Marin County DA Paula Kamena announced Monday she would retire early next year and named her No. 2, Edward Berberian, as her preference to succeed her. Berberian, 57, said it would be “premature” for him to detail any plans for the 40-attorney office because county supervisors hadn’t started looking for an interim DA yet. Kamena, who was retiring for personal reasons, made clear she wanted the supes to pick Berberian as interim DA, and that she’d like to see his name on the ballot when her term ends in 2006. “‘Hopefully it will be a seamless change,” she said.

The Third District Court of Appeal dedicated a scathing, 34-page ruling to criminal defense lawyer Maureen Kallins, concluding that Sacramento Judge Richard Gilmour had acted appropriately in admonishing her repeatedly before a jury. “In our collective 97 years in the legal profession, we have seldom seen such unprofessional, offensive and contemptuous conduct by an attorney in a court of law,” Justice Arthur Scotland wrote in People v. Chong. Kallins had earned a reputation as a vigorous criminal defense attorney who often got on the wrong side of judges. The reason, she said, was simple: “People of color are getting convicted and if you try to stick up for them, you get smashed,” she said. “This was the ‘Smash Maureen Kallins’ opinion. It’s the ‘Let’s end her career’ opinion.”

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