by Sharon Noonan Kramer, advocate for integrity in health marketing and U.S. courts.

We’ve been blogging much lately of the ethics problems among San Diego’s jurists and their self-perceptions that they are above the law with no fear of repercussions. Thanks to ABC 10News and other local investigative reporters, the pervasive elitist attitude, which has harmed so many, is finally getting some public sunlight. 

See our yesterday’s blog of “Latest from ABC 10News ~ Keehn Schall race illustrates moral decay in local courts UPDATED” The gist is:

Federal prosecutor, Carla Keehn, is the challenger to incumbent Judge Lisa Schall’s Seat 20. Keehn had $14,000 of her campaign advertising destroyed last week by “pressure” being put on a sign company of national stature, Clear Channel.  No one is talking of who ordered the destruction.

Its pretty obvious that the pressure is originating from San Diego Superior Court judges. The vast majority were appointed to the bench and do not want to see voters be able to oust one of their own via election. They have been bullying Keehn to drop from the race; and bullying her endorsers to not endorse or unendorse her.

This is because if it could happen to Schall that she could be voted out; it could also happen to the bullying appointed judges in the future. Keehn is being made an example of the wrath of retribution which occurs when one challenges a sitting judge in San Diego, so that no one does it again; and so judicial appointments become appointments for life by default.  As a result of the local jurists’ bad behavior, the public’s right to oust bad judges by non-re-election, is being egregiously violated, now and in the future.

Adding to the equation, ABC 10News is helping to illuminate that this jurist mind-set of’ “let them eat cake” while parading of naked injustice continues; originates at the helm of the California courts and is trickling down to the Superior Courts.

See May 15^th ABC 10News “Calif. Chief Justice gets taxpayer-funded protection detail to exotic locations”  The gist is:

 California’s Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has been soliciting legislators for hundreds of millions of dollars more in court funds under the pretext that the courts are stretched to the limit; and because of the lack of funding are unable to provide justice to the people. She is simultaneously using court funds (tax dollars) to be chauffeured and accompanied by California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers to such exotic places as resorts in Hawaii and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Other justices are also being made privy to the high-priced taxi service to their offices while being accommodated by the CHP; and while courts are closing and cutting hours all across the state from lack of funding.

According to Judicial Council Watcher (JCW), a blog contributed to by current and former California court employees, including San Diego trial court judges, “ Nearly 22 million dollars – or enough money to employ 220 court clerks” is being spent annually on CHP officers serving as armed chauffeurs and traveling companions of California justices.

JCW is typically accurate with their calculations. Among some of their contributors are many in-the-know whistleblowers of fraud in California’s judicial branch, such as Michael Paul.  The gist of this debacle is:

Paul is a former Administrative Offices of the Courts employee who exposed that five-hundred million dollars was missing from the courts’ construction fund in 2010.  He was retaliated against by being fired under false pretense, for exposing the fraud. 

No one was ever punished for the missing millions or for the retaliation of government employee whistleblower Paul. The lack of punishment is ongoing to this very day; even after a Bureau of State Auditor’s (BSA) report verified that multi-millions were indeed missing.

Yet, former Chief Justice Ronald George unexpectedly announced his retirement while calls for this BSA audit were commencing in 2010. Several Cal Court leaders have subsequently retired (with full pensions) while not being made to answer the question of where the multi-millions went and still are. Upon George’s hastily planned departure in 2010, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye was hand-picked by George and Governor Schwarzenegger as George’s successor. She commenced her stewardship of the Cal Courts at the beginning of 2011.

So who are the honorable trial court judges who are now working diligently along side of true whistleblowers at JCW, to shed light on the continuing fraud, waste and abuse at the helm of California’s judicial branch?  Sadly, they are the same judges who are endorsing and even holding fund-raisers for Schall’s re-election to the bench in San Diego.  This, while no one is talking of who ordered the destruction of $14,000 worth of Keehn’s truthful campaign advertising last week, exposing criminal acts among local jurists.  Keehn’s destroyed signs read,

“Because no one is above the law, not even judges.”

Point being:

There are severe, systemic and long-term ethics problems in California’s judicial branch. It appears to have become ingrained as part of their culture. There is a pervasive mind-set of judges and justices believing themselves to be above the law as they jockey for position of who controls the courts’ coffers.

Smaller pots in the courtrooms calling bigger kettles at the court helm “black”, does not solve the underlying problem of the rampant and incestuous moral decay in California’s judicial branch. The pleas for help coming from those who also have their own proven ethics problems to address; simply helps to illuminate that in California, jurists perceive themselves as not subject to the same laws and standards of conduct that they are paid as public servants to uphold.  This applies from top to bottom — as the public continues to be harmed, nationwide, from unbridled perversities of the California judicial system.

I could add many links to this blog of people being harmed by the California jurists’ self-perceptions of being above the law.