Retired SLO County judge is hearing Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s family wealth dispute

Chloe Jones
·2 min read
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The distribution of wealth left behind by the late husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is being decided by a retired San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge who was specially assigned to the case after San Francisco judges recused themselves.

Richard Blum died in February 2022, and his family has been fighting over the extreme wealth he left behind, the Los Angeles Times reported, including millions of dollars in assets and several valuable properties, including a multimillion-dollar beach house north of San Francisco and a mansion in the city worth more than $20 million.

Retired San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Roger T. Picquet heard arguments in the case on Monday.

He was appointed to the bench in San Luis Obispo County in 1993. He announced he would be continuing to sit on the bench in San Luis Obispo and other counties as an assigned judge upon his retirement in 2009.

According to the Judicial Council of California, assigned judges fill temporary judicial assignment orders to cover vacancies, illnesses, disqualifications, and calendar congestion in the courts, similar to a a substitute teacher program in the education system.

Picquet has ordered the parties to privately mediate the case by Dec. 11, the Los Angeles Times reported. He also ordered the trustees to provide to the Feinsteins at least a partial accounting of the estate and their work to date to settle it.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein departs a hearing May 11 on Capitol Hill. Feinstein is among multiple stakeholders at odds over the estate of her late husband, Richard Blum.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein departs a hearing May 11 on Capitol Hill. Feinstein is among multiple stakeholders at odds over the estate of her late husband, Richard Blum.

Judge in Feinstein family case served 16 years in SLO County

Picquet oversaw several high profile cases during his 16-year tenure in San Luis Obispo County.

In February 2008, he invalidated Measure J, the contentious ballot initiative approved by voters countywide in November 2006 to allow development of a shopping center on the Dalidio Ranch southwest of San Luis Obispo.

The state Court of Appeal later overturned Picquet’s decision after rancher-developer Ernie Dalidio appealed. The state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that decision.

Picquet also was involved in water rate litigation in Paso Robles, former Sheriff Pat Hedges’ taping of his subordinates and the double murder-suicide shooting in 2006 at Denny’s restaurant in Pismo Beach.

Court records show Picquet has helped out with misdemeanor cases and other civil litigation since his retirement in 2009. He was also involved in a February 2022 hearing for one of the defendants in the Black Lives Matter protest case, declining to dismiss a charge against Amman Asfaw.

Asfaw was charged with false imprisonment for “unlawfully detain(ing) motorists” during a July 2020 protest. The charge was later dropped when the California attorney general took over the case in February 2023.