Honorees

Hon. William P. Mahedy

1906-1984

William P. Mahedy was born in 1906.  Judge Mahedy was a native of Oakland.  He knew the value of hard work in his young life, helping his father with bricklaying.  He graduated from Loyola High School in 1924.  He then went to Loyola University and Loyola Law School, receiving the Jesuit training he would carry with him the rest of his life.  He moved to San Diego in 1930 and joined the District Attorney’s Office in 1934 where he served for 6 years under District Attorney Tom Whelan.  He got married in 1935 and started raising a family.

In 1940, when Mahedy was Deputy District Attorney, he participated in then-California Attorney General Earl Warren’s statewide conferences to tighten law enforcement activities on gambling and bookmaking.  (LA Times, 3/22/40).

When World War II came, Judge Mahedy joined the Navy where he rose to the rank of Commander and eventually Captain in the Naval Reserve.  While in the Reserve he was placed in charge of naval intelligence dealing with enemy sabotage.  He loved the Navy serving for over 26 years.
In the mid-1950’s, Mahedy represented Bernard Calhoun, head of the Southern California Spirits Foundation, in connection with the campaign contribution scandal of William Bonelli, a member of the State Board of Equalization.

He was a man of faith, who devoted his whole life to his parish and diocese.  In 1952 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory by Pope Pius XII.

In 1953 he founded a firm along with William J. Schall located in the penthouse of the San Diego Trust and Savings Building.  He frequently took cases for people who could not afford to pay.  He was known as a poised, passionate, and eloquent speaker.

In 1957 he was appointed to the Superior Court bench by Governor Goodwin Knight.  He faithfully served on the bench for over 16 years until his retirement in 1974.  During that time he presided over countless criminal trials, including many high profile, death penalty, and other serious cases.  As both advocate and judge, he had many cases end up as published appellate cases.

He presided over several death penalty cases, including as the trier of fact over the re-trial of Raymond Cartier, a sailor who mutilated his wife, and the 18-­year-old Raymond Goedecke, who killed his family (People v. Cartier, 54 Cal.2d 300 (1960); People v. Goedecke, 65 Cal.2d 850 (1967) (reducing to second degree)).  He also presided over criminal trials of Black Panthers during the 1960s (LA Times, 8/21/64 & 5/22/70).  In 1960, Judge Mahedy granted the change of venue motion in the re-trial of Joseph Morse, who was accused of killing another prisoner, because another judge had criticized the jury who failed to sustain the death sentence on the underlying murder of his wife and invalid sister (LA Times 9/23/64). 

Judge Mahedy said his most unusual case was the 1962 trial of a woman who tried to hire an undercover officer to kill her husband.  She told the officer she did not want her husband to suffer because he was a really nice guy.  Judge Mahedy found her guilty in a non-jury trial but sentenced her to probation based on the plea for mercy by her husband.  He told the couple they deserved each other. The judge received Christmas cards from them for years thereafter.

He frequently found himself in the headlines because of his rulings and his straightforward manner.  He was colorful and frank.  He threatened some welfare workers with contempt and jail for refusing to tell a woman where her six children were being kept in foster homes.  He had several public disagreements with the District Attorney.  On one such encounter the D.A. caused members of the Grand Jury to show up in Judge Mahedy’s department; without hesitation the Judge had his bailiff escort the group out of his department.  He was not afraid of confrontation.

In October 1959, District Attorney Don Keller “virtually unseated” Judge Mahedy from all criminal trials by making use of the new law permitting automatic disqualification of a judge.  Judge Mahedy had previously advised a jury to acquit the defendants in a narcotics case and “blasted the deputy district attorney in the case and the district attorney’s office generally for ‘maneuvering’ to move the trial to another court whose rulings would be more favorable to the prosecution.”  The Superior Court judges passed a unanimous vote of confidence in Judge Mahedy.  He responded that he “may be blunt and outspoken but the outcome of a case is no different.” He pointed to his two-year record of 12 acquittals and 34 convictions in his court (LA Times, 10/16/59 & 10/23/59).

Longtime friend and former law partner William J. Shall said Judge Mahedy “felt very keenly about his principles; he was outspoken and never pulled his punches in any respect.”  He would tell his son that, “My job is to take justice with me into the court, otherwise the law is meaningless.”  He passed away on November 25, 1984 having spent his final days surrounded by his family.

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