Posted on 01/06/2005 12:13:40 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Kern County Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Gildner, the court's former presiding judge, was given a rare public admonishment by the California Commission on Judicial Performance Wednesday for throwing defendants in jail without just cause and pressuring other defendants to take plea deals.
The commission found that Gildner issued warrants and took three people into custody without cause because they did not show up in court when he thought they should. Two incidents happened in 2001 and one in 2003.
The commission wrote Gildner had no reason to believe two of the men were notified they should show up in court when he issued arrest warrants for failing to appear.
"No reasonable or reasonably competent judge would assume or conclude otherwise," the commission's rebuke states.
The third defendant showed up minutes late because he had gone to the wrong courtroom. Gildner tossed him in jail too, refusing to listen to his lawyer's explanation.
"Judge Gildner's further refusal to give the defendants an opportunity to explain the earlier failures ... appears callous and cruel," the commissioners wrote.
In addition, for five months ending in February 2001, Gildner is reported to have routinely told defendants being offered plea bargain agreements at pre-preliminary hearings that they would never be offered a better deal.
"This admonition admittedly overstated both the court policy and actual practice, and was not correct," the commission wrote. "Judge Gildner concedes that it carried the potential of coercion, and he has assured the commission that the practice ceased after attorneys pointed out the potentially coercive effect. ... The warning also created an appearance that the criminal defendants might be punished or retaliated against for refusing the early offer of settlement."
Gildner declined to comment for this report. But his attorney, Edith R. Matthai, wrote in an e-mail that Gildner was simply making the defendants aware of the policy of the court and the District Attorney's Office to increase sentences offered in plea deals made after the preliminary hearing.
The commission ruled that Gildner violated the Code of Judicial Ethics implemented by the California Supreme Court.
Specifically, the commission found Gildner's actions suggest "a pattern of failing to ensure the rights of criminal defendants."
The judge's lawyer disagreed.
"Gildner believed he was within his authority; he did not intend to prejudice the rights of any defendant," Matthai wrote in her prepared response.
She declined to discuss the topic further and said Gildner also would not discuss the admonition.
Gildner was presiding judge for two years; his term ended at the end of 2004.
Current Presiding Judge Lee Felice's secretary also said he would not take phone calls on the matter.
The three cases named in the admonishment against Gildner were handled by the Public Defender's Office.
Public Defender Mark Arnold declined to say whether his office registered the complaints that lead to the disciplinary action against Gildner.
But he sharply criticized the actions that led to Gildner's admonishment.
"This is egregious judicial misconduct... (Gildner) lifted Lady Justice's blindfold and poked her in the eye with a stick," Arnold said.
District Attorney Ed Jagels did not return phone calls for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Gildner expressed some of his work ethics in an article published in 1992 in the Daily Journal, a legal newspaper.
"I like to start on time, and I like to end on time," he was quoted as saying in the article. "I'm impatient with repetitiveness, and I don't like games. I don't want attorneys interrupting me, and I don't want them talking between themselves in stage whispers in front of the jury."
"In criminal cases, Gildner has a reputation for favoring the prosecution," the Daily Journal wrote in the article.
Arnold said he agrees.
Local defense attorney David Torres says Gildner has a tough reputation against defendants, and would not work to settle cases with a compromise deal.
"If the defense didn't want what the prosecution was offering, (Gildner would say) 'Forget it. Let's take it to trial,'" he said.
The Daily Journal article also offered biographical information about Gildner.
He was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Anaheim.
Gildner received a bachelor's degree in 1972 from UC Riverside and a law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1976.
He was hired by the district attorney in Bakersfield in 1979 after a stint as a private general attorney in Riverside County.
Through the years Gildner also worked periodically as a private attorney.
He was appointed to the bench in 1990.
The Commission on Judicial Performance has only admonished two other local judges since 1960, according to actions listed on the commission's Web site.
Current Judge Sidney P. Chapin was admonished in 1997 for not deciding a 1993 civil trial until 1996.
And the commission also took action against Judge Gary T. Friedman in 1993 for playing jokes on defendants. Friedman also remains on the local bench.
Gildner is the only California judge admonished so far this year. Of the roughly 1,600 judges in California, four were admonished in 2004 and one in 2003.
The commission is made up of 11 members, including judges, attorneys, and citizens tasked with overseeing judicial conduct.
The commission's public admonishment of Gildner falls in the midrange of discipline that can be imposed on state judges. It is intended to be a public punishment of an elected judge and informs the public of the actions, although it carries no fines or suspensions.
Two lesser levels of rebuke are private, said Victoria Henley, the director and chief counsel of the Commission on Judicial Performance. The upper three are public. They are admonishments, censures and finally a removal from the bench.
Judges face no repercussions such as fines or suspensions with the first four levels, but they can count against a judge if further complaints are proven true.
The level of discipline is determined by the severity and frequency of the transgressions, Henley said.
One wonders what the jokes were?
By Republican California Governor George Deukmejian, the same clown who gave to the US the first AWB when he signed into law the Roberti-Roos bill.
Gotta love them Republicans.
Some gal working for CSD removed young children from their homes and advised them that they would never see their parents again if they did not testify that their parents had sexually abused them.
They had to make the public think that they were necessary.
The DA and judge swallowed the entire story, hook, line, and sinker!
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