Sacramento Superior Court Controversy: Blame for Death of Cyclist by Judge Matthew J. Gary Spurs Debate on Reddit

Judge Matthew Gary's role in the death of Margaret Bengs has sparked a debate on the Reddit social media site.

A Sacramento Bee investigative report questioning the CHP account of a fatal traffic incident involving Judge Matthew Gary and 66-year-old cyclist Margaret Bengs has been posted to Reddit, an entertainment, social networking and news website. The article was posted to the Sacramento "subreddit," a category featuring news, information and commentary about the city. The Sacramento subreddit has over 10,000 followers.

The post generated 31 comments, some of which expressed skepticism at how the CHP has handled the investigation of the incident. "This story is so fucked up. CHP trying to blame the victim," said one commenter, whose user name is NXNW83. "[I]t's pretty obvious that they're starting by making assumptions of the guilt of the victim," NXNW83 added in a follow-up post.    

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A user with the handle smayonak pointed out that "There's a lot of evidence showing the judge is corrupt. The guy sounds really unbalanced," and provided supporting links to The Robing Room, a website that reviews judges, and RipOffReport, a consumer protection and advocacy site. 

In response, user fix850 defended the judge. "No, this judge just dealt with a lot of contentious cases over a very long time." The defense prompted a rebuttal - and additional supporting evidence - from smayonak:

"The reports on him show a consistent pattern of poor judgments, demotions for bad performance, illegal rulings and more. And he's fairly young for a judge. I compared his performance to other judges and he's probably the most disliked judge in Sacramento." 

Smayonak included additional links to several Sacramento Family Court News reports:

• Controversial Judge Matthew Gary Removed from Supervising Judge Position
• Court Clerk Blocks Appeal of Judge Matthew Gary Order Issued for Judge Pro Tem
• Judge Matthew Gary Undisclosed Conflict of Interest with Wife's Legal Services Company
• Judge Matthew Gary Orders Illegal Fee Waiver Hearing to Obstruct Appeal of Own Orders

The debate apparently ended there; Fix850 did not respond to the rebuttal. A review of past Reddit comments indicate that Fix850 is a lawyer who three years ago was elated to pass the state bar exam. "I'M A LAWYER...Now it's time to get wasted! Bachelorettenumber2, Esq," Fix850 posted three years ago. 

Sacramento Superior Court reform advocates allege that Judge Matthew Gary has helped facilitate and conceal a racketeering organization involving judge-attorney collusion operating in the family law division of the court. For additional articles about the judge, click here. To send us tips about this incident, or other newsworthy information about Sacramento Superior Court, click here.