Full Time Faculty

ROBERT MOLKO

Professor of Law, Director of Criminal Law Externships

714.459.1149
rmolko@wsulaw.edu

DEGREES

J.D., Southwestern School of Law
M.S.E.E., New York University, New York
B.S.E.E., City College of New York

COURSES

Criminal Externship Seminar
Trial Practice
Criminal Justice Ethics
Evidence
Criminal Procedure
Criminal Law

BIOGRAPHY

Professor Molko worked as an engineer on unmanned space flights operation at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before he entered the practice of law. He was part of the mission teams that sent the unmanned MVM71 past the planets Mercury, Venus and Mars, the unmanned Pioneer 10 to its close encounter of the planet Jupiter in 1974, and the Viking spacecrafts that eventually made the first safe landing on the planet Mars.

He attended Southwestern University School of Law where he was a member of the Law Review and received the degree of Juris Doctor cum laude. He then joined the Orange County District Attorney’s in 1975 and was a prosecutor in that office for 32 years. During that time, he tried more than 155 jury trials, including 35 homicides and a Death Penalty case. He was the Assistant District Attorney in charge of the Economic Crimes Unit for 8 years.

He retired from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and initially joined the Western State Adjunct Faculty starting in January 2007. He has been the Director of the Criminal Law Externship Program since then. He has also taught Advanced and California Evidence,Trial Practice and Criminal Ethics.

PUBLICATIONS

• The Drones Are Coming! Will the Fourth Amendment stop their threat to our privacy? 78 Brook. L. Rev. 1279 (2013).
• The Perils of Suspicionless DNA Extraction of Arrestees under California Proposition 69: Liability of the California Prosecutor for Fourth Amendment Violation? The Uncertainty Continues in 2010. 37 W.St.U.L.Rev. 183 (2010).