Judge Melinda Lasater of San Diego; moronic loser

The state of California presented Melinda Lasater with a law license in 1973 after she graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson was duped into appointing Melinda as a San Diego County Superior Court Judge in 1990. Melinda didn’t receive the appointment because she was the most qualified attorney in the greater San Diego area. She received it because she had proven to be a reliable lackey for the local political hacks.

In one matter, Melinda was assigned to preside over a case involving defendant William Avignone and his wife who were accused of perpetrating a scheme through which they swindled investors out of $786,000. Avignone initially pled guilty and appealed his sentence; the Court of Appeal last year held that he could withdraw his plea; he did and shortly thereafter, Melinda improperly tripled the amount of his bail.

Subsequently, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that Melinda abused her discretion in boosting bail from $100,000 to $300,000 on the assumption that the alleged con man could persuade someone to provide the additional $200,000 to him. In it’s reversal of Melinda’s asinine bail increase, the appellate court said in part:

• “This conclusion is entirely speculative.”
• “It assumes Avignone would be able to run a fraudulent investment scheme while in custody and then use the money he duped others to invest to make bail.”
• “In this sense, the court did not properly consider Avignone’s ability to pay, but instead, looked at the charged crimes and determined that Avignone would be able to commit like crimes to raise a similar amount of money that he could then use to pay bail.”
• “The court offered a hypothetical situation, based on the charged crimes, by which Avignone could hoodwink others to pay his bail.”

The court further spanked Melinda by saying:

• “Before December 2017, Avignone had been out on bail for four years. During that time, he made all court appearances and did not engage in criminal activity.”
• “Although we realize the abuse of discretion standard is highly deferential, this is the rare case where we conclude the court’s decision here was arbitrary, capricious, and resulted in a miscarriage of justice.”
• “On the unique facts before us, the increase of Avignone’s bail to $300,000 as a condition of pretrial release is the functional equivalent of a pretrial detention order….It cannot stand.”

Of course Melinda the Moron doesn’t much give a damn about being spanked on reversal by the Court of Appeal because no judge in California has ever been tossed from the bench by the Judicial Commission for engaging in the egregious misconduct aforementioned.

As we speak (ca. November 2018), Melinda continues to sit as a San Diego County Superior Court judge in San Diego, California.