California Commission On Judicial Performance

A Ventura County judge who ordered citizens locked into his courtroom and searched in 1990 suffered a stinging slap Friday from the California Commission on Judicial Performance, which said he abused his authority. The commission reported that Municipal Judge Steven Hintz violated the citizens' constitutional rights and violated judicial guidelines in two other 1990 cases.

A former Los Angeles County Superior Court family law commissioner was publicly censured Wednesday and barred from taking on future judicial assignments for failing to decide a number of cases within the time required by law. According to the state Commission on Judicial Performance, which investigates misconduct by judges, one litigant complained to court officials that commissioner Ann Dobbs delayed ruling on a case for nearly five years.

Lawyers for a judge accused of misconduct for alleged dependence on prescription drugs have argued that proceedings against her violate her civil rights because she used the medications to treat a postpartum illness. Presiding Antelope Municipal Judge Pamela Rogers said that if she was dependent on prescription drugs it would be a "direct result" of her medical condition--severe migraines--and its treatment.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Judge Robert Spitzer, the hopelessly messy jurist who faces possible removal from the bench over allegations that he let cases languish and improperly contacted witnesses, told a skeptical state judicial panel Wednesday that he should be censured but allowed to keep his job. In a hearing before the state's Commission on Judicial Performance, the Riverside County Superior Court judge was accused of repeatedly lying and undermining public trust in the judiciary.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance announced Wednesday that it is investigating a Riverside County judge accused of leaving court during session to go jogging and allowing clerks to run his courtroom in the absences. The panel is pursuing charges that Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Sheldon "frequently failed to take the bench," or left court during portions of his misdemeanor pretrial calendar.

The American Bar Assn., the nation's largest lawyers organization, urged the California Commission on Judicial Performance on Thursday to withdraw charges of "willful misconduct" that it filed this month against a veteran state appeals court judge.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance, which handles misconduct complaints against judges, operates in virtual secrecy. All its hearings are held behind closed doors, and in the 27 years of its existence, only 30 disciplinary recommendations have been made public. A proposed constitutional amendment that would bring what its sponsor calls "a modicum of sunlight" to the San Francisco-based state agency will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as Proposition 92.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance has decided to dismiss controversial charges against state appeals court Judge J. Anthony Kline, according to sources close to the commission. Last July, the commission announced that it had launched disciplinary proceedings against Kline because of a dissent he had written.

In a highly unusual move likely to generate controversy, the California Commission on Judicial Performance has accused a veteran state appeals court judge of "willful misconduct" in connection with a dissenting opinion he wrote last year. Justice J. Anthony Kline stated in the dissent that "as a matter of conscience" he could not adhere to a state Supreme Court precedent. The precedent in question was "destructive of judicial institutions," he wrote.

The presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court last year went to the Whittier police station in the middle of the night and hastily scribbled an order to release his son, a well-known jockey who had been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, court records show.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance publicly admonished Riverside County Superior Court Judge Paul E. Zellerbach on Tuesday for refusing to return from an Angels playoff game to handle a verdict in a murder trial and turning down the attorneys' request to allow another judge to receive the jury's verdict. When Zellerbach attended the Oct.

A former Orange County Superior Court judge who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography was barred Thursday from receiving work from state courts. The action against Ronald C. Kline, 65, of Irvine is the most serious punishment the state Commission on Judicial Performance can give a former judge. If the commission had not taken action, Kline would have been eligible to sit in for judges on vacation or act as a referee handling complex litigation issues.

A state agency began formal proceedings Wednesday to determine whether to force Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rodney E. Nelson off the bench because of a degenerative brain disease that the panel claims "seriously interferes" with his performance. The state Commission on Judicial Performance, which has the sole authority to involuntarily retire a judge, did not detail the disease or its alleged consequences. But attorney Clarke Holland of Emeryville, Calif.

A special examiner has cleared the director of California's judicial watchdog agency of any wrongdoing during the agency's disciplinary investigation of a Sonoma County judge. However, the examiner, retired federal judge Charles A. Legge, said in a 23-page report to the Commission on Judicial Performance that director Victoria Henley's work on the case "does present the appearance of impropriety."

In a case of you can't resign, you're fired, a state judicial commission announced Thursday that it had removed Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patrick B. Murphy from the bench for willful misconduct, even though Murphy tendered his resignation. The state Commission on Judicial Performance, which reached its decision during a closed meeting Wednesday, charged Murphy with malingering, excessive absenteeism and attending a Caribbean medical school while on the judicial payroll.

A former Orange County Superior Court judge accused of releasing suspects at the request of a longtime friend has been cleared of most misconduct charges by a panel of the state Commission on Judicial Performance. The three-judge panel, in a report released Thursday, said Luis A. Cardenas did not show favoritism by releasing or reducing the bail of more than 20 clients of criminal defense attorney Leonard Basinger.

The state Judicial Performance Commission is considering asking for wider authority to discipline errant judges and for an expansion that would place non-judges in the majority for the first time in its 26-year history. The nine-member watchdog commission, at the urging of state legislators, is reviewing a far-ranging list of proposed changes in its procedures. Some proposals have drawn strong opposition from the California Judges Assn.

When Robert H. Furey Jr. ran for Los Angeles municipal judge two years ago, the voters lacked an important piece of information about him. Furey, a Catalina Justice Court judge, had been under investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Performance for 22 months for misconduct, including the repeated jailing of a woman who had filed a complaint about him. Furey lost the election, and eight days later the commission recommended to the state Supreme Court that he be removed from the bench.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance has began formal proceedings against a Superior Court judge for his absence from his West Covina courtroom. Judge Patrick B. Murphy, 44, has not taken the bench at the Citrus Court since September, missed more than 157 days of work in 1999 on sick leave and has not indicated that he will return, commission officials said. A special judge will decide whether Murphy's absence amounts to a violation of the canons of judicial ethics.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance publicly scolded Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Nancy Brown for banning a court administrator from her courtroom, but cleared her of other charges of impropriety--including performing a wedding ceremony for convicted parent killer Lyle Menendez.