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One addition to the Alameda County Superior Court and three new judges in Contra Costa County, plus a former local prosecutor assigned to the bench in San Francisco.
Those were among the 25 judicial appointments and nominations announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom up and down the state so far this year.
I scan the press releases as often as I can for Tri-Valley connections, but I don’t always remember or can’t make the time. The news can seem ho-hum, but it often catches our readers’ eyes. In fact, our coverage last September of Pleasanton resident Meera T. Parikh and Danville resident Andrew Verriere joining the bench was among our Top 20 most-read stories of 2025.
So let’s catch up on the 2026 appointments.
Ernesto “Ernie” Castillo will be the newest judge in his hometown Alameda County, the California Governor’s Office confirmed last Friday.
A private attorney his whole career, Castillo has operated his own criminal defense firm out of Oakland – Castillo Law Office – since 2013. Before that, he worked as an associate at the Law Office of Robert Beles from 2003 to 2013, according to state officials. He earned his Juris Doctor from Golden Gate University.
I had a brief email exchange with Castillo five years ago, following up on the aftermath of a successful appeal and new plea deal for a man he would inform me was a former client.
Castillo had been the lawyer during the first legal go-around for Brian Jones, the Livermore man originally convicted of murder for driving drunk and speeding after the wine festival and crashing into an apartment building on Murrieta Boulevard in 2015, killing 46-year-old Esperanza Morales Rodriguez and her 14-month-old daughter Yulida Perez-Morales.
Jones’ conviction was overturned in 2020 by the appellate court, which deemed the trial judge improperly dismissed a juror who reported the misconduct of a fellow juror. Jones pleaded out to lesser charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and DUI later that year. Castillo, who was no longer Jones’ attorney, declined comment when I contacted him in March 2021.
Castillo succeeds retiring Judge Morris D. Jacobson on the Alameda County Superior Court.
Newsom last Friday also confirmed two new judges to the Contra Costa County Superior Court, including Alameda County resident Amanda Karl.
A partner at Gibbs Mura in Oakland since 2022, Karl clerked with the U.S. District Court and U.S. Court of Appeals before being hired as an associate at Gibbs Mura in 2016. The University of California, Berkeley School of Law alumnae fills the vacancy created by Judge Charles B. Burch’s retirement.
Replacing another retiring Charles (Judge Charles S. Treat) in his hometown Contra Costa County is Hanni Fakhoury, a partner at the Berkeley-based firm Moeel Lah Fakhoury. Educated at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law, Fakhoury previously worked as a federal public defender and staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
And at the beginning of last week, new Judge Carole Bosch began presiding over Contra Costa County Superior Court’s Department 3. Bosch, who lives in Alameda County, was appointed to the neighboring county bench by Newsom on Feb. 19 to succeed Judge Patricia Scanlon upon her retirement.
Another Golden Gate alum, Bosch had served as an administrative law judge with the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board for nearly five years. She was a civil trial lawyer before that.
And in the other bench appointment with a local tie, San Francisco deputy city attorney Justine Cephus (who lives in San Mateo County and worked for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office in 2011 and 2012) was assigned to the San Francisco County Superior Court.
All five of these new judges are registered Democrats. The annual salary for each is $244,727.
Newsom’s office also recently released demographic data for his judicial appointments statewide last year – 118 in all.
A majority of appointees were women (57%), with 53.4% of applicants female. Ethnically, 44.9% of appointees were white, 21.2% Asian, 15.3% Hispanic, 11.8% Black or African-American, and a single new judge was American Indian or Alaska Native, according to the governor’s data. Ten identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (8.5%), five were military veterans and three had disabilities.
Newsom had made 695 judicial appointments from a pool of 2,303 applicants during his tenure through 2025.
Tri-Valley will have a say on bench seats in the June 2 primary election.
In Alameda County, civil rights attorney Cabral Bonner competes against consumer protection attorney Michael P. Johnson for judicial Office No. 13, and administrative law judge Patricia Miles faces trial attorney Selia Warren for Office No. 19.
In Contra Costa County, Judge Jesse J. Hsieh, who was appointed to the bench by Newsom in 2024, tries to retain his seat against Stanislaus County deputy district attorney Valery R. Polyakov, who lives in Oakley.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the associate publisher and editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
