California #JudgeEdmundWClarke admonished for mistreating prospective jurors in a murder trial - Part I, juror 7122

California judicial disciplinary authorities just imposed discipline - admonishment only - upon Judge Edmund W Clarke, for mistreating prospective jurors in a murder trial.

Here is the description of Judge Clarke's misconduct in the disciplinary decision.

The judge first excused juror 7122 on the basis of severe anxiety - and then ordered her to stay behind in the hall and wait for him to discuss things with her (against her will) after she added, in a public proceeding, that the judge's clerk was disrespectful with her.

Surprise!  Court personnel disrespectful with lay people with no power?  Does not ever happen.  Right?

And, when it does happen, and the victim of that disrespectful conduct has the courage of challenging that disrespectful conduct openly in front of a judge - the judge lashes out.  Against the victim, of course.

The judge made FORMER juror candidate 7122 to wait in the hallway for an hour, until the end of the session.  The woman obeyed, crying.

Here is the exchange between the judge and the woman after she was already excused - but still ordered to wait for the judge's tongue-lashing.  For an hour.

At the very proceeding the woman felt so intimidated by the ordered detention in the hallway for an hour that she started to communicate with the judge with an apology - which was the effect the judge, apparently, sought.

Since the woman was deposed at the end of the session, most likely, the public was excused at the time of the tongue-lashing.

So, public criticism of misconduct of a public official is now "going after her like that".  And, the judge is very obviously bullying the women, is putting her on the defensive.  For criticism of a public employee, the judge's long-time clerk (of 7 years, as the judge disclosed later on).

"Attacked her in open court in front of a judge with your criticism" - that is the gravest of offenses for the judge, apparently.  And, since the judge was merely "admonished", and remains on the bench, the people of the State of California can expect more of the same from this judge, as well as from other judges.

Now, this is beyond mean.

Criticism of a public official, open criticism, was and is the prospective juror's right as a citizen.  The judge had absolutely no right to go into the person's employment background and not-so-thinly threaten her to complain to her employer, in retaliation for the woman's complain about rude behavior of the judge's clerk.

Let's note that the judge engaged in tongue-lashing of a critic of his clerk's RUDE behavior without any investigation of that behavior.  So, for the judge, the mere facts that:

1) the clerk worked for the judge for 7 years, and that
2) this was the first complaint about her behavior in 7 years - means that the complaint is untruthful.

The judge, without an investigation, on record, in open court, accuses a woman who has an anxiety problem and who was already a victim of his clerk's rude behavior, of a lie.

 Let's count.

The judge

1) accused the woman of "going after" the judge's clerk;
2) accused her of lying - without an investigation, and based on his own unsworn character testimony on behalf of his clerk;
3) accused the woman of "no longer [able to see] that other people are struggling and doing their best";
4) accused the woman of "looking immature and selfish and not contributing to the society that we're supposed to support".

And, the judge let the woman go with a final branding her that her "accomplishment" is to be the only one out of thousands of prospective jurors to ever complain against the judge's clerk. 

Let's remember that at all times after the judge excused prospective juror 7122 he no longer had the power to detain her, and detaining her, forcing her to come in front of him in open court and abusing her verbally was all illegal conduct and conduct without authority.

Let's remember that the judge already excused the prospective juror 7122 because of a severe anxiety problem, which would bind the judge to treat that woman as a person with disability suffering from a severe anxiety, not trying to aggravate that problem, as he did.

But, the clerk was, in fact rude:

Yet, for the judge what actually occurred did not matter.  He steamrolled through a woman with anxiety and accused her of wrongful criticism of his clerk without verifying whether the clerk was actually rude with the woman or not.  For the judge, his personnel is simply above reproach - and above the law.

And, as it often happens when judges are themselves challenged with disciplinary proceedings, Judge Edmund Clarke lied to the disciplinary panel.

First, Judge Clark lied that he did not see anxiety in juror 7122 - even though he excused her on that basis.

Second, Judge Clarke lied that he did not excuse the juror 7122 when he sent her to the hallway - because otherwise he would have to have known his conduct was illegal, so he tried to backtrack.

Third, Judge Clark lied that he detained juror 7122 because he had an "ethical obligation" to investigate her complaint - while Judge Clark did nothing to actually investigate, and instead assumed juror 7122 is lying, ordered her to sit and wait (for an hour) for being called back into the courtroom, and when she was called, used that time not to investigated, but to bully her for criticizing his clerk.

There was a squabble between the special master, the examiner and the disciplinary panel in the disciplinary proceeding where the  special master and the disciplinary panel tried hard, in different ways, to save Judge Clarke's sorry ass:

Now, if judge Clarke did excuse juror 7122, he should have known that his conduct in ordering her to wait, then calling her back into the courtroom for a tongue-lashing was outside of the judge's authority - and the woman did believe that she was called back in not to be heard, but to be chided for criticism of the judge's clerk:

And, of course, if Judge Clarke lied to the commission that he did not excuse the juror when he did, that would be a severely aggravating circumstance for the outcome of his case - which means, the issue whether the juror was or was not excused, was of utmost importance and required a factual finding by the disciplinary panel.

Here is what happened.



The special master found - against the record - that Judge Clarke first excused juror 7122, and then reversed the excuse after she criticized the clerk.

The significance of this finding is to protect judge Clarke giving at least a semblance of legitimacy to his order to the juror 7122 to sit in the hallway, keep her there for an hour and then order her back into the courtroom for a tongue-lashing.

The honest examiner disagreed with the special master's finding as not supported in the record.  In other words, the examiner pointed out that the special master lied.

What disciplinary panel, instead of resolving the conflict of findings between the special master and the examiner, on the MOST important issue involved - whether the judge acted illegally, and whether he lied to the commission about it - chose to claim this:

So, the disciplinary panel, consisting of "market players" (attorneys and judges) preferred to protect Judge Clarke's ass and make no findings on the most significant issue, whether judge Clarke knowingly acted illegally, and whether he lied to the disciplinary panel about it.  Moreover, the disciplinary panel claimed that the issue in question is not necessary in their determination of misconduct.

I just bet that if the disciplinary panel consisted of LAY CITIZENS, judge Clarke would have been taken off the bench - for mistreating that one juror and for lying to the disciplinary panel about it.

Nevertheless, as to juror 7122, the disciplinary panel concluded this:

But, juror 7122 was not the only one bullied by Judge Clarke in jury selection for that case.

Judge Clarke was disciplined - by admonishment only - for misconduct regarding 4 prospective jurors, and I will continue to analyze the disciplinary decision, juror by juror.

Stay tuned.