By Bob Elko : sfchronicle – excerpt
Backed by a tough-on-crime group, San Francisco attorney Albert “Chip” Zecher is challenging Superior Court Judge Michael Begert in the March 2024 election, a campaign with echoes of last year’s recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Zecher, 59, has practiced law for nearly 33 years, most recently representing Silicon Valley tech firms, and was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the board of directors at UC College of the Law in San Francisco. His mother, the late Marilyn Pestarino Zecher, was a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge from 1975 to 2004, and his sister, Vanessa Zecher, has been a judge on that court since 2001.
Zecher’s campaign describes him as a “lifelong Democrat who believes in restorative justice,” which seeks to assist crime victims rather than focusing solely on punishment. Asked by the Chronicle why he was a candidate, he gave only a general statement, saying he wants to “promote public safety and justice and assure that our judges are providing adequate accountability,” and could not discuss any of Begert’s rulings because of ethical standards.
But Frank Noto, president of Stop Crime Action, which supports Zecher, accused Begert of taking “a revolving-door approach” to criminal cases, sending defendants with violent records to drug courts for treatment rather than to prison.
An affiliated group, Stop Crime SF, also headed by Noto, has sent thousands of volunteer “court-watchers” to San Francisco courtrooms and announced in August that it would issue report cards on the sentencing practices and conduct of local judges seeking new terms next year…
Appointed to the bench by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011, Begert no longer handles criminal cases, as he was recently put in charge of San Francisco’s CARE Court — Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment — a program established by Newsom and state lawmakers to remove mentally ill people from the streets and place them in treatment…(more)