Leo A. Deegan; Chowchilla Judge

Leo A. Deegan, 78, the retired Riverside Superior Court judge who presided over the 1977 Chowchilla kidnaping trial. Deegan convicted three men and sentenced them to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the July, 1976, hijacking of a school bus carrying 26 children and the driver. The three buried their victims in a specially outfitted truck in a quarry in Alameda County, but some youngsters dug their way out and contacted authorities. Deegan, who served as Riverside city attorney and Riverside County deputy and assistant district attorney, and was the county’s first public defender, was a Superior Court judge from 1959 to 1975. On March 17 in Grass Valley, Calif., of cancer.