COUNTYWIDE : Toddler’s Tackle Breaks Judge’s Leg

Ventura County Superior Court Judge James M. McNally is recuperating at his Ojai home after breaking his leg in a fall.

“I got tackled by my 2 1/2-year-old grandson,” McNally said Wednesday. He said the boy ran into him from behind while playing outside the judge’s home Nov. 10. “I tried to avoid falling on him and sat down on my own ankle,” he said.

McNally, 57, fractured the fibula, a long, thin outer bone of the lower leg. He said he will have to wear a cast at least until mid-December.

The judge has used crutches since contracting polio when he was 17.

But he said he is still getting used to walking with the additional weight of the cast.

McNally said he hopes to return to work Monday.

Cases on his calendar that cannot be postponed are being handled by other judges.