In one sense, Judge John Winn’s career has come full circle. Early in his career, Winn put criminals in prison as a deputy district attorney in Yolo and Sacramento Counties. He next served as a senior staff counsel for the California Department of Corrections. At the time of his appointment to the Sacramento Superior Court last December, Winn was chief counsel to the Board of Prison Terms, the board charged with determining whether convicts get out of prison on parole.

Today, Winn has returned to what could be described as the “intake” side of the criminal justice system. Assigned to Department 2 of the Superior Court, Winn spends the majority of his week presiding over a calendar of misdemeanor arraignments, most of them involving charges of driving under the influence. When asked in an interview about the path of his career, Winn said that he sought judicial appointment because it “seemed like the next logical step” in his public service career.

Such an understated description of his decision to become a judge reveals a bit about Winn. He doesn’t say that he became a judge because he thought he’d make a fine judge or that he’d run out of goals to achieve as a lawyer. Superior Court Judge Pamela Smith-Steward, who was Winn’s boss at Corrections, describes him as a “self-effacing and humble.”

But Smith-Steward said that Winn’s unassuming nature “masks a keen intellect and a razor-sharp wit. ”Smith-Steward, who served as Chief of the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office prior to her appointment in 2002, calls Winn “definitely one of the most intelligent attorneys I had the good fortune to work with.”

Smith-Steward’s assessment is echoed by Deputy Attorney General David Verhey, who worked with Winn when Winn was at Corrections and also later at the Board of Prison Terms. He recalls that Winn researched issues deeply and produced scholarly memos on difficult subjects. “He’s got a practical side and also has a scholarly side,” Verhey said.

On a personal level, Verhey said, Winn “has got a great sense of humor. He’s very personable and very approachable.” Winn said his time at the Board of Prison Terms was his career highlight prior to becoming a judge. As the entity responsible for parole decisions, the board was under a lot of pressure from different entities, including the Legislature, over parole policy. As chief counsel, Winn managed the board’s legal unit and provided legal support and guidance to the board’s chairperson and agency staff on matters related to parole revocation hearings, mentally disordered sex offender hearings, and probable cause hearings for sexually violent predators. He also served as liaison to the Governor’s Office and provided direction to the Attorney General’s Office in litigation involving the board.

Winn said he enjoyed working at the board. “It’s one of the few jobs in public service as an attorney where there are a lot of constitutional issues involved.”

Several high-profile lawsuits challenging to Governor Davis’ parole policies were brought during Winn’s tenure. In one of them, In re Rosenkrantz, the plaintiff alleged that the Governor had a blanket policy of denying parole to murderers. In December 2002, the California Supreme Court declared that the Governor did not have such a blanket policy. In reaching this conclusion, the Court also established that courts are required to uphold gubernatorial parole decisions against challenge if “some evidence” exists to support them. The case was widely viewed as a significant victory for the Governor and the board.

Born in New Hampshire, Winn grew up near Boston in a family with four brothers. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Massachusetts, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a juris doctorate degree from Boston College of Law, where he was a Presidential Scholarship recipient.

Winn was drawn to Sacramento by family connections. During school, he and his brothers would come to Sacramento in the summers to work with their uncles Lou and Chris Bardis in their real estate development business. After law school, Winn began working in Lou Bardis’ law office while his brothers went into homebuilding, founding Winncrest Homes, now a subsidiary of Lennar Communities.

Winn worked as a deputy district attorney for Sacramento County from 1988 to 1990 and in the same position in Yolo County from 1990 to 1993. From 1993 to 2000, Winn served as a senior staff counsel for the Department of Corrections, a position in which he provided advice to the department and represented it in judicial and administrative hearings. Winn left Corrections in 2000 to join the Board of Prison Terms.

In his current assignment, Winn handles the arraignment of up to 60 defendants on a typical calendar, including many defendants who lack counsel. Although it may sound like the kind of assignment that is given to a rookie judge as an exercise in paying his dues, Winn said it has been a good assignment.

“It’s been good because it teaches you how to manage a calendar and to give people a fair shake and an opportunity to be heard,” Judge Winn said. “The other good thing about it is there are quite a few people who represent themselves and there are always issues to be careful of with those types of folks, to make sure they have had a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

Governor Davis appointed Winn to the Superior Court on the same day that he also appointed Judge Shelleyanne Chang and Judge Michael Kenny to the bench. Winn is the junior judge of the three because he was sworn in last, on January 24, 2003.