Letter: Waggoman has necessary judicial experience

Jud Waggoman, an Air Force veteran, has 21 years experience in civil and criminal law, has tried 25 jury trials and several hundred court trials, each lasting a day or more. He is fair, logical, honest, impartial, committed and hardworking; all traits needed by a judge.

By contrast, Sarah Heckman has been an attorney for 123⁄4 years, and has never had a jury trial.

Her website states she has been the managing attorney of the Sutter Courts Law Center self-help programs since 2002, running a program which teaches people to represent themselves, which is at least 77 percents of her entire legal career. This job requires no court appearances.

Before that, she states: "I served as Deputy District Attorney prosecuting hundreds of cases for the Child Support Division." To the average person, this sounds impressive. It's not.

At least 95 percent of all child support cases are determined by a computer program, which recommends guideline child support after analyzing gross income of parents, number of children, percent of time with each parent, etc. Typically, these court appearances take five to 15 minutes.

She claims, "My private practice experience included construction litigation, probate and personal injury cases." How much experience could she have gained in less than a year?

Selecting a judge cannot be a popularity contest. It must be made on proper, verifiable qualifications.

There is only one qualified candidate — Jud Waggoman for Sutter County Superior Court judge.

Joel T. Guthrie

Yuba City