Santa Barbara County residents will see a contested judge race on the June ballot, as longtime Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Thomas R. Adams will be challenged by local private attorney Luis Esparza. 

Superior Court judges are elected by county voters for six-year terms during midterm election years. Whoever is elected will start their term in January 2027.

To serve as a judge, a candidate must be a practicing attorney or judge for at least 10 years. 

Judge Thomas Adams

At 85, Adams has had a storied career, officiating over a thousand weddings, including those of Neil Armstrong, Carol Burnett, and a secret service agent for Ronald Reagan. 

His judicial career has included starting Teen Court, a program for juveniles facing first-time misdemeanors and school violations where they appear in front of a jury of other teenagers.

He also helped to start a “children in the middle” program for families going through divorce.

“It’s been a huge privilege, a great adventure, and I’ve just enjoyed almost every single day that I’ve been blessed to come to work,” Adams said.

Adams became a judge in 1983 and has served in criminal court, juvenile court, and family court, and now presides over an arraignment courtroom in Santa Barbara Superior Court. 

He presided over a number of high-profile cases including the trial for David Attias, who was found guilty of driving a car into a crowd of people in Isla Vista in 2001; and the case of Richard Benson, convicted of killing 24-year-old Laura Camargo and her three children and burning down their house with their bodies still inside.

Even in those gruesome cases, Adams said, he approaches his courtroom every day with the golden rule — treat people how you would want to be treated, or how you would want your loved one to be treated.

“I think that any one of us can stumble and slip and fall,” Adams said. “And yes, I see some people who have stumbled and slipped and fallen time and time again. Does it do me any pleasure to have them spend a long time in jail? No, I don’t get any thrill or kick out of that.”

Adams has faced some criticism in recent years. The Commission on Judicial Performance publicly admonished Adams in 2024 over his courtroom behavior.

The incident involved an altercation with Deputy Public Defender Reem Yassin during an arraignment hearing. He was accused of yelling at the attorney and throwing a stack of papers at her.

Adams told Noozhawk that Yassin was arguing with another attorney in the courtroom over filing procedure when she tried to give Adams a stack of papers.

Adams explained that there was usually a table under his bench but that day, unbeknownst to him, the table had been moved and so when he tried to toss the papers on to the table, they fell in front of Yassin.

That day, during the lunch break, Adams said he wrote Yassin a letter apologizing and the two spoke about the incident in his chambers the following day. Adams claims the two became good friends and the incident only went to the commission because Yassin’s supervisor reported it. 

The commission also criticized Adams for misleading them about his retirement plans, and for arguing that discipline was not warranted since he was leaving the bench.

In 2023 he told the commission he was going to retire after a hip surgery, but didn’t. He told Noozhawk that he changed his mind after a quick recovery.

“The good Lord has blessed me with good health,” Adams said. “I really enjoy what I’m doing. I love helping people. I love doing what I do in the arraignment court. I love working with the courts.”

The admonishment in the recent case was partly influenced by previous discipline by the commission.

Adams was privately admonished by the Commission on Judicial Performance in 2023 for comments that could be perceived as bias, prejudice, or harassment based on sex or gender.

He was also admonished in 1993 for placing a person into custody for two days without a hearing. The commissioners described the incident as “an egregious violation of due process.”

Luis Esparza

Santa Barbara attorney Esparza, 46, is looking to bring his 22 years of legal experience to the bench. 

The name may look familiar to voters, as Esparza ran for Santa Barbara City Council against Randy Rowse in 2015 and again against Mike Jordan in 2019.

Now Esparza said he’s ready to bring his experience and nonpartisan views to the courtroom.

“This is more my wheelhouse,” Esparza said. “I knew going into those races, my eyes were wide open, that it was unlikely to be successful. This feels different. I’m in the branch that I’m used to, because lawyers as well as judges, are part of that judiciary branch.

“I’m excited, regardless of whether people vote for me or not, I just want voters to vote and have the right to pick, to exercise their constitutional right to choose.”

Esparza is a born and raised Santa Barbara resident after his parents immigrated here from Mexico in the 1960s. In fact, Adams was the judge for a traffic ticket Esparza received in high school.

“Everyone knows him, and personally, I have a lot of respect for him, but I feel like my experience and my dedication is up there as well,” Esparza said. 

He never planned to become an attorney and went to law school to use the degree in business and entrepreneurship.

When he moved back to town after getting his degree from University of Southern California Gould School of Law, friends and family started calling for his advice. Before he knew it, he was practicing criminal defense, personal injury, bankruptcy, and civil litigation. 

When thinking about how he will approach the responsibility of being a judge, Esparza said he lives by the rule of the three I’s: independence, integrity, and impartiality.

“We’re at a time right now where trust in all of our institutions is going downhill,” Esparza said. “It would be really unfortunate to see if the judiciary was also subject to that downhill progression, because that, to me, is a recipe for problems.

“When our dispute-resolution mechanism and the place where everyone goes to resolve their battles, if the trust in that particular institution goes down, we’re in serious trouble.”

Esparza also said he plans to improve the court’s calendar, noting that there is a significant backlog of cases, and has seen trials recently set for late 2027. 

“Every single decision, I would try to apply the law timely and fairly to everybody. At a minimum, that’s what people expect out of our judges,” Esparza said.

“And to treat everyone with the dignity and respect that everybody deserves, especially people who are walking into a courtroom, because everyone’s kind of tip-toeing in there when they walk in, understandably so, it can be scary.”

The primary election will be held June 2. 

Read more about the candidates on the ballot in Noozhawk’s election section.