Ex-Judge Gets Same Penalty After Drunk-Driving Retrial

A former Orange County Superior Court judge, who was convicted of drunk driving in a retrial last month, received the same sentence that was imposed after his first trial in 1982.

Mark P. Robinson Sr., who is attempting to regain his seat on the bench after resigning last year, was ordered to pay a $400 fine and a $201 penalty assessment and to attend a drunk-driving school for first-time offenders.

Won a Reversal

Robinson, 59, had appealed his 1982 conviction and won a reversal.

Harbor Municipal Judge Calvin Schmidt, who presided over the retrial, allowed the $500 that Robinson had paid after his first trial to be applied toward the current sentence.

Schmidt also denied Robinson’s motion for a new trial, but he stayed enforcement of the sentence until April 1 to give Robinson time to appeal the conviction.

Defense lawyer J. Michael Flanagan of Glendale claimed that Schmidt had erred in letting the prosecution present a witness to rebut defense testimony after resting its case and in letting a prosecution witness use a definition of drunk driving different from a state-law definition to say that Robinson was drunk.

Robinson was accused of having .11 blood-alcohol level after he was stopped for a U-turn he made in Irvine on Nov. 1, 1981. He also allegedly got into a brief scuffle with a police officer.

Robinson resigned from the bench last May after serving only 17 months. He is trying to regain his seat for the new six-year term that he won when he ran unopposed for election shortly before his resignation.

The Superior Court has asked the state attorney general’s office for permission to sue Robinson to determine whether he has the right to return to the bench.

Lawyers for Robinson, the state, the county and others conferred Wednesday, but a final decision was not announced publicly.