Michael T. Sauer

In May 2007 Sauer sentenced socialite Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail for violating her probation. Following the sentencing, Sauer reportedly received a standing ovation from his church in Los Angeles. However, the judge stated that this incident did not occur, and was also surprised at the amount of publicity surrounding the jail sentence.

Appointed to Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1972 by Governor Ronald Reagan, Sauer was elevated to the Superior Court bench in 2000 when the two courts combined. While on the bench in May 1993, Sauer was responsible for removing the MCA World Headquarters shooting by John Brian Jarvis to California Superior Court. In 2003, he was moved from criminal court cases to misdemeanor arraignments — a posting heavy on traffic violations and DUIs.

Sauer grew up in the Windsor Square neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Loyola Law School and later worked for eight years for the city attorney's office. In 1971, as deputy city attorney in charge of appellate cases, he unsuccessfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Cohen v. California (arguing against famed first amendment attorney Melville B. Nimmer) — an obscenity case stemming from a defendant who appeared in a county courtroom wearing a jacket decrying the draft.

Michael Thomas Sauer (born 1937)(died 2021) is a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. He is best known for sentencing socialite Paris Hilton to 45 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation. He was previously a Deputy City Attorney for Los Angeles, California and unsuccessfully argued the famous Cohen v. California case before the United States Supreme Court.