In what hope will be the last chapter in a long-running saga up in Shasta County, Diane Eisenberg of the Attorney Generals’ office penned an opinion (link) in the Quo Warranto action of one Charles Wagner representing the people of the state of California vs. Judge Jack Halpin.
If anything is perfectly clear about this opinion, what’s perfectly clear to us is that the other two branches of government must put a bit of legislative structure and legislative intent around the assigned judges program. Left to their own devices, even the current Chief Justice and the current AOC see no issue with 208 consecutive appointments over a 20 year period thus denying the electorate the ability to select their own judges via democratic process. Not even the governor can appoint a judge to the bench for twenty years but let’s not forget that the AOC executive management is above, has more power than and is better paid than the governor and doesn’t hesitate to flex that political muscle – even in the halls of the Attorney Generals’ office.
The real reason for this post (see, we can spin just as transparently as the Ministry of Truth and Enlightenment can…) is that we wish to apologize to the Judicial Watch organization on Jack Halpin’s behalf. We think poor old confused jack mistakenly confused the judicial watch organization with us. Our reasoning behind this belief is because judicial watch doesn’t appear to maintain a blog.Correction: They do maintain a blog but it has no mention of Jack Halpin.
“In an email to the MetNews Friday, Halpin said he believed the order “was motivated by a desire on the part of the AOC to avoid dealing with the merits of the quo warranto proceeding at my expense.”
He provided a copy of a memo he sent to Shasta judges at the time, in which he said he had been “unfairly treated by the AOC,” and that “[the] AOC and the Chief Justice have failed to support me in the face of vicious attacks by individuals and entities who have utter contempt for the judiciary,” including “the blogs of Judicial Watch, Barbara Kauffman, and others.”
Kauffman is a Mt. Shasta attorney who represented Wagner in the application for quo warranto.
Kauffman told the MetNews that Halpin, who is in his late 80s, was viewed by many parents who had custody cases in front of him as unfit for the bench. She said she did not know whether she would take the type of legal action suggested in the opinion.”
One would think a judge would be able to discern who was discrediting him before he accused an un-involved party of doing so…and where does “utter contempt for the judiciary” come from?
And the legal action? Sue the AOC and the Chief Justice? Can you say “lead balloon”? Sure it would be embarrassing for these parties to be accused of usurping the constitution but the cause of action would be moot because Halpin isn’t serving anymore.
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The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN teamed up to release California’s rehab racket- frauds, felons and fakes
part one of a multi-part series on rehab fraud in California……
part two of a multi-part series on rehab fraud in California….
This is a must-see series for all employees of all three branches of government.
Judicial Council Watcher 
courtflea
July 30, 2013
poor old Jack, old being the operative word here, probably can’t remember what he had for dinner last night much less who is “unfairly” treating him. All he knows is the goose that laid the golden egg for him is long gone.
CNN needs to do a series on the fraud and excess in the AOC, office of the CJ, etc. Where is Mike Wallace when you need him? ok some of you may be too young to remember the hard hitting investigative reporter of 60 minutes fame if so, ask your folks. 😉
JusticeCalifornia
July 30, 2013
The Daily Journal published an article today that also points out that the AG opinion left the door open for lawsuits against the cj and AOC regarding “how temporary judges are assigned”.
I don’t think the AG suggestion about a lawsuit was limited to the Halpin situation. I think that if the cj/jc/aoc/ajp continue to administer the assigned judges program in the manner they did with Halpin — anywhere– they will be inviting direct legal action against them.
The Daily Journal article states that Chad Finke reports that the AOC now has a policy that any court must request its permission every six months if it wants to use the same retired judge, so the agency can keep track of temporary judges who have been assigned for long periods of time. Finke apparently said there is no way now to check the AOC database for a list “of all the judges who have been out there for a certain amount of time”.
I don’t know. Old technology does not seem like much of an excuse for not having current information. It seems like it would be pretty darn easy for the AOC to ask each county utilizing retired assigned judges to report how long each of their current assigned retired judges have served, and request a complete copy of the prior assignment orders, before asking the cj to sign new assignment orders. A quick e-mail to each presiding judge, and a quick e-mail response from each presiding judge would likely do the trick.
Wendy Darling
July 30, 2013
There is zero sympathy for Halpin’s rant that he has been “unfairly treated by the AOC and that the AOC and the Chief Justice have failed to support” him. Frist of all he sat on the superior court bench for almost twenty years with no accountability to the voting public. Second, either Haplin has never played chess or his mind is so small, and his ego so big, that he cannot grasp the political convenience of a sacrificial pawn.
Finally, it’s a good thing Halpin has been removed from the bench, because he must be delusional if thought the Chief Justice and the AOC were going to come to his rescue.
Long live the ACJ.
Wendy Darling
July 30, 2013
“Finke apparently said there is no way now to check the AOC database for a list “of all the judges who have been out there for a certain amount of time”. ”
This is a lie. This information is already tracked at 455 Golden Gate Avenue, and has been for quite some time.
Judicial Council Watcher
July 31, 2013
The underlying post was updated with part two on a year long investigation into California’s rehab racket. Please take a few minutes to review both articles and accompanying news reports.
JusticeCalifornia
July 31, 2013
Love the last line of part one regarding the crook who collected $2 million a year in taxpayer funds running a rehab racket:
“If the state of California is willing to throw money at him,” she said, “he’s willing to catch it.”
Lando
July 31, 2013
Wendy is right. The Judicial Council and AOC know exactly who is assigned to the Assigned Judges program and where they have worked. The amount they spend on this program is staggering. Finke who is actually a good guy must know this and must be making the above described claims upon orders from the overlords at 455 Golden Gate. Said overlords don’t want you to know how much money has been spent on this bloated and unnecessary program. Hopefully someone will make a direct public information request about all this so the public, the legislature and the Governor can see where HRH-2 and her minions have wasted even more of your money. CCMS, Long Beach, HRH-1’s retirement program give away, and now the Assigned Judges program. All wastes of billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time to defund the Judicial Council and AOC .
Th OBT
July 31, 2013
So true Lando, although you overlooked one huge point. Any request to the AOC to account for the assigned judges program, will likely be deflected to the arrogant Harry Hull. He will no doubt delay, bury and block any and all information the public is entitled to about the incredible waste of valuable taxpayer dollars spent on visiting retired judges.