California judge faces misconduct charges spanning eight years
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A California judge faces six counts of misconduct for engaging in “undignified, discourteous and offensive sexualized (or otherwise crude)” behavior and making improper comments to defendants, lawyers and courthouse staff over a period of eight years, according to the state’s judicial disciplinary commission.
In its Monday notice, the California Commission on Judicial Performance confirmed that it would move forward with formal proceedings against Judge Jeffrey Bennett of the Ventura County Superior Court. He was given 20 days to answer the charges against him and could face private admonishment up to removal from office, Law.com reports.
The commission’s complaint details incidents from 2010 to 2018, including one in 2015 in which an African American defendant appeared before Bennett with an outstanding warrant on a felony. When Bennett thought the defendant was evading his questions, he told him to stop “shucking and jiving,” the complaint said.
In another 2015 incident, Bennett presented over a case in which the defendant was charged with disturbing the peace. When the deputy district attorney asked for a stay-away order for the victim, the judge said that was “a chicken-shit position to have” and such charges wouldn’t be tolerated when he became the judge in the master calendar department, the complaint said.
Bennett also repeatedly said he was “the only one in the courthouse with the balls to make a ruling,” and once, while seated on the bench and wearing his judicial robe, told a personal story about driving a Rolls Royce, the complaint said. The judge said “chicks really dug that car” and that “it had a big back seat, if you know what I mean,” it added.
He is also accused in the complaint of telling attorneys to see a specific dental hygienist because she was “a smoking hot 10” and that he would let her “do whatever she wanted” to him.
Bennett’s attorneys, Heather Rosing, Dan Agle and Irean Zhan, said in a statement provided to Law.com that the judge was “straightforward and honest” with a “refreshing ‘tell it like it is’ approach to life.”
“Prior to the initiation of formal proceedings, Judge Bennett admitted he had made inappropriate comments,” his attorneys said. “He sincerely apologized to the commission and implemented a thoughtfully developed plan for improvement and change.”
Bennett, a former police officer who joined the Ventura County district attorney’s office in 1989, was elected to the bench in 2008.
