Vote in Carla Keehn in place of Lisa Schall for Judicial Office 20, and Brad Weinreb for Office 25, but keep Prager and Popkins

 Update April 2016:

Carla Keehn is challenging Keri Greer Katz, daughter of judge Michael Greer, in 2016 election for Superior Court Judge

 Original post:

Superior Court Judge; Office 9 • Ronald S. Prager

Superior Court Judge; Office 19 • Michael J. Popkins

Superior Court Judge; Office 20 • Carla Keehn: This race receives special attention. Keehn is running against the incumbent Lisa Schall. The problem with Schall is that during her term as judge she has been admonished three times by the state Commission on Judicial Performance. After 30 years on the bench it is time for a change. Vote for Keehn

Superior Court Judge; Office 25 • Brad Weinreb

Brad Weinreb, a state deputy attorney general for more than 20 years, was rated by the Bar as “qualified.” He has extensive experience in major criminal cases and claims one of the highest active caseloads in death penalty cases. He won the endorsement of Goldsmith, Gore, Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano, county Public Defender Henry Coker, numerous organizations and some 50 current judges. Both his opponents, Michele Hagan and Ken Gosselin, received the lowest rating of “lacking qualifications” from the Bar. And Gosselin has been accused of misleading voters about his education and experience.

Superior Court Judge; Office 44 • Joseph Adelizzi (SDER choice to replace incumbent Judge Jacqueline Stern)

Judge has been admonished three times
No jurist in the state has a less favorable record
By Greg Moran
U-T San Diego
May 12, 2014

The campaign website for San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Schall touts her three decades of experience on the bench, including assignments in every division of law, from criminal courts to probate matters and family law.

What it doesn’t talk about is Schall’s record of discipline with the state agency that oversees judges.

No other active judge among the state’s 1,827 judges on the Superior Court, appeals court and Supreme Court bench has been publicly disciplined more times than Schall has, a review of disciplinary records from the Commission on Judicial Performance shows. She has received two public admonishments and one private admonishment.

Only one other judge, in Contra Costa, has a similar record.

Schall said the record involves three incidents over a nearly-30-year career on the bench, that she has learned from her mistakes, and that her work record has earned her the continuing support of the legal community.

The record shows Schall has been publicly admonished twice, most recently in March 2008 when she pleaded guilty to an alcohol-related driving charge. A public admonishment is the third most-serious level of punishment the commission can hand out, behind only public censure and removal from the bench.

She was stopped while driving the wrong way on Centre City Parkway in Escondido in September 2007 and found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.09. That is just over the legal limit.

The arrest came just months before she was up for re-election to her fourth term and was not made public at the time. Court records show the case was delayed for six months, and Schall pleaded guilty to a lesser offense — one week after the filing period for a candidate to run against her had closed.

Under state election law, if a sitting judge does not draw a challenger during the filing period, they are deemed automatically re-elected to the office for another term.

Both the judge and her attorney, William Wolfe, said she was not given any special consideration and that Schall did not seek to delay the disposition of the case until after the filing period.

Shall said this week she was dealing with a divorce and caring for her elderly parents at the time of the DUI arrest. She said that is not an excuse, and has apologized to colleagues and family since.

“I took ownership of that,” she said. “I didn’t try to hide it or cover it up.”

Schall was also publicly admonished in 1999 for abusing her power and not following the law when she jailed a woman for five days for contempt of court. The woman was disruptive in the courtroom during a hearing on a restraining order and was taken out of the courtroom.

When the woman said to Schall’s bailiff that she would “go off” if not allowed to tell her story, Schall cited her for contempt without holding a hearing or making factual findings — and when the woman was not in the courtroom.

In 1995 Schall received a private admonishment from the commission for what commission records describe as “her embroilment in a juvenile dependency matter.” Schall said during a child welfare case she was told an appellate lawyer for one parent had been revealing confidential testimony from the court proceedings. She held a hearing with the appellate lawyer and others to find out what had happened, and the commission concluded that was wrong.

...The disciplinary commission has doled out public admonishments just 75 times since 1995 to 22 judges, records show. Several judges who received two public admonishments either retired or were removed by the commission after the second...

Union-Tribune endorses Judge Lisa Schall, then reports that "No jurist in the state has a less favorable record" than Judge Schall

Incumbent Judge Lisa Schall [U-T file] — Charlie Neuman

The apparent contradiction in San Diego Union-Tribune articles about Judge Schall actually make perfect sense. The U-T is saying that it's better to have a bad Republican than a good Democrat. The U-T thinks it's okay for a judge to improperly throw citizens in jail, to become embroiled in juvenile dependency cases, and to drive drunk, as long as the status quo is maintained in the courts.

I think it should also be noted that the three official admonishments of Judge Lisa Schall don't tell the whole story. The Commission on Judicial Competence is often loathe to criticize judges even when they behave very badly.

This article from the Los Angeles Times from September 1986 recounts how the judge, shortly after being appointed, showed her gratitude to Governor George Deukmejian by appearing at one of his campaign events.

The article notes, “[Mike] Aguirre filed a complaint with the California Commission on Judicial Performance alleging that Guy-Schall’s talk was a violation of judicial ethics guidelines that prohibit judges from endorsing or campaigning for candidates for non-judicial office.”

Apparently Schall did NOT get a reprimand for this shockingly inappropriate behavior, which makes me wonder if there were also other complaints against Judge Schall to the Commission on Judicial Performance that failed to result in admonishments.

See also: After 2 days, Clear Channel pulls down billboards that reveal that Judge Lisa Schall was convicted of a crime

Judge has been admonished three times
No jurist in the state has a less favorable record
By Greg Moran
SDUT
May 12, 2014

Private admonishments are issued by the commission in cases where serious misconduct has been found, but are confidential and only become public if revealed in future disciplinary matters.

Her opponent in the race, federal prosecutor Carla Keehn, is making an issue of Schall’s record. This week billboards went up saying Keehn was the “only candidate for this office NOT convicted of a crime.”

“I think a judge should be above reproach,” Keehn said “Judges should set the standard for law abiding behavior.”

The disciplinary commission has doled out public admonishments just 75 times since 1995 to 22 judges, records show. Several judges who received two public admonishments either retired or were removed by the commission after the second.

Schall said voters should assess her ability over a full career and based on what her peers and others say.

She has been rated well qualified, the highest rating, by the county bar association, she said. All of the Superior Court bench has endorsed her. Keehn received a rating of qualified, the second highest of three rating categories.

Schall has been a judge for nearly 29 years. She was first appointed to the now defunct Municipal Court bench in 1985 at age 32, then elevated to the Superior Court bench in 1989. She has been re-elected four times to six-year terms and has never been challenged, until this year when Keehn decided to run against her.

Private admonishments are issued by the commission in cases where serious misconduct has been found, but are confidential and only become public if revealed in future disciplinary matters.

Her opponent in the race, federal prosecutor Carla Keehn, is making an issue of Schall’s record. This week billboards went up saying Keehn was the “only candidate for this office NOT convicted of a crime.”

“I think a judge should be above reproach,” Keehn said “Judges should set the standard for law abiding behavior.”

The disciplinary commission has doled out public admonishments just 75 times since 1995 to 22 judges, records show. Several judges who received two public admonishments either retired or were removed by the commission after the second.

Schall said voters should assess her ability over a full career and based on what her peers and others say.

She has been rated well qualified, the highest rating, by the county bar association, she said. All of the Superior Court bench has endorsed her. Keehn received a rating of qualified, the second highest of three rating categories.

Schall has been a judge for nearly 29 years. She was first appointed to the now defunct Municipal Court bench in 1985 at age 32, then elevated to the Superior Court bench in 1989. She has been re-elected four times to six-year terms and has never been challenged, until this year when Keehn decided to run against her.

HERE IS THE ENDORSEMENT OF THE UNION-TRIBUNE:

FOR THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT BENCH
By U-T San Diego Editorial Board
May 12, 2014
The only real decision for voters is in Office 20. Incumbent Judge Lisa Schall is a former prosecutor who has been on the bench since her appointment by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1985. She received the Bar’s highest rating of “well qualified,” and she has the endorsement of virtually all other judges on the bench, numerous retired judges, Goldsmith, Coker and a variety of professional organizations. But she has been admonished three times by the state Commission on Judicial Performance, including once for her guilty plea in 2008 to alcohol-related reckless driving. Her opponent is Carla Keehn, a former Army captain and an assistant U.S. attorney for the past 18 years who was rated as “qualified” by the Bar. The admonishments Schall received are a legitimate issue for voters to consider. The U-T editorial board believes her overall solid record of 29 years on the bench trumps those controversies. We endorse Judge Schall for re-election.

[Maura Larkins's response: "Overall solid record" of doing exactly what? Protecting friends of U-T owner Doug Manchester?

Sharon Kramer May 12, 2014 at 10:55 am

Does the UT have a typo in their story yesterday? They wrote of Schall, “overall solid record of 29 years on the bench”. Surely they meant to write, “overall SOILED record”.

After 2 days, Clear Channel pulls down billboards that reveal that Judge Lisa Schall was convicted of a crime; also, Judge Schall's website is down (perhaps for changes in her endorsements?)

San Diego 10 News reports that billboards have been taken down by Clear Channel two days after they were put up.

Federal prosecutor Carla Keehn is challenging Judge Lisa Schall in the June 3, 2014 election for San Diego Superior Court judge. The advertisements correctly stated that Judge Schall has been convicted of a crime.

See newscast video on You Tube.

Judge Schall has been admonished three times by the Commission on Judicial Competence. The offenses were political support for the governor who appointed her, abusing her contempt power, and drunk driving.

See all posts on Carla Keehn and Judge Schall.

Judicial candidate Carla Keehn wants to know who took her billboards down

Billboards critical of incumbent Judge Lisa Schall

Joe Little

KGTV

May 12, 2014

SAN DIEGO - A local judicial candidate wants answers after her factually accurate billboard was taken down without any explanation.

Federal prosecutor Carla Keehn recently paid Clear Channel Outdoors $14,000 for four billboards that attack her opponent for Superior Court Judge Seat 20.

Incumbent Judge Lisa Schall has held that seat for almost three decades.

The billboard reads: "Vote Carla Keehn: The only candidate for this office not convicted of a crime. Because no one is above the law, not even judges."

The billboards went up last week and were almost immediately taken down.

"Well, it was a complete surprise," said Keehn. "They would not tell me who or what group told them to bring it down."

Schall has been disciplined three times by a state commission, including once after a DUI in 2008.

Keehn paid Clear Channel for 30 days to share that fact on her billboards. A Clear Channel representative told Keehn the order came from above her to take them down.

"I asked her specifically, 'Can you tell me the name?' She said, 'No.' I asked her, 'Can you tell me the location?' She said, 'No. We've been getting a lot of pressure,'" Keehn recounted.

The same representative declined to speak with 10News. 10News also tried tracking down Schall, whose website was also down Monday.

Keehn said Clear Channel is refusing to give her a full refund.

"They were going to charge us for the whole week and for the cost of tearing all four billboards down," said Keehn.

She's now weighing her legal options.

"We're still reviewing that. It just happened and we're still reviewing and we're still in negotiations with Clear Channel," she said.

A Clear Channel spokesperson issued this statement on the matter:

"Unfortunately our protocol for political ads was not followed and we took the ad down. We have offered the client a variety of resolutions, including the fullest refund allowable under the laws governing political contributions."

Besides the DUI, Schall was also admonished for "abuse of power" in 1999 and for holding an inappropriate hearing in 1995 while working in juvenile court.

San Diego’s Post-Kreep Judicial Landscape: A Reader’s Guide

See all posts on electing judges.

San Diego’s Post-Kreep Judicial Landscape: A Reader’s Guide
By: Ari Bloomekatz
Voice of San Diego
May 2, 2014

...This time around, San Diego will have to settle for a candidate who’s defended white supremacists pro bono and once wrote that a judge he was facing should be disqualified “by virtue of her permanent disability as a Negro racist;” and an incumbent with a drunk-driving conviction who was also admonished by a state commission for incorrectly putting a woman in custody for five days.

Those are two Superior Court candidates in five of the contested races – where an incumbent judge faces at least one challenger – for the June 3 election. Another 42 races for the bench are uncontested, meaning the sitting judge doesn’t have an opponent and will coast to another six-year term.

...There are currently 125 active Superior Court judges in San Diego County. Generally speaking, Superior Court judges are first appointed by the governor, but those judges can be challenged in the following election cycle.

The Contested Races

Office No. 9

Incumbent: Judge Ronald S. Prager ["well qualilfied"]

Challenger: Attorney/recycler Douglas Crawford ["lacking qualifications"; found culpable on one count of professional misconduct.]

Office No. 19

Incumbent: Judge Michael J. Popkins

Challenger: U.S. Justice Department attorney Paul Ware

Office No. 20

Incumbent: Judge Lisa Schall[officially admonished for campaigning for the governor who appointed her and wrongly jailing a woman, drunk driving]

Challenger: Federal prosecutor Carla Keehn

Office No. 25

The incumbent, Judge Cynthia Bashant, was recently confirmed as a U.S. District judge, so this is now an open election.

Challengers: Attorney/court volunteer Ken Gosselin, attorney [Bar Assoc. says "lacking qualifications"]/
fraud examiner Michele Hagan [Bar Assoc. says "lacking qualifications"] and
Deputy Attorney General Brad A. Weinreb

Gov. Jerry Brown could technically fill Bashant’s now-open seat, a court official said, but that is unlikely because there are people running in the election. The court official said there are currently seven more open bench seats that have not been filled, likely because of funding issues.

Office No. 44

Incumbent: Judge Jacqueline M. Stern

Challenger: Attorney Joseph Adelizzi

The Candidates

There are 11 candidates in the five contested Superior Court races and of those, the San Diego County Bar Association rated three – Crawford, Gosselin and Hagan – as “Lacking Qualifications.”

Of those three, Crawford has received the most attention recently because of a legal statement he penned in 2011 arguing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a “militant, ‘black power’ organization” and that Judge Randa Trapp, who is black, should be disqualified from a particular case because she has a “racist bias and prejudice in favor of negroes and against whites.”

“Moreover, Crawford is well known in the legal community as an attorney that openly and vocally supports white supremacy causes by providing pro bono legal counsel to white supremacists,” Crawford wrote about himself, according to a copy of the legal statement.

“Plaintiff’s attorney contends that Judge Trapp will be unable to properly perceive the evidence and/or properly conduct the proceedings by virtue of her permanent disability as a Negro racist,” he wrote.

Crawford said recently that if he “could go back in time, I would never represented the client.” He said he does not share any white supremacist philosophies and was only doing his best to help his client at the time.

Crawford also has his own case pending in the State Bar Court – which hears attorney misconduct complaints – where he has been found culpable on one count of professional misconduct.

The misconduct, according to court records, refers to a threat Crawford allegedly made that he would have his client trigger a federal audit against their opponents if they didn’t start settlement talks.

He is challenging that ruling.

Crawford said he knows he’s not a traditional judicial candidate and that he “would never have a chance in any way, shape or form of ever being appointed to the bench,” which is why he decided to run.

He says his nickname is “Dirty Doug” because he prefers junkyards and fixing cars to working in courthouses.

Meanwhile, the Bar Association ranked three of the four incumbent judges as “Well Qualified” and the last, Stern, as “Qualified.”

Of those four, Schall – ranked as “Well Qualified” – is the only one who has been called out (and not in a good way) by the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

Schall was first appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in the 1980s and says she is facing her first contested race.



According to court records, Schall received a private admonishment in 1995 related to her involvement in a juvenile dependency case.

Then in 1999, she was admonished for “an abuse of the contempt power” after incorrectly ordering a woman into custody for five days, according to a copy of the admonishment.

And about a decade later, Schall was again admonished by the commission after she was arrested and found guilty of drunk driving. According to a copy of that admonishment, Schall had a blood alcohol level of approximately 0.09 percent after she drove on the wrong side of an Escondido highway.

Schall said that it has been about seven years since her drunk-driving conviction and that she has “been a better judge out of that very bad choice that I made.”

Schall said she was going through a divorce at the time and her parents’ health was declining. She said that she served her probation and sometimes speaks at civic events about the dangers of drunk driving.

Schall said two of the other admonishments had to do with not following proper procedures.

Schall’s challenger is, unsurprisingly, using the drunk-driving conviction and admonishments as part of a platform.

“Ninety-nine percent of all judges get through their entire careers with nothing and that’s how it should be,” Keehn said. “This is the first election to hold Judge Schall accountable not just for her three judicial admonishments, but her criminal conviction.”

Elected vs. Appointed

By the time California became a state in 1850, much of the country had already moved toward the popular election of judges.

“The idea was to make government as inclusive and democratic as possible … in terms of white men … and the idea of electing judges fit right in with that idea,” said Reuel Schiller, professor of Law at UC Hastings.

But at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a radical change: People started to want partisan politics out of government, Schiller said.

So California developed a sort-of hybrid system where judges would generally be initially appointed by the governor with approval by a commission and then those judges would eventually face voters.

“In some ways Californians have tried to split the difference,” said Schiller.

The debate over whether Superior Court judges should be elected or appointed recurs nearly every election cycle.

Jon Williams, head of the San Diego County Bar Association, said candidates who run for a bench seat avoid the usual vetting that would occur if they were appointed.

“It’s been my observation that there is more interest these days in obtaining the position of judge through the election process,” Williams said. “Back in the day, you didn’t see as many people raising their hand to challenge a sitting judge.”

Did District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis actaully want Terri Wyatt to run against Bonnie? Are the two of them trying to split the anti-Bonnie vote?

(Updated) While watching the video on this page of a debate between Robert Brewer and Terri Wyatt, candidates for San Diego District Attorney, I heard Ms. Wyatt say this:

"This is a very specialized office. It has a certain culture and Mr. Brewer has not worked in it."

What exactly is this "certain culture"?

Is it something we want to maintain?

Shouldn't the district attorney's office be staffed by professionals who aren't guided by a "culture"?

Then Ms. Wyatt attacked Bonnie for accepting illegal campaign contributions, and I decided that Wyatt probably wasn't planted in the race by Dumanis.

When Wyatt said that Donna Frye endorsed Bob Brewer. I'm guessing that Frye is appalled at the way Bonnie Dumanis' Public Integrity Unit has targeted women, Mexicans and Democrats. Bonnie has focused on political opponents of her boss's wife, Cheryl Cox, and other South Bay officials. (Bonnie's boss is County Supervisor Greg Cox.)

I'm pretty sure that there will be virtually NO public integrity prosecutions under Bob Brewer. He owes his livelihood largely to white collar miscreants. They pay well when they get in trouble.

WHICH IS WORSE: GREEN LIGHT FOR THE BIG FISH OR POLITICALLY-TARGETED PROSECUTIONS OF THE MINNOWS?

I'm trying to decide which is worse: a green light for the big-time corrupt officials, the ones with real power, who subvert entire government agencies to their own purposes, or politically-motivated prosecutions for very small-time misbehavior of people who occupy the lower echelons of the San Diego power structure.

We've had the green light for the very powerful for long time. They serve the needs of themselves and other powerful people rather than the public that bankrolls the whole endeavor. Mike Aguirre found that you can't change that.

DID BONNIE DUMANIS EXPOSE ONE BIG FISH?

I am pleased that Bonnie Dumanis seems to have inadvertently exposed one big fish when she was chasing the minnows who have dinner with contractors: high profile school attorney Dan Shinoff. Mr. Shinoff was discovered during FBI surveillance having a meeting with Manuel Paul and a prospective witness to discuss testimony in the Ecobusiness v. San Ysidro School District case. During one of several meetings with the witness, only one of which was attended by Mr. Shinoff, Manuel Paul had offered a reward to the witness for his testimony.

I have been trying for years to expose disregard for the law and criminal cover-ups at San Diego County Office of Education's Risk Management Department, which pays Dan Shinoff close to $1 million a year to try lawsuits against school districts. Voice of San Diego reporter Emily Alpert started asking questions about SDCOE and Shinoff a few years ago, but her investigation was stopped and she was fired.

Maybe now someone will do a real investigation. Both SDCOE and individual school districts need to be looked at.

So, Bonnie may have accomplished some good.

I believe that politically-targeted prosecutions aren't acceptable. It deeply damages the right of the people to choose their representatives when small-time crooks of one party are targeted while the district attorney looks the other way (as far as she is able) in the face big-time corruption of the other party.

I believe that Bob Brewer will handle white-collar criminals with kid gloves, and I think that's bad for the three million people in San Diego County. But I will probably vote for Bob Brewer.