WOODLAND, Calif. — The impending retirement of Yolo County Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio has brought out a contest between two experienced lawyers whose careers reflect different corners of the legal system.
The race for Superior Court Judge, Office No. 1, has drawn two announced candidates: Diane M. Ortiz, a deputy district attorney who has prosecuted cases in Yolo County for 15 years, and Ryan Davis, a court commissioner in neighboring Sacramento County with a background in public defense, appellate litigation and legal education.
The seat comes open as Judge Beronio, one of the county’s female jurists, is expected to retire, creating the first opportunity in years for voters to choose a successor rather than see a gubernatorial appointment fill the role. In Yolo County, as in much of California, most judges reach the bench by appointment. Contested elections are less common.
For Ortiz, the race is as much about presence as it is about policy. A career prosecutor who has worked cases ranging from misdemeanors to murder, she describes her candidacy as the culmination of a long arc that began in public service and moved steadily toward the courtroom.
“I’ve been with the Yolo County District Attorney’s office since… December, 2010,” Ortiz said in a recent interview .
Raised throughout California — in Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Redding — Ortiz attended Chico State and entered the California Highway Patrol Academy before a training injury forced her to reconsider her plans. She later worked for the Highway Patrol in civilian roles, including legislative analysis, before enrolling in Lincoln Law School’s evening program while working full time.
Looking back, she describes the decision to attend law school less as ambition than as calling.
“My heart of service, like my desire to protect and help people, that desire came out and I decided I want something more. I want to be on the front lines,” she said .
After graduating and passing the bar, she began her prosecutorial career in Shasta County and then moved to Yolo County in 2010. Over the next decade and a half, she rotated through units handling domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide cases and, for the past five years, child abduction matters.
Ortiz emphasizes that much of her identity as a prosecutor has been shaped outside the courtroom.
“In addition to being a prosecutor and getting into court and being a line deputy, I’ve taken on programs, doing community outreach,” she said .
She speaks frequently to high school and college students and has worked on initiatives aimed at increasing diversity in prosecutor offices.
She was “the first Latina deputy DA in Shasta County and the first Latina deputy DA in Yolo County,” a distinction she mentions not as a personal triumph, she said, but as a signal to young people who may not see themselves reflected in the justice system.
When asked whether women and people of color remain underrepresented in the courts, Ortiz did not hesitate.
“I do. I do. I do,” she said.
“If we’re looking for fairness, we need diversity,” she added .
Her message is partly biographical. The daughter of parents with roots in Mexico and Northern California farm communities, Ortiz speaks openly about growing up in households shaped by language barriers and cultural transitions.
In campaign conversations, she links that background to her approach on the bench: to listen carefully, to understand context and to apply the law without losing sight of human complexity.
For all the symbolic resonance of her candidacy, Ortiz is quick to ground her argument in practical experience.
She points to her familiarity with Yolo County’s diversion courts, addiction intervention programs and mental health services — areas that have expanded significantly over the course of her tenure.
Asked directly whether she could be fair to people accused of crimes, Ortiz said, “Absolutely.”
She added, “And that fairness isn’t just going to come when I’m on the bench. We have an ethical obligation as DAs when a case is presented to us to dismiss that case. If we don’t have enough evidence in front of us, or if we’re presented with new evidence as a charging deputy, I’ve dismissed plenty of cases when I feel like I don’t think we can meet our burden.”
Over the years, Ortiz says, she has seen the court system shift.
“I think the amount of programs to assist the accused has just grown immensely,” she said .
Fifteen years ago, she said, the focus was more purely penal; today, she believes judges and attorneys are more likely to look for the root causes of criminal behavior and to consider diversion when appropriate.
On bail — an issue reshaped by appellate decisions that require courts to consider a defendant’s ability to pay and nonmonetary alternatives — Ortiz framed her answer around adherence to precedent.
“Luckily as judges, we are bound by specific laws and case law like Humphrey and other cases that have come since then,” she said .
Judges, she added, must “follow the law and remove any political insights they have before they become a judge. And remove any bias and be impartial.”
Across the race, Ryan Davis presents a markedly different résumé. Now serving as a court commissioner in Sacramento County, Davis has presided over family law matters involving custody, divorce, support and domestic violence.
Before taking the bench as a commissioner, he spent years as a public defender representing indigent clients in county, state and federal courts, and later worked as a deputy attorney general.
In announcing his candidacy, Davis said he is motivated by a desire to serve his home community.
“I’m running for judge because I want to serve the community I’ve called home for more than 40 years,” Davis said in a release in January. “Throughout my career—as both a lawyer and a judicial officer—I’ve been dedicated to the fair administration of justice. I want to bring that commitment home and help ensure that Yolo County’s courts remain worthy of the public’s trust.”
His supporters describe him as methodical, even-tempered and deeply versed in courtroom management.
In Sacramento, commissioners routinely handle heavy calendars, issue orders in contested family disputes and manage emotionally charged hearings. Davis also has taught at the University of California’s law schools in Berkeley and Davis and serves on advisory bodies tied to the state’s Judicial Council.
If Ortiz’s candidacy foregrounds prosecution and outreach, Davis’s highlights judicial experience and defense work. He has spoken about the importance of treating every person who comes before the court with dignity, regardless of circumstance.
For voters, the race offers a rare choice in a system that often leaves little room for electoral decision-making. Judicial elections in California are nonpartisan, and candidates are limited in what they can promise about future rulings. Campaigns tend to focus on temperament, experience and biography rather than on sharply defined platforms.
When ballots near, Yolo County residents will weigh not just résumés but visions of what the next chapter of their Superior Court should look like.
Ortiz calls her candidacy “heart of service.” Davis frames his around stewardship and trust. In the quiet halls of the Woodland courthouse, where most decisions unfold beyond public spotlight, that choice will soon rest with voters — an uncommon moment of public input into the shape of local justice.
For Diane Ortiz, she said her decision to run ultimately came down to timing and a sense that her experience had prepared her for a different kind of service.
“It’s not based on ambition or me wanting to be a judge. It’s not ambition. It’s just that heart of service,” she said .
She described the role of a judge as one requiring not only knowledge of the law but perspective drawn from years in the courtroom and in the community.
Looking ahead, Ortiz said that, if elected, she would carry forward the lessons she has learned as a prosecutor while setting aside the advocacy role she has long held.
“Luckily as judges, we are bound by specific laws and case law like Humphrey and other cases that have come since then,” she said. Judges, she added, must “follow the law and remove any political insights they have before they became judge. And remove any bias and be impartial.”
Ortiz said her years in Yolo County courtrooms have given her a grounded understanding of the human dimensions of criminal cases.
“I know the anxieties and the needs of the victims in this county, the anxiety and the needs of the accused in this county, because for 15 years I’ve come across the general needs in this county,” she said .
She said that familiarity — with the people, the programs and the pressures on both sides of the courtroom — is what she believes she would bring to the bench.
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