Honorees

Marie M. Herney

1908-1984

Marie Herney was born February 2, 1908 in Deshler, Nebraska.  She graduated from San Diego State and attended law school at the University of Nebraska.  Marie was the first woman Deputy District Attorney for the County of San Diego (1932).  She later became known internationally as a legal authority on and promoter of women’s rights.  When she passed the California Bar, the San Diego Sun headlined its article as “Girl Among Five in City to Pass State Bar Tests.”  (Lawyer’s Club). 

 Marie entered private practice after 18 months in the District Attorney’s Office. As a criminal defense lawyer the papers continued to headline her accomplishments, for example, “Former U of Nebraska Coed Wins Her First Case as Lawyer.”  (Id.) She was the first woman from San Diego admitted to practice before the Federal District Court for the Southern District of California and the United States Supreme Court.  She was the only woman member of the Civil Service Commission between 1938 and 1951 when she resigned to devote more time to her legal practice.  A member of the International Federation of Woman Lawyers, she worked on projects of the United Nations in India, Karachi, Pakistan, Iran and Mexico City.

Marie shared her knowledge and experience through lectures and seminars on the status of women, on problems of equal opportunity, on equal job classification and equal pay for equal work.  She was a role model and mentor for female lawyers entering the profession in the 1960s, and was a driving force in the opening of employment opportunities in the City and County legal departments in 1967 and 1968.  (Id.)

One of the more interesting cases was the defense of an attractive woman charged with the crime of adultery.  While now not defined as a crime, in 1947 it was a criminal act.  The prosecution presented evidence from the private investigator who had followed the woman and her companion to a hotel in National City.  The investigator trailed the couple to a room and through the transom took a flash picture.  Marie carefully questioned the PI who acknowledged he had only seen this one liaison.  She put no defense evidence on but simply asked for a dismissal of the charges.  The Penal Code defined adultery as a course of conduct.  Since there was only one event, she won her motion.

Marie, although keeping Herney as her professional name was married to Edwin A. Mueller who had helped found the American Field Service (an ambulance service during World War I) and which later became a foreign student exchange program.  Mueller was twice mayor of El Cajon as well as serving the State Legislature and Senate.

In a remembrance article, District Attorney John Barnett recalled a case against two defendants who had been involved in a brawl.  Herney’s first question to the co-defendant was, “Do you have a hand gun in your pocket right now?” The co-defendant removed the gun from his pocket and laid it on the bench, then asked, “Why pick on me?  He has one too,” pointing to Herney’s client.  The bailiff searched the defendant and produced a gun.  Once the artillery was removed, the trial proceeded.  Barnett described how Herney illustrated the fight in her closing argument:  “she grabbed me around the upper part of my torso and slung me across her hip, causing me to describe a modest arc through the air which landed me flat on my butt at her feet.”  The judge thought it was great, and years later, the attorneys laughed about the episode.  (Dicta, Aug. 1984).  An aggressive and talented trial attorney Marie Herney lived a full life of service to the San Diego Community.  She died May 9, 1984.

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