SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the appointments of Raquel A. Marquez, Otis Sterling III and John W. Vineyard to judgeships in the Riverside County Superior Court.
Raquel A. Marquez, 45, of Valley Center, has been a senior deputy district attorney in the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office since 2011 and has served as a deputy district attorney in the office since 1991. She earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree from Santa Clara University. She fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Carol D. Codrington to the Court of Appeal. Marquez is a Democrat. Marquez will be the first Latina judge in the history of the Riverside County Superior Court.
Otis Sterling III, 42, of Riverside, has served as a supervising district attorney in the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office since 2002. Previously, Sterling was a public defender for the Salt Lake City Legal Defender’s Association from 1998 to 2002. He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Ruben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University. He fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Paul E. Zellerbach. Sterling is a Democrat.
John W. Vineyard, 50, of Riverside, has served as a commissioner for the Riverside County Superior Court since 2008. Previously, he was a sole practitioner from 2005 to 2008. He was senior counsel for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP from 1998 to 2005. Vineyard was a partner at Burke Williams and Sorenson LLP in 1998, and an attorney at Thomas Mort Prosser and Knudsen LLP from 1989 to 1998, becoming a partner in 1994. He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeast Louisiana University. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge W. Charles Morgan. Vineyard is a Democrat.
The compensation for each position is $178,789.