Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Only in Orange County: Judge Jughead & the usual pious suspects

OC judge who fixed traffic tickets ordered to resign (LA Times)

Don't worry. I'll take care of it.
     A longtime Orange County judge who waived traffic fines for friends and family has been ordered to step down from his office.
     A state oversight panel found nine occasions dating back to 2003 in which Richard W. Stanford Jr. diverted traffic cases to his court in order to help people he knew avoid fines.
     The pattern “created both the appearance and the reality of a two-track system of justice — one for his friends and family and another for all others,” the 11-member Commission on Judicial Performance wrote in its decision Tuesday.
     “Removal is necessary to restore public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and honor the commission’s mandate to ensure the even-handed administration of justice,” the ruling stated.
. . .
     The beneficiaries of his actions included his son-in-law, friends, a juror in his court and the pastor at his church....

Orange County's fix-it judge – and his pastor (LA Times; editorial)

Really? I don't get to do that?
     It's bad enough that an Orange County judge was fixing tickets for friends and family – he's been ordered to resign – but perhaps the most interesting part of the whole story is that one of the beneficiaries of his misdeeds was his pastor.
     According to a state panel, Richard W. Stanford Jr. diverted at least nine traffic cases to his court in order to help people he knew avoid fines. Stanford fully deserves to lose his job, and authorities also should be looking into filing charges. But now that everyone at his church will know about this, it's also hard not to wonder whether they will view their spiritual leader as someone who can lead them away from temptation -- or model taking responsibility for one's actions.
     But then, the flock could decide this is the perfect chance to show that it knows how to forgive.

Rogues in Robes (Orange Coast Magazine)

     …But when you compare the disciplinary record of all of the county’s Superior Court judges with the records of judges elsewhere, a startling reality emerges: Orange County has the second-highest discipline rate for judicial misconduct in Southern California—everything from run-of-the-mill indiscretion to drunken driving to possession of child porn. (And four of those judges, none of whom are still in office, were repeat offenders.) Orange County’s rate is about twice those of neighboring Los Angeles and San Diego counties. In these parts, only Riverside County ranks higher….

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No surprises here except perhaps all the bozos defending them.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...