 8-year-old Maddie Middleton at the Tannery Arts Center apartments in Santa Cruz. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Prior to entering private practice locally, Sayar served four years as a public defense trial attorney for the Biggam, Christensen & Minsloff firm of Santa Cruz. Before leaving the then county-contracted public defender’s office, Sayar served as defense co-counsel with Larry Biggam for defendant Adrian “A.J.” Gonzalez during the early days of the emotionally contentious 2015 criminal case involving the murder of Gonzalez’s Santa Cruz neighbor, 8-year-old Maddy Middleton.
Gonzalez, 15 at the time, later pleaded guilty to having bound, choked, stabbed and attempted to rape Maddy. Gonzalez initially faced public adult court proceedings but, nearly six years later, was caught up in contested changes to state law that returned him to juvenile court. There, he accepted a plea deal and was remanded to a state juvenile holding facility in 2021.
Congratulations to his attorney from Gavin:
SANTA CRUZ — Gov. Gavin Newsom has named a new jurist to fill the vacancy left by the 2022 retirement of Judge John Gallagher.
Leila Sayar, 46, a Santa Cruz-based criminal defense attorney who has worked in solo practice since 2016, is believed to be Santa Cruz County’s first Iranian-American judge and potentially its first immigrant judge, though historic records are not clear on the matter.
After years of civil unrest and in the midst of a war, Sayar, her sister and her mother emigrated from Iran to Los Angeles, a transition that changed Sayar’s life, she said, dramatically and fortuitously. Now, in seeking a judicial appointment, Sayar said her decision was based on “nothing less than an emphatic answer to a long-standing calling.”
“Ever since (arriving in the country), it’s been my personal mission to give back to the community and the country that has given me and my family so much,” Sayar said. “Especially as an attorney or as a legal professional, doing the work and being a part of such a functional system when I have seen the other side — where systems are not functional — has been the absolute honor of my life.”
Flanked by court-appointed defense attorneys Larry Biggam and Leila Sayar, teenager A.J. Gonzalez appears in Judge Timothy Volkmann's court in October 2015 for the setting of a preliminary hearing for his charge of murdering 8-year-old Mddie Middleton at the Tannery Arts Center apartments in Santa Cruz. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Flanked by court-appointed defense attorneys Larry Biggam and Leila Sayar, teenager A.J. Gonzalez appears in Judge Timothy Volkmann’s court in October 2015 for the setting of a preliminary hearing for his charge of murdering 8-year-old Maddie Middleton at the Tannery Arts Center apartments in Santa Cruz. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)
Prior to entering private practice locally, Sayar served four years as a public defense trial attorney for the Biggam, Christensen & Minsloff firm of Santa Cruz. Before leaving the then county-contracted public defender’s office, Sayar served as defense co-counsel with Larry Biggam for defendant Adrian “A.J.” Gonzalez during the early days of the emotionally contentious 2015 criminal case involving the murder of Gonzalez’s Santa Cruz neighbor, 8-year-old Maddy Middleton.
Gonzalez, 15 at the time, later pleaded guilty to having bound, choked, stabbed and attempted to rape Maddy. Gonzalez initially faced public adult court proceedings but, nearly six years later, was caught up in contested changes to state law that returned him to juvenile court. There, he accepted a plea deal and was remanded to a state juvenile holding facility in 2021.