JUDGE MCKAY FACES CHALLENGER.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Superior Court Judge Chesley McKay, who has been off work since September because of illness, will face challenger Stella Owens-Murrell, a state attorney, in the March 2 election.

McKay was the only judicial incumbent rated ``not qualified'' by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, while Owens-Murrell received a ``qualified'' rating. McKay was among eight Los Angeles County judicial candidates - no others judges - given the ``not qualified'' rating.

Superior Court judges' terms are for six years, and the annual salary is $139,784.

McKay, 53, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, declined to be interviewed. In 2001, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.

Owens-Murrell, 55, of Palmdale is an attorney with the state Department of Industrial Relations.

``I'm running for judge because it's time for a change. Judges are public servants. They have a duty to serve the public and in accordance with the law,'' Owens-Murrell said. ``It's time for a judge who can be fair, unbiased, impartial (and) ethical and who is available to serve on the bench.''

She referred to an appellate court ruling last year that criticized McKay's conduct in Burbank Superior Court during the arson trial of a man charged with setting his wife's house on fire in Altadena.

In overturning the conviction, the appellate panel said: ``(T)he trial judge was intemperate in his examination of appellant during the presentation of his defense, and ... in four specific instances, the judge prejudicially interfered with such defense and conducted himself as though he sided with the (prosecution).''

If McKay is not able to serve, he should have stepped down and allowed others to run for the seat, Owens-Murrell said.

McKay was appointed Municipal Court judge in 1994 and then elected in March 1996. In that election, McKay received the bar association's top rating of ``well qualified.''

In June 1996, he was promoted to Superior Court, and in 1998 he ran unopposed.

McKay was scheduled to return to work at the beginning of the year, but the return was postponed - first to Feb. 2, then to an unspecified date in February. Court officials said last week that McKay indicated he was expecting to return to work before the end of February.

McKay had been assigned to the Palmdale court in July as part of a midyear reshuffling of judges in the Antelope Valley. He previously worked in the Superior Court and Juvenile Court in Lancaster and then at Burbank Superior Court.

McKay is a 1982 graduate of the San Fernando College of Law.

Before becoming a deputy district attorney in 1984, he was an associate attorney in the law offices of Elizabeth Kaufman in Northridge, served as corporate counsel for WHB Chan and Co. from 1983 to 1984, and worked as an associate in the Encino law offices of Edwin S. Saul from 1982 to 1983.

Owens-Murrell has worked for the Department of Industrial Relations since 1995 as defense counsel for the director. From 1986 to 1995, she had a law office in Palmdale, specializing in labor and employment litigation.

From 1984 to 1986, Owens-Murrell was an associate with Parker, Milliken, Clark, O'Hara & Samuelian, a mid-size management-labor law firm in Los Angeles.

Owens-Murrell graduated in 1970 from City University of New York's Hunter College, with a major in political science and a minor in history, and she earned a law degree from the University of Notre Dame.