Longtime judge to assume presiding role in 2019

Come January, Karesh, 58, will have a chance to set the tone for the county court system having been elected in September to take the reins from Presiding Judge Susan Etezadi in 2019 and 2020. Before he was appointed to the bench in 2001, Karesh served as a deputy district attorney in San Mateo County for some 14 years and focused on civil asset forfeiture cases, in which money is seized from drug dealers and forfeited to the state. 

As a prosecutor, Karesh said his mission was to seek justice, and has found his work as a judge requires him to see both sides of an issue and take into account how the criminal justice system affects those who interact with it. 

“As a judge, you do have more of a flexibility to craft solutions and see both sides of the issue,” he said. 

In addition to a full trial schedule, as assistant presiding judge Karesh has overseen court commissioners and pro tem judges, who work pro bono and see cases in the traffic and small claims court. When he steps into the role of presiding judge, he said he will be focused on coordinating with the master calendaring department to set the court’s trial schedule.

Karesh said cuts to the court’s budget in the last five or six years have been one of biggest challenges facing judges recently, noting many of the court’s services have been consolidated at the Redwood City courthouse in recent years after the San Mateo courthouse was closed and services were reduced at the South San Francisco courthouse. But he was optimistic about the restoration of funds in this year’s budget, a change that will allow the clerk’s office hours to be extended as well as additional hearings to be held at the South San Francisco courthouse. 

Because the court serves county residents living as far north as Daly City and along the coast, the consolidation of services in Redwood City can be burdensome for some with pending cases as well as jurors, said Karesh, who expected the additional funds to go a long way toward better serving the public. 

“This fiscal year is the first year we started to have new money coming in,” he said. “That’s really been great, to see how we can use those resources.” 

With 27 judges, Karesh noted the number of courtrooms in the San Mateo County Superior Court is fairly limited and at times does not keep pace with the number of jury trials ready to start. 

“It’s very frustrating sometimes when you have to tell two lawyers that are ready to go to trial that we don’t have courtrooms available,” he said. 

Though the uptick in funding is not likely to bring the number of judicial officers in the Superior Court back up to where it was before the budget cuts, Karesh said the restoration of some funds will allow the court to hire another court commissioner. Because commissioners can hear misdemeanor assignments and help with the traffic and small claims cases, Karesh expected the increase in the number of commissioners from three to four to ease the caseload for judges and free up their schedules to hear trials. 

He also noted that with the appointment of Susan Jakubowski, who previously served as a court commissioner, to the county’s bench in July, another judge’s seat opened up in the county, a seat that has remained open until Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Amarra Lee, who previously served as a San Mateo County deputy district attorney, to fill the vacancy in late October. 

Though he acknowledged judges and court employees have had to work with fewer resources in recent years, Karesh said one of the things he enjoys most about being a judge is the opportunity to hear and weigh complex cases that can have a significant impact on the lives of those who seek justice in San Mateo County courtrooms. 

“You really get a chance to do justice and have a positive influence on people’s lives in a lot of different ways,” he said. 

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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