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Remember when South Bay bagel shop owner Lynn Diane Olson shocked the legal establishment by getting elected last June to the Superior Court? Although rated not qualified by the county Bar Association — she was an inactive lawyer — Olson got help from the Democratic Party and defeated a respected incumbent, Dzintra Janavs, who was promptly reappointed by the governor. Now Olson has her punishment—er, I mean assignment. She is to report Monday to the courthouse in Pomona, 49 miles and six freeways from her home in Hermosa Beach, says the Metropolitan News-Enterprise.
Yes, Janavs is the judge who recently ruled Mayor Villaraigosa's school bill unconstitutional.
* Update: A friend of Judge Olson's emails that the Met-News was wrong. Her new assignment is in El Monte, not Pomona. That's about 70 miles roundtrip from home, not the nearly 100 that Pomona would have been. "There's a carpool lane the entire way - perfect for Lynn's Prius. All in all, she's quite satisfied with (and looking forward to) her new assignment, and the collegiality and professionalism of her fellow judges in El Monte."
Separated at birth?: A reader who shall remain anonymous (lest she ever appear in Pomona El Monte court) suggests a resemblance between Her Honor and the lead guitarist of Spinal Tap:
Olson, Nigel Tufnel