Comment #: CA54662
Rating:2.8
Comments:
I was elated when this judge was elected to the Sonoma County bench, which he barely managed to do against a well-ensconced opponent from a connected old-timey Sonoma family (he was also an idiot who was the first attorney I thumped in town) My initial interactions with this judge were quite favorable, even when I did not necessarily get everything I may have wanted. I became sick with cancer, which caused me to miss out on many months of case preparation for a matter that was set for trial. I applied ex parte for a continuance about 3 months before the trial was set to start. In addition to my health issues, I also had an out of state witness that needed to be deposed, crucial to the case. This judge was covering for the judge actually assigned to the case. I submitted an extensive declaration explaining in almost humiliating detail the struggles I was experiencing with cancer, chemotherapy, etc. from the point of diagnosis nearly a year before, to becoming quite sick, to starting treatment, and finally getting back to a point of some normalcy. I don't know if this judge was having a bad day, if he was angry because he was covering for the assigned judge, or what his problem was. Rather than simply denying the ex parte, which he absolutely had discretion to do, he took the opportunity - not as the assigned judge who knew the case history, mind you, but solely as the judge covering for the day - to excoriate me in his order, which he wrote in red ink on the proposed order I had submitted. He called me "dilatory" for not having submitted the continuance request sooner. According to this judge, I should have submitted the request at a time when I was undergoing chemotherapy and was sick as a dog. He also implied that my declaration was false and contradictory about the seriousness of my illness, which is highly aggressive lung cancer. Was it a last minute request? Yes. Were there extenuating circumstances? Yes. The way this judge attacked me in his order was completely uncalled for and exposed an utter lack of appropriate judicial temperament. In my opinion, one should not accuse someone with terminal cancer of being "dilatory" or suggest they are fabricating some story to obtain a continuance. No attorney I know would make up a story that painted them in such a vulnerable way. I have not use for this judge now. Very disappointing.