Career Highlights: Appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to Los Angeles Superior Court, 1995; deputy attorney general, 1982-95; state Department of Corporations, enforcement division, 1977-82
Law School: Loyola University School of Law, 1977
When a third-strike defendant made a habit of stripping naked, hurling his own feces at deputies and refusing to leave his jail cell for his trial, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani faced a dilemma.
The man, who was charged in a series of home burglaries, claimed to have asthma and a heart condition, making it impossible for deputies to resort to the usual method for extracting an uncooperative defendant: knockout gas.
The gas would be fat... (continued)
