Judge McNatt retires — sort of

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
StocktRecord
April 6, 2015

http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150406/NEWS/150409836/101087/A_NEWS

Retiring San Joaquin Superior Court Judge Bob McNatt sits at the" Table of Truth" reserved for judges at the Yasoo Yani restaurant in downtown Stockton.

After 20 years on the bench, Judge Bob McNatt will leave Department 42 of the Stockton court branch having presided over historic cases and providing a word or two of wisdom and trivia.

STOCKTON — Just outside the San Joaquin County Superior Court on Weber Avenue sits the historical Stockton Hotel.

“Have you seen the original ‘All the King’s Men?’ ” Judge Bob McNatt said of the 1949 film that won three Academy Awards. “It was filmed right there (at the hotel).”

For a juror, listening to hours of testimony in a courtroom can get stressful, maybe downright mind-numbing. But McNatt knows how to break up the tension and monotony by occasionally sharing bits of history in his courtroom. 

He is known to be quite the trivia buff, just one of his many qualities that will be missed in Department 42 of the Stockton court branch.

McNatt, whose most infamous cases include the child sex abuse civil lawsuits involving then-priests Oliver O’Grady and Michael Kelley, officially retires on June 1. He has, however, already cleared out and technically is on vacation.

“What a magnetic, amazing personality,” said Judge Bernard Garber, a longtime friend of McNatt’s. Both are part of a group of judges who meet for lunch nearly every day — at the "Table of Truth" — at Yasoo Yani Restaurant in downtown Stockton.

“He has an incredible memory," Garber said. "He remembers every joke he has ever heard.”

McNatt, 70, takes with him more than factoids. He retires after 20 years on the bench, years as a respected attorney, and a career history that covers law enforcement, journalism and military service.

“Bob McNatt is one of those people who you just can’t bear the thought that he’s going to leave,” Presiding Judge Lesley Holland said. “You talk to him, and he has a way of framing an issue, question or subject and you see it in a new way…he’s got a unique talent for that.”

No case was too difficult or beneath McNatt, it seems to Holland.

One case McNatt boldly took on was the civil trial of now-defrocked O’Grady, who admittedly molested children during his time at various parishes throughout the Central Valley. O’Grady’s offenses are chronicled in the 2006 documentary film “Deliver Us from Evil,” by Amy J. Berg.

That case was a shocker even to McNatt.

“Because, I want to say around 1985 or '86, my wife and I had heard all these great stories about a program called marriage encounter (to improve communication),” McNatt said.

Charged to lead the weekend program — prior to the child molestation news — was none other than O’Grady.

“And we left there thinking, 'Wow, this is just the sharpest guy we’ve ever run across. Talk about having it together,' ” McNatt said.

“So about three years later when they arrested him for child molestation, I was sitting there at the breakfast table before going to work, reading the paper, and I saw that story in The Record and just about spit my Wheaties out. 'That can’t be the guy.' It was.”

McNatt also briefly appears in Berg’s documentary.

“And I saw that interview they did with (O’Grady) in Ireland in front of the playground with the kids in the background,” McNatt said. “That just sent chills down my spine, knowing he’s going to do it again. If he has the chance, he is going to do it again.”

Nearly two decades later, McNatt had before him the case of former Stockton priest Michael Kelly, who was accused by airline pilot Travis Trotter of having sexually abused Trotter when he was a young altar boy in the 1980s.

“Déjà vu all over again, to quote Yogi Berra,” said McNatt, who had not met Kelly prior to the case.

McNatt volunteered to preside over the trial after the original judge was reassigned. He had experience with such cases.

The trial settled before it was finished. The Irish-born priest fled to his country in April 2012 after being found personally liable and before he could testify in the trial against the Diocese of Stockton.

The diocese’s $3.75 million settlement was the largest in its history and the last before the organization filed bankruptcy in response to continuous lawsuit filings.

“When Father Kelly left the country, that, I think, to the jury was as good as a signed confession,” McNatt said.

Being a trial judge has proved to be both satisfying and frustrating, McNatt said.

“Overall, though, it’s a rewarding job, because you get the chance to make a difference,” he said.

McNatt was appointed to the bench in 1995 by then-Gov. Pete Wilson after a two-year process from his initial application.

Holland said his diverse background had made him relatable to people. McNatt started out with the Marine Corps after obtaining a General Education Diploma — he had dropped out of high school.

After military service, he embarked on the law enforcement path, joining the Santa Maria Police Department.

“I got to meet (activist) Cesar Chavez (during the farm worker movement) and was assigned to be his body guard, because there were some concerns about some of the ranchers there,” McNatt said. “They had very hard feelings.”

After four years with the Santa Maria police, he went on to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, where he spent seven years.

But the breakup of his first marriage at that time led McNatt to make an occupation change, leaving the stressful night shifts behind for a staff writer position at the Santa Barbara News-Press.

“Like most things in my life, I fell into it backwards, by accident,” McNatt said.

“I had met my present wife by that time. I didn’t want to take that chance a second time, so I said, 'It's time to change jobs.' And casting about for something to do, I had met all the journalists there, who covered the police beat, including the guy who ran the office of the Santa Barbara News-Press.

“I enjoyed it tremendously, but after about a year I realized I felt almost like an imposter there. That’s when I decided to go to law school.”

With undergraduate degrees in administration of justice, sociology and psychology under his belt already, he earned his law degree in 1979 from Western State Law School.

McNatt went on to pursue civil law. He has served as deputy city attorney in Stockton and Lodi’s city attorney.

McNatt, a Bakersfield native, lives with his wife, Peggy, in Woodbridge. He has a 32-year-old son and a 35-year-old daughter, both of whom recently moved to Seattle to start a business.

McNatt plans to stay in San Joaquin County and serve as a visiting judge once his retirement becomes official.