San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Roger Picquet, who overturned the voter-approved Measure J nearly two years ago, is retiring from the bench after 16 years of service, effective Tuesday.
Picquet, 62, made the announcement in an article on the county Bar Association’s Web site.
He said he intends to sit on the bench in San Luis Obispo and other counties as an assigned judge who fills in to help out the overcrowded court system.
Picquet’s most well-known recent decision was his invalidation in February 2008 of Measure J, the contentious ballot initiative approved by voters countywide in November 2006 that would have led to a shopping center complex on the Dalidio Ranch southwest of San Luis Obispo.
In vacating the ballot measure, Picquet wrote: “Measure J is not a proper subject for an initiative.”
The state Court of Appeal later overturned Picquet’s decision after rancher-developer Ernie Dalidio appealed. The state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that decision.
Picquet also has been involved in other high profile local cases, including the Paso Robles water-rate litigation, Sheriff Pat Hedges’ taping of his subordinates and the double murder-suicide shooting in 2006 at Denny’s restaurant in Pismo Beach.
In his retirement announcement, Picquet stressed “how much I have learned from and enjoyed the members of our local legal community.”
“They are (perhaps with an occasional exception) as intelligent, professional, compassionate and caring a group of people that one could ever hope to be with,” he wrote.
Before being appointed on Dec. 3, 1993, Picquet spent 16 years as a lawyer specializing in municipal and public agency law with an emphasis on environmental, contract and personnel matters.
Immediately prior to his appointment, he was in private practice; his two primary clients were the cities of Grover Beach and Paso Robles. As a Municipal Court judge, Picquet oversaw misdemeanor and limited civil calendars, and for a year and a half was on a felony assignment.
In 1998, the Municipal and Superior Courts merged, after which Picquet handled general civil, felony and juvenile matters.
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@thetribunenews.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@thetribunenews.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
Be the first to know what's going on in San Luis Obispo County. Just tell us how you want to find out — we'll take care of the rest.
Sign up for breaking news alerts from SanLuisObispo.com and get the latest news sent to your cell phone via text message.
By signing up for alerts from this site, you are signing up for a program that may include up to 5 SMS text alert(s) per alert category per day. There is no service fee charged per month but your carrier's standard text messaging and other charges may apply. You may stop this subscription service at any time by sending the text message "STOP" to 72737. You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age to use our alert services. If you are between 13 and 17 years old, you agree that you have received parental permission both to complete the registration process and to receive SMS content on your cell phone. For help, send the text message "HELP" to 72737. This service will work with ATT, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel, Alltell, US Cellular, Cincinnati Bell, Boost, Virgin Mobile USA, Celluar South, Telos, Centennial, East Kentucky Network, Cellcom, Immix and Rural Celluar.
E-mail »
Twitter »
Facebook »
iTribune »
Subscribe »
RSS »
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.