Judge who helped smoking buddy get out of jail in domestic violence case is reprimanded
A California judge who could have lost his job for helping a smoking buddy get out of jail in a felony domestic violence case was instead publicly censured on Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge James Petrucelli apparently didn’t realize, when he arranged for restaurateur Jay Ghazal to be released without bail in Fresno County in 2013, that a state law required a prior court hearing, the Recorder (sub. req.) reports. Petrucelli and Ghazal are both members of Having Big Cigars, a social group that met periodically at a local cigar shop.
However, “we have removed judges for fixing tickets for friends,” chairwoman Erica Yew of the Commission on Judicial Performance told Petrucelli’s lawyer during a hearing last month. “How is this different?”
Nonetheless, the commission decided to censure Petrucelli, the Associated Press reports.
It found that “In the eyes of the public, Ghazal’s … release tends to reflect special treatment obtained as a result of personal connections … and thereby tends to diminish public confidence in the objectivity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge regrets calling jail about domestic violence suspect but denies willful misconduct”
