New Sacramento County judges include public defender who represented East Area Rapist
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed three new judges to the Sacramento Superior Court bench, including the lawyer who served as public defender for the notorious East Area Rapist, Joseph James DeAngelo.
Appointee Joseph Cress has worked in the Sacramento County Public Defender’s Office since 1995, most recently serving as chief assistant public defender. In 2020, he represented DeAngelo in a high-profile plea agreement and sentencing process during which DeAngelo admitted to a horrific string of rapes, murders and burglaries and other crimes decades earlier from the Sacramento area to Orange County.
Cress also served as an adjunct law professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Oak Park and earned his law degree from UC Law San Francisco, Newsom’s office and the court said in news releases.
Also appointed to the Sacramento bench were attorneys Brenda R. Dabney and Lee S. Bickley.
Dabney is the Northern California regional director at the Children’s Law Center of California, where she has worked since 2001. She earned her law degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Bickley is a former assistant U.S. attorney who also worked as a branch chief in the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She joined CalPERS as a senior attorney in 2024, Newsom’s office said. She earned her law degree from Yale.
“These appointees bring a wealth of experience and knowledge that will round out the bench,” Sacramento Presiding Court Judge Bunmi O. Awoniyi said.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 11:16 AM.
