Judge Colleen Toy White’s Legal Legacy

The Honorable Colleen Toy White was presented with the Colleges of Law’s inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award at the 50th-anniversary gala. 

Flashback 25 years ago to 1994. Colleen Toy White, the assistant district attorney, was considering her next move: running for the Ventura County Superior Court. Her reputation from nearly 20 years at the district attorney’s office preceded her in the election, all chronicled in one Los Angeles Times article from February of that year, “Would-Be Judges Decide Not to Toy With White”:

“You’d have to be an absolute lunatic to run against Toy White,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy, a Democrat. “You’d have a better shot at running against Mother Teresa in this county than Toy White.” White, a longtime advocate of victims’ rights and Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury’s right-hand prosecutor, appears to have scared away all other comers for the seat being vacated by Judge Edwin M. Osborne.

Judge Colleen Toy White, class of 1977 and former chair of The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law Board of Trustees, exemplifies everything that COL represents: opportunity, community, and justice. Her advocacy for victims’ rights started at an early age. She grew up in Wetumka, Oklahoma, a town so small that it lacked a proper police car, social services and social workers, and even a stoplight. Her father worked as a constable, her mom a nurse—and they filled in the gaps that existed in town.

“We had a tornado one time. These people lost their house, the mother was killed, and there was a three-year-old girl left behind,” Judge White recalls. “My dad brought that little girl to our house and we took care of her until we found some family. Those are strong messages that aren’t contrived. Nobody even knew that except our family.”

As the town’s constable for years, her father was responsible for taking prisoners to the county seat. Judge White would go along with him in the family car.

“My dad sat in the backseat with the prisoner and I drove, taking them from the city of Wetumka to the county seat. When my dad turned them in, he always shook their hand and gave them a dollar so they could buy a candy bar or a pack of cigarettes. He always was very encouraging, he’d say, ‘You take care, I don’t want to see you back here again.’ That sticks with you as a 15-year-old. He always saw the good side of everybody.”

Yet her legal work didn’t begin right away. Married at 16 and a mother at 18, Judge White had not completed high school by the time she moved to California at the age of 22. In her new home, she went to adult education, finished her degree, and then enrolled at Ventura Community College.

She didn’t stop there. While Judge White cites her decision to go to law school as a purely practical one—to provide for her two children in the midst of an impending divorce and inspired by her sister’s own legal case—her response hints at an ulterior motive.

“I was at heart a do-gooder. I wanted to be able to do something that would make a difference,” she says. “There’s nothing better than law school to be able to do that.”

The way that Judge White describes COL and its necessity to the community harkens back to her own beginnings in California: a student with life experiences, able to empathize with people based on the trials and tribulations she herself faced.

“Let’s assume that you get out of school and go into family law. A lot of those students have had divorces, have had issues in their lives,” she says. “They have had children, they’ve had financial problems, and that gives them an excellent understanding of people that you only get through living life. When you have some experience, you begin to understand the nuances and the gray areas and you need that when you’re hiring a public defender or deputy district attorney.”

Graduating from COL in 1977, Judge White’s personal experience would come to help her in her first job as a law clerk at the district attorney’s office. After a year of working as a law clerk and passing the bar, she got accepted as a deputy district attorney.

“I really loved working in the district attorney’s office. I was there until I went on the bench and I couldn’t have asked for a better career,” Judge White says. “It was the best opportunity to expand my horizons, to do what I wanted to do, and to affect real change.”

One of those first changes came with the implementation of the domestic violence court, which started in the 1980s.

“When we first started the domestic violence court, a lot of the judges didn’t believe it was necessary—they thought it was a waste of time. But because of the devotion of a few judges on our court, it happened. It’s one of my proudest accomplishments: by being a team we were able to make some real, significant, and innovative changes.”

After nearly 20 years at the office, and eventually serving as assistant chief district attorney, Judge White ran for the bench. She ended up winning by a significant amount of votes in 1994, and began serving on the Ventura County Superior Court, where she would stay for 23 years.

Judge White began her judicial assignment in the family law department and became the supervising family law judge. All of her initiatives were about helping unsupported populations get access by making the courts more accessible.

“On the family level, we were able to establish the Self-Help Center, where people would get free information on divorce, child custody, and restraining orders,” Judge White explains. “In addition, we were able to get a judge on duty 24/7, in order to issue restraining orders for victims of domestic violence. That’s where you get to save lives in law. I think most people don’t even think about a lot of the things we do, or think, ‘It’s the right thing to do, of course, we have restraining orders available 24/7.’ But without the legal infrastructure, that would have never happened.”

In 1997, she became the dependency court judge and established the dependency drug court for mothers of newborns exposed to alcohol and drugs. Judge White later led the Superior Court as assistant presiding judge in 2005 and 2006, before becoming the presiding judge in 2007 through 2008. Prior to her retirement, Judge White was assigned to the criminal trials division, where she presided over the veterans court, domestic violence court, elder abuse court, mental health court, and community intervention court—many of which she had a hand in establishing.

For the veterans court specifically, which is now named in her honor, Judge White played an integral role in ensuring that veterans received the treatment they needed. To establish it, Judge White collaborated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ventura County Public Defender’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, and probation agency.

“Ventura County is small enough that if I wanted to do something I was able to pick up the phone and call someone to make it happen,” Judge White says. “The community was there time and time again, ready to help make whatever it was a reality. You just have a group of people in Ventura County who are highly motivated to do the right thing. I was lucky to be a part of that.”

While she retired in 2017, Judge White remains a pillar in the community. Her retirement made news of its own, but unlike her election in 1994, it inspired no headlines about the vacant seat she leaves behind. It’s a testament to the legacy she has cultivated.

Yet Judge White remains as humble as ever, crediting it all to her adopted community.

“Not everybody has the opportunity to grow up and make a difference in their own community,” Judge White says. “I had the most cooperative group of people working with me in the criminal justice community. They would rise to the occasion anytime we asked, and they still do.”

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