How hard can it be, to be a bad judge?

It's not just easy, you can even be honored by Chief Justice Ronald George.

LA Judge Aviva Bobb received the Benjamin Arana "Access to Justice" Award After denying eleven year old Jeanene Bonner access to her court room.

That's right. Bobb received an award for "access" after refusing to allow access to her courtroom. At the suggestion of her mother, Jeanene wrote Judge Bobb a letter telling her how afraid she was of her father and how much didn't want to go with him.

The letter was ignored.

After her father killed Jeanene and himself, the courtspokesperson said the letter seemed contrived. Yes, the court personnel blamed the now murdered child for not writing a better letter.

What happened to Judge Bobb?

After Bobb was honored by Chief Justice Ronald George (which the blue-ribbon panel responsible for her nomination did not know, and Judy Johnson, Director of the State Bar hotly stated she wouldn't tell them of the Bonner case, either), Bobb moved to Probate court.

Shortly after, a case Bobb grossly mishandled was featured in the LA Times investigative piece.

Can another award be far behind?

Do the math.

Since 1960, with complaints about judges now totaling nearly a thousand per year, but only Sixteen judges have been removed from the State of California.

Because the Commission on Judicial Performance, seldom performs, LA County, by necessity, instituted a separate body, to investigate, LA County Judges.

Unfortunately, it was the non performance of the Commission on Judicial Performance, specifically the Commission's private "reprimand" of two San Diego judges, now both, convicted felons to highlight public awareness to a body that will not act to protect the public from felons posing as judges.

What began as a voter referendum forty years ago, has outlived its usefulness.

Lack of judicial accountability in California is its own scandal, separate from the child abuse and gender bias perpetuated by judges running amok within the system.

The budget for the Commission on Judicial Performance, is $3,704,000, distributed as follows.

16 attorneys or counsel, and 10 support staff
Total salaries & wages plus benefits paid $2,629,000
Total support/operating costs $1,075,000
Total Budget $3,704,000

To read how the commission managed to disicipline the staggering total of six judges, for given the number and range of seriousnous of the complaints made,click on,

"Wrist slaps."

A separate issue remains the report itself.

Two hundred and seventy-five complaints involved the same judges. However, only the Commission is aware of judges who received more than one complaint.

With thirty-five percent of the budget geared to Not opening an investigation, resulted in 835 immediate, "case closed."

It gets worse.

Lesser court officials, "Commissioners" and Referees (workers compensationmatters) prompted 133 complaints, of which, 125 were dismissed with 2 being sent back to the court for "disposition."

None of which was made public.

Given that 35% of the budget is dedicated as, 'intake' which translates to, "Closed"

effectively renders the agency useless.

This is opposite the 1960 voter referendum which established the Commission as an independent state agency dedicated to investigating claims made about judges.

In the forty years since, its birth, the commission has obviously and overwhelmingly become too cozy with the very people it is supposed to investigate.

More interesting, is what's Missing from the report.

Absent from the Commissions report was, area of law; criminal, family etc., which prompted the original complaint.

Of the cases examined, (opened and shut) were as follows: Criminal area 41% Civil 21% Family Law 14%

Also missing from the report was the County of origin, so the public (or reporters) have no way of determining if any one particular area, county, or judge for which the commission receives complaints, in numbers that would likely to draw attention.

With numbers such as these, and what the Commission choses Not to publish, being a bad judge in the State of California is clearly, one of the safest jobs around.

All that, and, you get free parking.

The public can educate themselves and others. Make and/or purchase a Judicial Report for any type of judge at USAjudges.com

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