We were recently notified by the Commission on Judicial Performance—the often toothless judicial watch-dog agency in charge of disciplining California’s state court judges—that Sacramento Family Court judge Peter J. McBrien has been given a “strong public censure”.Not toothless this time.
This is the CJP equivalent of what in street parlance would be referred to as a “bitch-slap”, for, among other things, threatening to declare a mistrial when female out-of-town counsel requested 5 minutes to use the restroom and walking off the bench before the trial was finished never to return. (Can you spell H-O-M-E T-O-W-N-E-D?) Not to mention vindictively trying (and succeeding) to get the husband in the divorce case fired from his state job based on McBrien's personal embroilment in the case and after hours vendetta.
We will let the words of the CJP in its lengthy opinion speak for themselves.
A teaser from the opinion:
“While presiding over a family law matter over a period of months, Judge McBrien engaged in a course of serious misconduct which rendered the trial fundamentally unfair, denied a litigant his due process right to complete his presentation of evidence, and culminated in the judge’s lengthy investigation of a litigant’s possible violation of the law without disclosing his actions to the parties. We conclude that a severe public censure is warranted based on the gravity of this misconduct, coupled with Judge McBrien’s pervasive lack of accountability and insight into the impropriety of his conduct.”Translation: Hiz Honor messed-up big-time and completely screwed the pooch, but is so-far-gone that after all of the formal legal charges and a trial he just doesn't get it—therefore this “bitch-slap”.
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