The words "Happy Retirement" had been smudged off the huge sheet cake gracing the 13th floor courtroom's witness stand Tuesday. The baker got the "happy" right, but the "retirement" was a mistake.
The cake was to celebrate the 90th birthday of Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Sam Bubrick, who has no intention of retiring any time soon.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday May 23, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 66 words Type of Material: Correction
Court commissioner: An article in Wednesday's California section about the 90th birthday of Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Sam Bubrick incorrectly stated that commissioners are justices appointed by other judges. The only California state judges called "justice" are the jurists on the Court of Appeal and the state Supreme Court. Commissioners are attorneys selected by the judges of a court to perform certain judicial duties.
Nor did anyone want to give him any ideas along those lines.
"Every judge makes him promise not to," Judge Steven Van Sicklen told the more than 120 judges, attorneys and staffers who packed the benches and jury box of the criminal courtroom for the luncheon in Bubrick's honor.
They needn't have worried.
Bubrick -- who is spry, razor sharp and looks at least two, maybe three decades younger than he is -- says he has no plans to give up the bench in the foreseeable future. He says he wouldn't know what to do with himself if he did.
Why not retire and take some time to relax, a reporter asks, see the world, enjoy yourself?
"Enjoy? Enjoy what?" he retorts in the grumpy-but-disarming manner that he's legendary for around the courthouse. "What the heck would I do with myself if I didn't have this place to go to?"
Since 1950, Bubrick has driven to work at Temple Avenue and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. He graduated from law school at Loyola University at age 33. Before law school, he spent six years as an officer in the Army during World War II, stationed in England, France and Germany.
He started his law career working with a criminal defense attorney in a building near the courthouse, defending drug dealers and accused murderers. One of his most notorious clients was Tex Watson, one of those convicted in murders committed by the Charles Manson family.
Bubrick was appointed to the bench in 1972. Commissioners are justices appointed by other judges to serve in one of the largest courts in the U.S. (Justices can also be appointed by the governor or be elected.) There is no term limit.
Bubrick was sworn in by Justice Joseph Wapner who would later go on to fame on "The People's Court" television show.
Over the next two decades, Bubrick would preside over more than 600 jury trials. He could be tough -- particularly on attorneys who tried to argue with him or questioned his judgment -- helping to earn the nickname "Hollerin' Sam."
As a young criminal defense lawyer, Peter Espinoza, now a fellow judge, recalled Bubrick chastising him for trying to extol the virtues of Espinoza's client, a drug dealer.
