Lance Ito

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Lance Allan Ito (born August 2, 1950 in Los Angeles, California) is a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who hears long cause and complex felony criminal cases at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. He is a resident of Pasadena and attended John Marshall High School.

In 1992, he presided over Charles H. Keating Jr.'s trial in the Savings and Loan scandal; Keating's 10-year sentence was later overturned on appeal because Ito had neglected to instruct the jury to determine whether Keating intended to defraud investors. It was the prosecution's position Keating was liable as a matter of strict liability.

Ito became familiar to American television viewers when he presided over the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson at which Simpson was acquitted.

Some judges disliked Ito's handling of the Simpson case because they felt he allowed his courtroom to be turned into part of the media circus; however, Ito and others present in the courtroom dispute this characterization, challenging critics to identify a proceeding that was not under control. Because the jury was sequestered, an attorney gag order would not have been supported by any appellate court, leading to often chaotic scenes outside the courthouse. Ito was the subject of parody with comedian Jay Leno's Dancing Itos a regular part of The Tonight Show during the Simpson trial and has remained regular fodder for crossword puzzles.

He earned his Bachelors Degree with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972, and his J.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall in 1975. In 1981, he married Margaret Ann York, at one time the highest ranking woman in the Los Angeles Police Department. York is currently Chief of the Los Angeles County Police, the third largest police agency in Los Angeles County with more than 500 sworn officers.

Ito continues to hold office as a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge. He is regarded as an expert in the area of the use of spoken language interpreters in courtroom proceedings and regularly teaches at the Judicial College of California. He refuses to give interviews regarding the Simpson trial.