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Santa Barbara Judge Agrees to Severe Censure, Resignation
By Kimber Cooley, associate editor
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MICHAEL J. CARROZZO Superior Court judge |
Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Michael J. Carrozzo has agreed to accept severe public censure, resign from the bench, and never seek judicial office or assignment again, the Commission on Judicial Performance announced yesterday.
The decision and order states:
“Judge Carrozzo and his counsel…have entered into a stipulation with the examiners for the Commission on Judicial Performance…to resolve the pending formal proceedings involving Judge Carrozzo by imposition of a severe public censure; an irrevocable resignation from office, effective September 9, 2025; and an agreement that Judge Carrozzo will not seek or hold judicial office, accept a position or an assignment as a judicial officer, subordinate judicial officer, or judge pro tem with any court in the State of California, or accept a reference of work from any California state court, at any time after September 9, 2025.”
He agreed to take approved leave from the bench as of June 2.
Carrozzo, who served as the assistant presiding judge from 2017-18 and as presiding judge from 2019-20, is accused of, among other things, holding himself out as an attorney representing his then-secretary—who is now his wife—in a variety of legal disputes and otherwise misusing public office.
On multiple occasions, he sent proposed language to Sara Eklund, who was also known during that period by her married name Sara Romero, for her to use in an ongoing dispute with an insurance company over a traffic accident. The messages were styled as if they were written by Eklund, a judicial secretary for the court.
He eventually created letterhead identifying himself as “Michael J. Carrozzo Attorney at Law” and, in 2019, signed a letter addressed to an insurer indicating that he represented Eklund and that all future communication should be directed to him.
The commission also took issue with his response to a March 2023 preliminary investigation letter in which he suggested that any violation of Canon 4G of the Code of Judicial Ethics—prohibiting judges from practicing law—was unintentional. Saying he knew or should have known that those statements were false, the judicial disciplinary body concluded he had engaged in willful misconduct.
Other incidents of misusing his public office were cited in yesterday’s decision, including an attempt to secure future admission for his child with Eklund to an elite school by sending correspondence in 2020 from his official email account, including his title and the court seal below his signature.
Flirtatious Messages
Carrozzo also used his official account to exchange “hundreds of personal emails, unrelated to court business, that were unprofessional, overly casual, and sometimes flirtatious” with Eklund, including one message where he agreed that she was a “hot blondie.”
In addition to planning social outings, the account was used to offer Eklund special favors. In yesterday’s decision, the commission said:
“Judge Carrozzo’s email exchanges with Ms. Eklund reflect that he invited Ms. Eklund to be a guest instructor on international…law at the law school where he taught (with compensation of $200); he invited Ms. Eklund to go with him to a meeting with the Santa Barbara Police Chief, because he believed the Chief would be a ‘good contact’ for Ms. Eklund; he forwarded Ms. Eklund a job announcement that Santa Barbara District Attorney Joyce Dudley had emailed him, with a ‘winking’ symbol and instructions to ‘pass this along to your friend’;… and he provided Ms. Eklund with Santa Barbara Police Chief Lori Luhnow’s personal email address.”
The correspondence also reveals that he consulted with Eklund on the selection and evaluation of assigned judges, even commenting on the “power” she held over the judicial officers. The two also sent disparaging messages about court staff and attorneys.
Eklund divorced her then-husband in 2018 and Carrozzo filed for marital dissolution about a week later. They had a baby together in July 2020 and were married in the summer of 2021.
Carrozzo was appointed to the bench in 2014 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Before his appointment, he was commissioned in the U.S. Army as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps and served as a Santa Barbara deputy district attorney.
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