A jury has acquitted a Los Angeles trial judge of attempting to bribe his opponent during a 2008 election, in a rare criminal case that highlighted the uglier side of judicial races.
The jury issued its verdict on Aug. 1, after about one day of deliberations, rejecting arguments by a prosecutor at the state attorney general’s office that L.A. County Superior Court Judge Harvey Silberman, then a court commissioner, used his campaign consultants and others to offer money to induce Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Serena Murillo not to run against him.
