By KENNETH OFGANG
Staff Writer

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patrick B. Murphy, facing possible removal from the bench by the Commission on Judicial Performance, has resigned from the court.

"Due to serious health problems, I have been unable to perform my judicial duties for a protracted period of time," Murphy said in a letter to Gov. Gray Davis, dated May 4. "After consultation with my physicians…it is evident that my impaired health precludes me from returning to the Bench. I therefore respectfully tender my resignation, effectively immediately."

A copy of the letter was obtained yesterday by the MetNews.

Murphy claimed in the letter that he had sent the governor a previous letter of resignation in March, but had been told that a resignation had to be sent by certified mail.

Presiding Judge James Bascue said he received a copy of the May 4 letter on Tuesday, but was unaware of any earlier attempt by Murphy to resign.

Bascue declined to comment further on the jurist’s departure. But Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu, who as Murphy’s then-presiding judge at the Citrus Municipal Court set the discipline process in motion by reporting his absences to the CJP as required by law, said he was glad that "this unfortunate chapter in the history of our court is now closed."

Special Masters

A panel of special masters found last month that Murphy, a judge since 1993, abandoned his duties and lied about being too sick to work. Murphy last worked regularly in mid-1998 and hasn’t taken the bench at all since June of last year.

The masters rejected Murphy’s claim that a "phobia" of the court left him unfit to resume his duties on the bench but capable of approving search warrants, teaching law classes, taking exams, exploring new careers and beginning medical school in the Caribbean.

The panel said the judge lacked credibility and said the court’s reputation suffered as a result of the numerous "Murphy sightings"—instances in which Murphy was seen, apparently healthy, in public during times he claimed to be too ill to work.

The masters also noted that Murphy entered a medical school on the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, with plans to become a physician, at a time when he was contemplating filing for disability retirement.

Medical evidence offered by Murphy, who is a registered nurse, to show that he was too sick to function as a judge was thin and "internally inconsistent," the panel—Court of Appeal Justices Art McKinster and Betty Richli of the Fourth District and Carol Corrigan of the First District—said.

Under Proposition 190, the state constitutional amendment governing judicial discipline, Murphy’s resignation does not end the case against him. He can still be censured by the commission and barred from receiving assigned judicial work, based on the charges.

The resignation does, however, end a judicial career that was remarkably controversial, considering its brevity.

By resigning from the bench, Murphy again becomes a member of the State Bar of California. But he could face discipline based on conduct that occurred while he was on the bench, State Bar Acting Chief Trial Counsel Fran Bassios told the MetNews.

Bassios, who emphasized that he was unfamiliar with the situation and was speaking hypothetically, said the State Bar could take action against a former judge who had engaged in conduct involving moral turpitude, including misconduct not charged by the commission.

The now ex-judge was sued, and was investigated by state and federal authorities, in 1998 in connection with possible fraud and/or money laundering concerning the disappearance of about $1.8 million belonging to a friend of Murphy, Dr. George Taus. Those investigations never have been formally closed, although the lawsuits have been settled.

Money Transfer

Murphy was accused of transferring the money to several other of the defendants in the two lawsuits spawned by the events. It was stipulated that two lawyers, a paralegal, and three other friends or acquaintances of Murphy received portions of the funds, but the parties vigorously disputed responsibility, with two of them claiming they acted at Murphy’s direction, while Murphy said they were lying and that he was trying to help Taus get his money back.

Part of the money to settle the case ostensibly came from Murphy’s sister, who was one of the defendants. But lawyers for other parties said they believed the money actually came from Murphy.

While the CJP’s charges were limited to Murphy missing work, the lawsuits figured indirectly in the discipline proceeding. The masters found that Murphy was in depositions or meetings related to the suits on days he claimed to be too ill to work.

While most of the county’s more than 400 trial judges came to office by way of appointment or by winning open seats in elections, Murphy is one of a small handful who ousted sitting judges in order to obtain office. He defeated then-Citrus Municipal Court Judge Abraham Khan in 1992.

Khan, after four years of service, found himself defeated by the man he described as a "mystery candidate," someone he had never met.

Other lawyers in the area served by the court said they hadn’t heard of Murphy, who couldn’t be reached at the address he gave the State Bar and whose practice, he acknowledged, consisted primarily of representing an Anaheim medical group involved in treating workers’ compensation and personal injury claimants.

Murphy, who was teaching part-time at Glendale University College of Law, ran with the ballot designation "Law Professor" and submitted a statement for the official ballot pamphlet in which he repeatedly referred to himself as "Professor Murphy."

He attacked Khan as someone who, among other things, "favored amnesty for lawbreakers." Pressed for an explanation, he said he was opposed to the way a state program—in which traffic violators were given a window of opportunity to pay accrued fines without late penalties—was administered.

A courthouse notice explaining the program had Khan’s name on it because Khan was the presiding judge of the court.

Substantially outspent, Murphy claimed he won because of a massive volunteer effort. Observers disputed that, suggesting that most voters had no idea who the candidates were but opted for the "All-American name" of Pat Murphy, as he was listed, over the incumbent, who ran under his full name of Abraham Aponte Khan.

Khan later returned to judicial office by a circuitous route, being appointed as a municipal court commissioner, then running unopposed for the Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Murphy, meanwhile, set his sights on a Superior Court seat, running for an open slot in 1996.

With his "professor" designation and spots on a number of slate mailers, Murphy was favored in some quarters to win, possibly without a runoff. And he did finish first in the primary, with then-Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Karl Jaeger narrowly beating out colleague Stephen Marcus for second.

The runoff wasn’t the usual sedate judicial contest. As he had against Khan, Murphy went on the attack, questioning Jaeger’s competence and associating him with "weak liberal judges" who hand out light sentences.

Jaeger, with help from the dean of judicial campaign consultants, Joe Cerrell, fought back, winning every newspaper endorsement in the contest as well as the backing of numerous sitting and retired judges. In a break with tradition, he even got the endorsement of the Superior Court’s then presiding judge, Robert Parkin.

Not only did Murphy lose, but the campaign provoked new scrutiny of the "mystery candidate," including the discovery that he had remained counsel of record in a criminal case after taking the Citrus bench three years earlier and may have abandoned the client’s appeal.

That disclosure resulted in private discipline by the CJP.