By Greg Mitchell

Manuel Ramirez is presiding justice of the Fourth District's Division Two, which covers Riverside, San Bernardino and the rest of the Inland Empire area.

Ramirez is another jurist who seems to prefer keeping things simple and straightforward. He publishes very few opinions -- only 13 in the two years ending in October 1998. In that time he went through a four-month and a six-month stretch without publishing any. Not much new law coming from his chambers.

A former sex crimes prosecutor, at least three of his published opinions have been in sex offense cases, including one of the most bizzare rulings of recent years. In People v. Keister, 46 Cal.App.4th 318, Ramirez upheld a man's conviction for attempted attempted lewd acts on underage children. The children, however, did not exist. The man had simply been told there were underage girls in a hotel room to whom he could provide "special education," and was arrested when he entered the hotel room. Making matters more complicated, the man died during the pendency of the appeal. But Ramirez issued the opinion anyway because the case posed "an issue of broad public interest that is likely to recur." Three months later, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the Fourth District ordering that the opinion be vacated because of the man's death.