Judge regrets calling jail about domestic violence suspect but denies willful misconduct
A California judge is facing a legal ethics case after calling a local jail last year about an acquaintance being held in a Fresno County felony domestic violence case.
However, a lawyer for Superior Court Judge James Petrucelli said Tuesday that he had not committed official misconduct in doing so and the judge himself, apologizing in an email to the Fresno Bee, said he acted “without knowing the precise nature of the charges” against his acquaintance “and without fully thinking through the issues.”
The suspect, businessman Jay Ghazal, had not yet been booked when Petrucelli called at about 9:10 a.m. on July 13, 2013, and, according to the Commission on Judicial Performance, subsequently ordered that Ghazal be released. After confirming that Petrucelli was a judge, the jail released Ghazal on his own recognizance (OR) about two hours later. The scheduled bail amount for the charges Ghazal faced was $65,000, the commission says and, because the judge didn’t follow the usual procedures, Ghazal wasn’t required to sign standard paperwork agreeing to follow OR procedures and appear in court.
The contact with the jail was improper because Petrucelli was not the judge assigned to the case, because Petrucelli would have been disqualified if the case had come before him and because the prosecution should have been notified and a hearing should have been held in open court before Ghazal was released, the commission says in a notice of formal proceedings (PDF) filed last week.
The judge also helped Ghazal find a lawyer after he was released, the commission says.
“These actions are alleged to constitute willful misconduct in office, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute, and improper action,” the commission said in a press release announcing the legal ethics case against the judge.
Attorney Kathleen Ewins represents Petrucelli. “We look forward to defending Judge Petrucelli, a dedicated and proud public servant of many decades,” she said in an email to the Fresno Bee. “We expect that the special masters assigned to hear the evidence will recognize that Judge Petrucelli did not engage in willful misconduct, and that he should not be removed from office.”
The judge has been on the bench for 16 years and formerly worked as a deputy sheriff for 15 years.
When he himself was a sheriff’s deputy, judges “from time to time” called the jail and asked that suspects be released on their own recognizance, Petrucelli told the newspaper.
The Los Angeles Times (sub. req.) and the Recorder (sub. req.) also have stories.
