PENALTY-TAILORING JUDGE RETIRES.

Byline: Carol Rock Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Newhall Superior Court Judge Floyd V. Baxter is retiring - effective Nov. 1 - after 20 years on the bench.

Baxter, 65, has a reputation as a no-nonsense jurist, making headlines in 1996 when he sentenced a man who caused two deaths in a boating accident to 720 hours of community service at the county morgue.

He also irked Santa Clarita Valley residents when he sentenced a local PTA president and stay-at-home mother to five days in jail for leaving the scene of an accident that caused damage but no injuries.

Baxter is credited with bringing Teen Court, a program that involves youthful offenders in deciding their peers' cases, to Santa Clarita in 1995. Under the program, first offenders are diverted from the juvenile justice system and tried by junior high and high school students, with community service sentences being imposed. The program will continue today in the Newhall court.

Before his appointment to the bench, Baxter was a partner in the Newhall law firm of Baxter and Hoodack. He received a bachelor's degree in business management from Woodbury University in 1958 and worked as a salesman before entering law school. He obtained his law degree in 1974 from what was then the University of San Fernando Valley College of Law.

He also was a longtime reservist, first with the Army Reserve and later with the Air National Guard.

Baxter is currently using accrued vacation time and will not return to his courtroom before the end of the month.

Carol Rock, [phone]

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com