In the 60 days leading up to the fundraiser, Jones, as Swarts' lawyer and a Saitta defender against the accusations of bias, appeared before her at least four times and received favorable rulings, which included her approval of a hotly contested $4-million "good faith settlement" sought by Jones' and James' clients against Wedbush Morgan Securities, based in Los Angeles.
During the fundraiser, Saitta personally greeted about two dozen contributors. Court and campaign records as well as interviews show that at least 18 of the contributors were lawyers with one or more cases pending before her at the time.
The event collected about $20,000 on her behalf.
At election time, she ran unopposed.
Jones and James were asked in separate telephone interviews why they held the fundraiser.
"I think it is incumbent upon attorneys to support good candidates for the bench and retain qualified judges," James said. He added, "That's all I have to say."
Jones said, "I have nothing to say to you." He hung up.
In her interview, Saitta said Jones "asked if he could do the party." Attorneys attended from both sides of the Medical Device Alliance case, she said. "As a candidate, you just show up. You meet with the people. You shake their hands. There's a bowl for the checks."
She said her campaigns do not accept cash. If anyone tries to hand her a check personally, she said, an aide standing beside her takes it instead. "I don't want anything to do with the money."
Saitta and Swarts served as judge and receiver in the case until Medical Device Alliance was sold in January 2004 for $60 million and all claims were settled, court records show.
When Swarts and his lawyers originally persuaded Saitta to name him the receiver, they dismissed predictions that the "costs of Mr. Swarts' appointment would be in excess of $1 million." Such claims, they said, were "hyper-alarmist arguments" and were "grossly over-exaggerated."
In fact, the cost of Swarts' receivership topped $1 million within its first three years, court records show.
Case Study
Donald Mosley
Donald Mosley, the judge who turned over $10,000 of his unspent campaign money to his girlfriend, testified in 1999, nine years after he did it, that it was "the only cash I had available at the time."
He said he did not seek any legal opinions about the legality of what he did.
