Opinion ID: 794463
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Judicial Misconduct Proceeding

Text: 36 On February 21, 2003, Stephen Yagman, a California lawyer, filed a judicial misconduct complaint against the District Judge. The complaint alleged a series of unusual, even extraordinary, events. A criminal defendant (hereafter debtor) sentenced to probation had been ordered to report, with her probation officer, directly to the District Judge. This is the ordinary course followed by this District Judge in probation cases. The debtor had been facing eviction and filed a bankruptcy petition that stayed the eviction proceedings. When the stay was lifted by the bankruptcy court, the debtor agreed to vacate the premises in question. Ten days after this agreement, the District Judge, who had no assignment regarding the bankruptcy action, withdrew the debtor's case from the bankruptcy court and shortly thereafter reimposed the stay, allowing the debtor to live rent-free in the apartment for about twenty-two months. Those actions were taken without notice — other than entry of the orders themselves — to the other parties to the bankruptcy proceeding. The District Judge entered no findings of fact or explanation of his orders withdrawing the case and staying the eviction proceedings. Later, the Court of Appeals issued a writ of mandamus in a strongly worded opinion and remanded the matter directly to the bankruptcy court. In re Canter, 299 F.3d 1150 (9th Cir.2002). 37 The record of the bankruptcy proceeding was bereft of any hint of how the District Judge learned of its existence, the existence of the eviction proceedings, or the lifting of the stay on those proceedings. Yagman's judicial misconduct complaint stated that these facts on their face suggested that something inappropriate had happened and asked for an investigation into the relationship between the debtor and the District Judge. 38 The Chief Circuit Judge dismissed the complaint on the grounds that it (i) was frivolous because it lacked a verifiable factual foundation and (ii) was directly related to the merits of the underlying judicial decision. In re Charge of Judicial Misconduct, No. 03-89037, Order of the Chief Judge at 2-3 (9th Cir. Jud. Council July 14, 2003). 39 The Chief Circuit Judge's inquiry appears to have been limited to whether the District Judge did order some, if not all, probationers to report directly to him. Id. at 1-2. No inquiry appears to have been made into how or why the District Judge, without any record contact with, or knowledge of, a garden-variety bankruptcy case, ordered its withdrawal and immediately imposed a stay on state court eviction proceedings without notice to or hearing from the lawyers in the bankruptcy case. Id. 40 Yagman then petitioned the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council for review. The Council proceeded to conduct its own investigation into the circumstances surrounding the complaint. 41 Circuit staff spoke to the debtor's bankruptcy attorney who said that his secretary `ghostwr[o]te' a letter for [the debtor] to the District Judge. As summarized by the circuit staff, [the debtor] delivered the letter to [the district judge] personally and had some brief discussion with him. The secretary said that the letter was delivered a day or two before the withdrawal of the bankruptcy reference and that the debtor reported that the letter had worked. 42 The Judicial Council also inquired of the District Judge as to the circumstances surrounding his withdrawal of the bankruptcy reference and imposition of the stay. He answered: 43 There is no wheel for the purpose of withdrawing the reference in a bankruptcy matter. I felt it was related to my program of working with probationers to help their rehabilitation. I have been doing this for more than 25 years and have been told by the Probation Officer that it is a successful program. In this case a person who was a probationer in a criminal case informed me that the home in which she and her husband were living at the time of their divorce had been given to them by her husband's parents. She was still living in the house with her 8 year old daughter and was in divorce proceedings. She was contesting her right to occupancy in the divorce court and I felt it should be finalized there so I re-imposed the stay to allow the state matrimonial court to deal with her claim. From her explanation of the proceedings in the state court it appeared to me that her counsel had abandoned her interest so it could not be adequately presented to the state court. Counsel for her husband had asked the Probation Officer to release [the debtor's] probation report so it would be used in the divorce proceedings. I denied that request upon the recommendation of the Probation Officer. 44 This statement was, of course, a flat-out admission of having taken judicial action in a case based entirely on a contact with one party to the case and no notice to other parties. 45 The Judicial Council, based on this evidence, concluded that the Chief Judge erred in dismissing the complaint as frivolous or unsubstantiated; it is plainly neither. In re Complaint of Judicial Misconduct, No. 03-89037, Order at 6 (9th Cir. Jud. Council Dec. 18, 2003). In doing so, the Council explicitly noted that the District Judge himself confirm[ed] what [the] complainant alleges and the evidence suggests: The district judge withdrew the reference in a bankruptcy case that was not previously assigned to him, and entered an order in that case based upon information he obtained ex parte from an individual who benefitted directly from that order. Id. at 4-5. 46 Upon the return of the case to the Chief Circuit Judge, a lawyer filed a brief on behalf of the District Judge. It criticized the Judicial Council for having conducted its own investigation that led to the evidence of an ex parte contact, i.e., the statement of the debtor's lawyer and the statement of the District Judge himself. Interestingly, the brief noted that investigations — and the expansion of investigations — are the province of special committees appointed pursuant to Section 353. It also argued that there was no evidence before the Council of an ex parte contact. 47 The District Judge's brief did not mention his own statement to the Council that he had a conversation with the debtor about her housing arrangements, withdrew the bankruptcy reference, and stayed the state eviction proceeding because he deemed her legal representation in that proceeding to be deficient. Rather, the brief asserted that the reason for withdrawing the reference was to prevent disclosure of the debtor's confidential presentence report. 48 A new statement by the District Judge was included. It said that his recollection of conversations at probation meetings with the debtor was consistent with that of the probation officer who recalled the debtor complaining that her confidential pre-sentence report had been entered in the probation hearing. The District Judge's statement also denied receipt of a letter. The District Judge made no mention of his earlier detailed statement regarding his reasons for imposing the stay on the eviction proceedings. The debtor also gave a statement that denied the existence or delivery of a letter to the District Judge. 49 The brief further argued that a scheduled probation meeting between a judge and a probationer with a probation officer present is never an ex parte contact. 50 The Chief Circuit Judge again dismissed the complaint. In re Charge of Judicial Misconduct, No. 03-89037, Supplemental Order of the Chief Judge (9th Cir. Jud. Council Nov. 4, 2004). She found that the Council's concerns about an ex parte contact were unjustified in light of the District Judge's and debtor's denials about the letter. Id. at 5. The Chief Circuit Judge concluded that the withdrawal of the bankruptcy reference was due to concerns over the distribution of the pre-sentence report. Id. at 5-6. No explanation of the lifting of the stay on the state court eviction proceeding was offered. No mention of the District Judge's own earlier explanation for the stay was given. 51 A majority of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council agreed and dismissed the petition for review. In re Complaint of Judicial Misconduct, 425 F.3d 1179 (9th Cir.2005). They stated that they would not upset [the Chief Circuit Judge's] factual finding that there was no ex parte contact. Id. at 1181. Again, the District Judge's own account of a conversation with the debtor was not mentioned. The majority of the Council also found that the corrective action had been taken in that the District Judge had stated that he saw the error he had made in not explaining his actions more carefully. Id. at 1181-82.