Sacramento Superior Court Criminal Activity Alleged At Judicial Council Meeting Protest & Public Comment

Family Court Judge-Attorney Collusion, RICO Racketeering and Other Crimes To Be Submitted at Judicial Council Meeting

The Center for Judicial Excellence, a Marin-based family court reform organization, has initiated a "Year of Action to Stop Court Crimes" campaign throughout California.

Evidence of alleged criminal activity by Sacramento Superior Court judges, employees, and part-time judges who also work as for-profit divorce lawyers will be presented by court watchdogs and whistleblowers at a Judicial Council meeting in Sacramento on Thursday, February 19. The presentation is a component of the "Stop Court Crimes" campaign sponsored by the Center for Judicial Excellence, a Marin-based family court reform organization. 

The statewide CJE "Year of Action to Stop Court Crimes" campaign kicked-off in September with a rally at the Judicial Council in San Francisco, and is slated to run throughout 2015. Family court watchdogs from 16 California counties attended, including a strong Sacramento County contingent. The event generated press coverage by the San Francisco Examiner. In addition to the rally, the group made a formal, written request for an audience with the Chair of the Judicial Council to present evidence and discuss alleged criminal activity and other misconduct by family court judges and employees throughout the state. The request was denied, and the group was directed to express their concerns at the public comment segment provided at regularly scheduled Judicial Council meetings.

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The group held their second event at a Judicial Council meeting in October. Courthouse News Service writer Maria Dinzeo reported on the testimony provided by the court reform whistleblowers during the public comment segment of the meeting, which took place after the customary mutual admiration accolades that characterize routine Judicial Council get-togethers.    

The celebratory formalities took place in an unusually crowded chamber, and were followed by a tumultuous round of public comment on family court policies in California that included roughly 30 litigants, attorneys and private citizens urging a separate hearing to address allegations of abuse in the state's family courts.

The public viewing area of the council's meeting chambers was packed with people in red t-shirts, representing by far the largest crowd since the council expanded its public comment period in 2011.

Nearly every speaker who stepped up to the podium remarked that the one minute each of them had been allotted was not nearly adequate. The speakers came from all over the state, from San Diego to Placer county.

Most complained of family law judges' custody decisions, saying the judges were not listening children's allegations of physical and sexual abuse and awarding custody to their abusers.

"Children are being killed in California. And many times, the courts are missing what's going on," Kathleen Russell, executive director of the non-profit Center for Judicial Excellence told the council. "We graciously request a public hearing on this issue. The family courts are forcing children into custody with abusers."

Family law attorney Barbara Kauffman complained that Marin County Superior Court, under the direction of Court Executive Officer Kim Turner, had destroyed child custody case files and had backdated court records in 2009 when the court was facing an investigation by the Bureau of State Audits.

Courts routinely purge documents to free up storage space, and the court said Turner had received permission from the Administrative Office of the Courts to destroy the documents. An internal investigation by the AOC cleared Turner of any legal wrongdoing.

Several attorneys publicly defended the family courts, but their remarks drew criticism from some of the other speakers. Barbara Monsey, a Marin attorney, said, "I can say without reservation, that there is absolutely no systemic problem with the Marin County bench."

Her comments were interrupted by an outburst from one speaker, an emotional mother who cried "Liar," at Monsey, then said "her nose is growing," as Monsey stepped down from the podium.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye threatened to have the woman removed. "If there are any further disruptions for the speakers, I'm going to ask CHP to remove the speaker and explain our protocol out in the hall," she said.

The Stop Court Crimes initiative seeks to expose corruption and improve court accountability and transparency through an education campaign targeting the Judicial Council, Legislature, State Bar, Commission on Judicial Performance and other agencies responsible for Judicial Branch oversight.   

Event details from the Center for Judicial Excellence: 

Join Us This Thursday In Sacramento! (Center for Judicial Excellence)

"As part of our ongoing 2015 Year of Action, CJE will return to the Judicial Council next Thursday, February 19th in Sacramento. CJE and our allies need your help once again to ensure another powerful presence. Whether you’ve been with us recently or this is your first time, we encourage everyone who can possibly make it to please join us on Thursday, Feb. 19th in Sacramento to help grow our movement and deliver our court reform message.

The Judicial Council continues to change their format for public comment, so we do not know how many people will get to testify, but you will be allowed 1-3 minutes to speak. If you want to attend but do not want to speak, bring a friend, relative or neighbor, and help show our strength in numbers by sitting quietly in the meeting wearing a red Stop Court Crimes T Shirt. Please email CJE to let us know that you are coming so that we can keep in touch!

Meet us at Starbucks beforehand!
The public portion of the meeting begins at 10:20am, but we will be at the Starbucks down the road from 9am to 10am to grab coffee and visit. The Starbucks is located at 2620 Gateway Oaks Drive - Sacramento, CA 95833.

Meeting Agenda

What: Judicial Council of California Meeting
When: 10:20am – 2:15pm, Thursday, Feb. 19th. Public comment is scheduled to take place from 10:55am to 11:25am, but everyone is advised to please arrive before the meeting starts at 10:20am.
Where: 2860 Gateway Oaks Drive, Suite 400 • Sacramento, California 95833

Who: Anyone concerned about or affected by the failures of the California court system. If you have already testified, then please join us again, but we ask that you consider submitting written comments and allowing others to speak during our limited public comment session. So many people have been harmed by the broken California courts, and the Judicial Council needs to hear from as broad of a group as possible. Thanks for your cooperation. We will videotape all testimony once again, as we did last time.

How:

If you did not speak at the last meetings and would like to address the Judicial Council next Thursday, then please send a brief email to judicialcouncil@jud.ca.gov. stating your name (first and last), and the topic you would like to speak about (Judicial Accountability) in your email.

For those who spoke at one of the last meetings, we ask you to please join us again in your red t-shirt and submit written comments for this meeting. Comments should be submitted to judicialcouncil@jud.ca.gov.

Anyone who cares about judicial integrity and the crisis in our state's courts is welcome to join us in the gallery in a show of support for the many people being harmed by our broken court system. You do not need to be a victim of a corrupt court proceeding in order to attend. Just bring $15 for a CJE membership and we will give you a red t-shirt that you can wear to show your support for our growing movement. It is going to take a statewide movement to expose what is going wrong in our courts, and we thank each and every one of you who is willing to participate."