Yep, I really asked that question

Sometime after I started in the photo department, around 1982 or so, a Bakersfield judge found himself in the news for doing something that judges aren’t supposed to do. I don’t even remember what is was or who he was. But the newspaper needed a picture of him. So I went down to the courthouse parking lot at the end of the work day and was waiting for him to come out of the building and head toward his car, where I would snap his photo. While I was waiting, a woman came out of the building and approached me. She was smiling and seemed amused. “I know what you’re here for,” she said. “He’s still in the building. He’ll be out in a little bit.” I asked her, “Do you work in the courthouse?” She said “yes.” So I followed up. “Oh, whose clerk are you?” And that’s how I met Sharon Mettler. Kern County Judge Sharon Mettler.