Federal Judge Florence Cooper dies in California

[February 04, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- U.S. District Court Judge Florence Marie Cooper, whose reputation for brilliance and fairness made her a star of the federal judiciary, died Friday of lymphoma. She was 69.

Cooper, who rose from a legal secretary to judgeships in state and federal courts, died at a Santa Monica hospital where she was being treated, Chief Judge Audrey B. Collins announced.

"Our court is devastated by this loss," Collins said. "Florence personified the best qualities one could hope for in a federal judge -- intelligence, analytical reasoning and endless patience combined with fairness, the unwavering ability to recognize and correct injustice to the individual, and a passion for justice."

As a federal judge, Cooper made headlines dismissing a case against accused Chinese spy Katrina Leung on grounds of governmental misconduct.

She also presided over a two-decade copyright battle involving the cartoon character Winnie the Pooh as well as a wrongful death suit brought against the city of Los Angeles by the family of rapper Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace.

Cooper declared a mistrial in that case when she learned the city had failed to turn over documents, and ordered Los Angeles to pay more than $1 million in attorney fees.

Leung, a Chinese-American businesswoman, was accused of being a double agent for the U.S. and Chinese governments and copying classified information during liaisons with her FBI handler and lover, James J. Smith.

During pretrial proceedings, Cooper was told the prosecution had reached a plea bargain with Smith that kept him from talking to Leung's lawyers or anyone else about the case. Saying Leung was being deprived of her constitutional rights and accusing prosecutors of misconduct and "stonewalling," Cooper dismissed the charges. With a government appeal pending, Leung pleaded guilty to lesser charges but served no jail time.

Explaining her ruling in a Los Angeles Daily Journal interview, Cooper said, "I do believe that I hold the government to a high standard. If we can't rely on the government to be honest, we are in great peril."

Cooper served on numerous court committees and had an extensive background teaching law.

A native of Vancouver, B.C., she moved to San Francisco while her father worked for the Canadian Pacific railroad.

"When I got married and had children, I exceeded my parents' expectations," she said in her Daily Journal interview.

When her husband was transferred to Los Angeles, she began taking night classes at Beverly Law School, now Whittier School of Law, while working as a legal secretary during the day and raising two children.

She graduated at the top of her class in 1975 and moved through a succession of positions in the Los Angeles judicial system before becoming a Superior Court judge.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed her to a lifetime position on the federal bench. She had planned to retire in March to care for her husband, who is ill.

"I don't know of any judge that I would rate more highly in every role she had," Ninth U.S. Circuit Court Justice Arthur Alarcon said. "She was brilliant, articulate, an incredible communicator in a way that laypersons could understand what she did."

Added Collins: "She was everything we could hope for in a colleague and a friend. Funny, loyal, someone to count on through the good days and the bad days."

Cooper is survived by her husband, Les Pickens, daughters Karen Albert and Angela Sample, and son Joe Andrus, all of Los Angeles; her sister Maureen Kelly Schulze of Santa Rosa and grandchildren. Services were pending.

[Associated Press; By LINDA DEUTSCH]

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