John
D. Harris
Los Angeles Superior
Court judge
Harris, a court commissioner and judge for nearly 30 years, faces
a May 24 hearing on misconduct charges brought by the Commission
on Judicial Performance.
The CJP, in a formal notice made public Feb. 19, accused Harris
of seeking to establish personal relationships with sexual assault
victims, making inappropriately personal comments to jurors, attorneys,
and court staff, throwing a file at a deputy city attorney, and
lying during an investigation into his conduct.
The special masters who will conduct the hearing are Court of Appeal
Justice Eileen C. Moore of the Fourth District's Div. Three, San
Bernardino Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Morris, and Ventura Superior
Court Judge Henry J. Walsh.
The CJP alleges that after two felony sexual assault trials in 2000,
Harris met in chambers with the victims and sought to initiate personal
relationships. One of the victims was only 16 years old, the notice
of charges points out, and the Court of Appeal cited the meeting
in ordering the defendant resentenced by a different judge.
On eight occasions in 2002 and 2003, the CJP claims, the judge made
comments to or about female attorneys, court staff members, or jurors
that were inappropriately flirtatious or sexual. The comments included
invitations to have lunch, a remark that a staff member was "cute,"
and thanking a lawyer for not challenging an attractive female juror
because "[a] judge has to have something to look at during
trial."
The most recent incident, the CJP alleges, took place in October,
after the judge had already been notified that he was being investigated.
Harris remarked to a female security officer screening visitors
for weapons at the South Gate courthouse, "Let's go to chambers
so you can search me," the CJP's notice asserts.
The file-throwing incident, the CJP alleges, took place in October
2002 and involved Deputy City Attorney Chadd Kim. After the incident,
the judge "continued to be abrupt and impatient with Ms. Kim,"
and he later exhibited anger when Kim filed a peremptory challenge
preventing him from hearing another case, the commission claims.
Harris also recommended women to a male deputy city attorney for
dates and failed to disqualify himself or disclose their relationship
when the lawyer appeared before him, the CJP said.
The CJP said Harris lied when he stated, in his response to a preliminary
investigation letter sent to him in August, that he had never been
"counseled, criticized or reprimanded" concerning his
conduct by court officials.
In fact, the CJP alleges, Judge Carol Rehm Jr., then the Criminal
Courts assistant supervising judge, spoke with Harris in December
of 2002, advising him of concerns about his "interactions with
young, female attorneys."
Four months later, the notice relates, Harris met with Presiding
Judge Robert A. Dukes, Assistant Presiding Judge William McLaughlin,
then-Criminal Courts Supervising Judge Dan Oki, and Rehm to discuss
the complaints about his conduct again. At that time the judge was
told he would be transferred to South Gate, the CJP said.
Harris filed an answer denying the allegations March 3. He is represented
by Long Beach attorney Edward P. George Jr., who has said the allegations
are founded on misinterpretations of Harris' behavior.
Patrick
B. Murphy
Former Superior
Court judge
State Bar Court Judge Robert Talcott has recommended that Murphy,
who resigned from the bench while on the verge of removal in 2001,
be disbarred. Murphy did not petition for review of the recommendation
by the December deadline.
Talcott recommended in November that Murphy's right to practice
law be lifted due to the ex-jurist's "egregious" misconduct
in collecting a judicial paycheck for 120 weeks while on sick leave
between 1996 and 2001.
Murphy had asked to enter the State Bar Court's diversion program
for lawyers with mental health or substance abuse problems but failed
to appear at a hearing to determine his eligibility for that program
or for trial on the disciplinary charges. His default was entered
and as a result he was placed on involuntary inactive status Aug.
9.
He was also suspended Sept. 16 for failure to pay his bar dues.
Talcott's findings largely tracked those of the Commission on Judicial
Performance, which censured Murphy and barred him "from receiving
any assignment, appointment, or reference of work from any California
state court."
Talcott noted that Murphy was absent from Sept. 20, 1999, until
April 3, 2000; stopped working for good as of June 8, 2000; and
resigned on May 4, 2001. He chronicled Murphy's activities during
the time he was supposedly too sick to work: teaching one or two
night law classes a week, serving as an instructor at a Citizen's
Police Academy in Baldwin Park, completing pre-med physics and chemistry
courses at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles, and attending
classes at a school of medicine on the island of Dominica in the
West Indies from January to April of 2000.
Talcott rejected Murphy's claim that he was indeed ill, suffering
from various maladies including a "phobia" regarding judicial
service. The medical evidence did not support that contention, the
State Bar Court judge said.
Talcott also found that Murphy lied to Rolf Treu, then the presiding
judge of the Citrus court, about the state of his health.
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