In a small community, disqualifying judges can be personal, political or valid reasons

 

I have covered Humboldt Superior Court for 12 years. I have lived in Humboldt County for 21 years. When I see 170.6 disqualifications by certain attorneys, whether it is prosecutors, defense attorneys or private attorneys; who never disqualify certain judges but have an issue with certain judges; it takes a while to figure out whether it is personal, political or for valid reasons. 

It is too early to tell in the lawsuit filed by Michael Luna against Fortuna High School District why Humboldt Superior Court Judge April Van Dyke was disqualified by Mr. Nick Kloeppel who is the lawyer for Fortuna Union High and Carlton Floyd attorney for Michael Luna who disqualified Judge Timothy Canning. Since the case was filed on 10/8/25, not much has happened except disqualifications and a hearing on a petition on the court calendar on 11/14/25 which was continued to 12/5 by Judge Lawrence Killoran who just received file that morning.

This case is very low on my list of priorities and just from the initial documents filed and failed to get me interested at this point. Anyone can file a lawsuit. What is newsworthy is that these two attorneys whose names frequently appear in many cases involving the government chose to disqualify these two particular judges?

I have included court documents.