Beverly Ann Reid O'Connell (May 12, 1965 – October 8, 2017) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a Federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, ...

Early life and education

O'Connell was born Beverly Ann Reid on May 12, 1965, in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city on the Southern Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist des ...

. She received her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1986 from the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. She received her Juris Doctor, ''magna cum laude'', in 1990 from

Pepperdine University School of Law The Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law (formerly Pepperdine University School of Law) is the law school of Pepperdine University, a private research university in Los Angeles County, California. The school offers the Juris D ...

.President Obama Nominates Seven to the United States District Courts

White House Office of the Press Secretary The White House Office of the Press Secretary, or the Press Office, is responsible for gathering and disseminating information to three principal groups: the President, the White House staff, and the media. The Office is headed by the White House ...

(November 14, 2012).

Career

From 1990 to 1995, she worked at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, where she handled a variety of civil litigation matters. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California from 1995 to 2005. She was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2005,Megan Diskin
District court judge born in Ventura dies suddenly
''Ventura County Star'' (October 13, 2017). and served on that court until 2013. For five months in 2010 and 2011, she sat by designation on the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District, Division 8. She also served as Assistant Supervising Judge with the North Valley District of the Superior Court.

Federal judicial service

On November 14, 2012, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated O'Connell to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California, to the seat vacated by Judge Valerie Baker Fairbank, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

due to a certified disability on March 1, 2012. On January 2, 2013, her nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, she was renominated to the same office. Her nomination was reported by the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

on February 14, 2013, by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

. On April 15, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her nomination, on a 92–0 vote. She received her commission on April 30, 2013. On the federal bench, O'Connell presided over several notable cases. In 2014, O'Connell presided over a

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

lawsuit against

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

and his record label UMG Recordings for West's song "

Gold Digger Gold digger is a term for a person, typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional relationship for money rather than love. If it turns into marriage, it is a type of marriage of convenience. Etymology and usage The term "gold ...

"; she dismissed most the claims on a motion for judgment on the pleadings. In 2015, she denied a petition for ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' by

Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...

, who is imprisoned for life for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy. O'Connell was also a member of the

board of visitors In the United States, a board often governs institutions of higher education, including private universities, state universities, and community colleges. In each US state, such boards may govern either the state university system, individual ...

for her ''alma mater'', Pepperdine University School of Law (later renamed the Rick J. Caruso School of Law).

Death

O'Connell died on October 8, 2017, at the age of 52,Passing of the Honorable Beverly Reid O'Connell
United States District Court for the Central District of California. due to a

brain aneurysm An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a brain aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel. Aneurysms in the posterior circ ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnell, Beverly Reid 1965 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers Assistant United States Attorneys California lawyers California state court judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California People associated with Morrison & Foerster People from Ventura, California Pepperdine University School of Law alumni Superior court judges in the United States United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama University of California, Los Angeles alumni