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18 July 2013

Vance W. Raye Third District Justice and Judge Peter McBrien Turn Over Court Operations to SCBA Family Law Section Lawyers

Leaked Transcript Indicates Vance Raye & Judge Peter McBrien Enabled Family Law Bar Control of Court in 1991

Judge Robert Hight – Judge Bunmi Awoniyi – Judge Steven Gevercer – Judge Tami Bogert – Judge James Mize – Vance Raye - Victoria Henley CJP - Judge Thadd Blizzard -California Supreme Court Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye - Hon. Peter J. McBrien - Sacramento County Superior Court - Vance Raye - 3rd District - Louis Mauro - Ronald Robie - George Nicholson - Harry Hull Jr. - Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section - Family Law Executive Committee - FLEC - SCBA Family Law Section - family law and divorce lawyers Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger, Inc. - divorce attorney Camille Hemmer lawyer Sacramento - family law lawyer Russell Carlson divorce attorney Sacramento - Sacramento divorce lawyer Paula D. Salinger attorney family law - Sacramento Federal Court Eastern District of California – United States Courts, US District Court Sacramento, Judge William B. Shubb, Judge Edmund F. Brennan, Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr, Judge Carolyn K. Delaney, Judge Morrison C. England Jr, Judge Gregory G. Hollows, Judge John A. Mendez, Judge Kendall J. Newman, Judge Troy L. Nunley, Judge Allison Claire, Judge Dale A. Drozd, Judge Lawrence K. Karlton, Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, United States Attorney Benjamin Wagner, Judge Kevin R. Culhane – Hon. Kevin R Culhane – Judge Kevin Culhane -
Vance Raye and Peter J. McBrien were the
architects of the current family court system.

In 1991, as a superior court judge, current 3rd District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Vance Raye partnered with controversial family court Judge Peter J. McBrien and attorneys from the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section in establishing the current, dysfunctional Sacramento Family Court system, according to the sworn testimony of McBrien at his 2009 judicial misconduct trial before the Commission on Judicial Performance

Behind closed doors and under oath, the judge provided explicit details about the 1991 origins of the present-day family court structure. 

In essence, McBrien and Raye agreed to effectively privatize public court operations to the specifications of private-sector attorneys in exchange for not having to run the court's settlement conference program. The SCBA Family Law Section agreed to run the settlement program provided they were given effective control over most court policies and procedures, including local court rules. 

As a result, the public court system was restructured to the specifications of local, private-sector attorneys, according to McBrien's testimony. To view McBrien's detailed description of the collusive public-private collaboration, posted online exclusively by SFCN, click here. To view an example of the same, current day collusion, click here

The 1991 restructuring plan began with a road trip suggested by the family law bar:   
"[T]he family law bar, and it was a fairly strong bar here in Sacramento, initiated the concept of a trip to Orange County and San Diego County to pick up some ideas about how their courts were structured. And myself and Judge Ridgeway and two family law attorneys made that trip and came back with various ideas of how to restructure the system," McBrien told the CJP. Click here to view.
3rd District Court of Appeal – Sacramento –Vance Raye - Cole Blease – Ronald Robie – William  Murray Jr. – George Nicolson – Kathleen Butz – Elena Duarte – Harry Hull – Louis Mauro – Andrea Hoch – Third District Court of Appeal California - Supreme Court of California – Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye – Goodwin Liu – Marvin R. Baxter – Ming W. Chin – Kathryn M. Werdegar – Joyce L. Kennard – Carol A. Corrigan – Mariano-Florentino Cuellar - California Supreme Court - California Commission on Judicial Performance Director Victoria B. Henley Chief Counsel - State Bar of California Office of Chief Trial Counsel Jayne Kim Chief Trial Counsel - California Attorney General Kamala Harris - Sacramento Superior Court Judge Robert Hight Judge James Mize - California State Auditor Elaine M. Howle Bureau of State Audits - United States District Court Eastern District of California – Sacramento Federal Court – United States Courts - Judge William Shubb - Judge Edmund Brennan - Judge Garland Burrell Jr - Judge Carolyn Delaney - Judge Morrison England Jr - Judge Gregory Hollows - Judge John Mendez - Judge Kendall Newman - Judge Troy Nunley - Judge Allison Claire - Judge Dale Drozd - Judge Lawrence Karlton - Judge Kimberly Mueller – Office of the United States Attorneys Benjamin B. Wagner Eastern District of California,Judge Kevin R. Culhane – Hon. Kevin R Culhane – Judge Kevin Culhane -
Sacramento Family Court judges and local, Sacramento Bar
Association attorneys openly acknowledge their close relationship.
But before his sworn 2009 CJP testimony, McBrien gave the public a different account of the road trip and who restructured the family court system in 1991. As reported by the Daily Journal legal newspaper, McBrien dishonestly implied that the new system was conceived and implemented by judges alone after they made a county-paid "statewide tour" of family law courts. 

The judge omitted from the story the fact that the trip was initiated by the family law bar, and included two private-sector family law attorneys who took the county-paid tour with McBrien and the late Judge William Ridgeway. As the Daily Journal reported
"Around 1990, McBrien and a few other Sacramento judges went on a statewide tour of family law courts. At the time there were continual postponements of trials.
 'This is how we came up with the system today,' McBrien said. 'It was probably the best trip Sacramento County ever paid for.'
The judges changed the local system so that family law judges presided over both law and motion matters and trials, which used to be sent to a master calendar department and competed with criminal trials for scheduling.
'Now, if you're ready and unable to settle, chances are 99.9 percent that you are going out [to trial] the first time,' McBrien said. 'A lot of that is attributable to the willingness of the Sacramento bar to work as settlement counselors.'" Click here to view the Daily Journal report.
To continue reading the rest of this article, visit our special, updated 3rd District Court of Appeal page. Click here. For more on the alleged collusion between judges and attorneys who also serve as Sacramento Superior Court temporary judges and work as settlement counselors, visit our special judge pro tems pageFor additional posts about the people and issues in this report, click on the corresponding labels below.   

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