Judge Rapped re 'Demeaning and Discourteous' Comments That Lawyer Should Work Harder, Get Up Earlier
A California judge who told a criminal defense lawyer who asked for a postponement that she should “work all day today, work all night, get up early tomorrow morning” before seeking to delay the next day’s hearing has been disciplined for the “demeaning and discourteous” comments.
The Commission on Judicial Performance voted 7-3 that Alameda County Judge Morris Jacobson should be publicly admonished, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The three dissenters would have voted for another private reprimand. Jacobson, a former prosecutor appointed to the bench in 2005, had been privately reprimanded in 2010 for berating another lawyer.
During a 2010 hearing in an attempted murder case, the judge initially criticized defense lawyer Anne Beles in open court in front of her client and told her to spend “every waking moment” on the matter. Then, when she responded by telling him that she didn’t need his “advice on how to be competent,” he said she was being contemptuous and had her sit down in the court and wait an hour and a half.
She apologized, and wasn’t held in contempt. However, the commission said the judge had, in effect, punished Beles for contempt without a hearing by holding her in court for nearly two hours.
Attorney James A. Murphy represented Jacobson. He argued that the judge was simply trying to tell Beles what she was going to have to say to get a postponement of the next day’s hearing.
