State Panel Bans Bradley From Bench for Year

After an embarrassing string of alcohol-related arrests, retired Ventura County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Bradley was banned from the bench Thursday for at least a year and publicly reprimanded for his drunken conduct.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance handed down its unanimous decision in a written ruling, saying Bradley’s conduct “clearly warrants a public censure.”

The ruling stopped short, however, of the severest punishment available, which would have been a lifetime ban. This decision allows the retired jurist to reapply in a year to hear cases on a part-time basis as a temporary judge, which Bradley has said many times is his objective.

“He thought that the decision, under all the circumstances, was a fair one,” said Bradley’s attorney, Thomas C. Brayton of Claremont. Brayton spoke with his client Thursday after the ruling was released in San Francisco.

The 58-year-old jurist, who served 16 years on the bench, was suspended last year after two drunk-driving convictions and showing up to work intoxicated.

After stepping down, he violated the terms of his probation four times in six months, mostly by drinking, and served two jail sentences.

Bradley did not seek reelection last year, but he has repeatedly indicated a desire to return to the bench. At a commission hearing in San Francisco last month, Bradley asked for another chance, telling commissioners he has been sober nine months, working for a Ventura contractor and is capable of handling court cases.

But the commission’s prosecutors fiercely opposed the idea.

They said his behavior was “unprecedented” for a sitting judge.

In reprimanding Bradley, commissioners said in their 11-page ruling that “the public should be reassured that such actions by a judge are unethical and will not be overlooked.”

But commissioners said they were also impressed by Bradley’s clean record before his arrests and do not want to “foreclose” him from petitioning for future assignments if he can maintain his sobriety.

Brayton said the commission’s ruling means Bradley must prove himself over the next 12 months.

“If he maintains his sobriety, he can petition the commission to remove its order barring him from future judicial assignments,” Brayton said. “I think the decision . . . is a reasonable one.”

Ventura County Presiding Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. likened the decision to probation. He described the ruling as “courageous.”

“It would have been easy to say he should never sit by assignment,” Campbell said. “It would seem to me that if he can comply with the conditions they’ve set out, he deserves a reconsideration.”

Bradley’s troubles started after back-to-back drunk-driving arrests in December 1997 and January 1998. Once, police found two empty vodka bottles on the front seat.

The county’s presiding judge at the time, he voluntarily entered an alcohol treatment program after showing up to work intoxicated just 10 days after the second arrest.

Bradley pleaded guilty to the drunk-driving charges and served 30 days in jail. He was also placed on probation and ordered not to consume alcohol.

But in subsequent months, he repeatedly violated the terms of probation as his 18-year marriage collapsed.

First, he got drunk and took a taxi to his wife’s house in Ojai, where he pried open a window with a sod cutter. He told her he wanted to sleep in his own bed. She called the police.

Bradley was arrested for violating his probation by drinking. He was also ordered to stay away from his wife but violated the order just hours later by calling her from jail.

A month later, he was arrested again for violating probation after crashing his bicycle while intoxicated. Bradley was arrested again for drinking after returning from an out-of-state alcohol-treatment center.

After the last arrest, a Santa Barbara County judge called Bradley “very ill” and ordered him to serve six months in jail.

Early on, the Commission on Judicial Performance suspended Bradley and filed misconduct charges.

The commission also charged Bradley with abusing his judicial position by having county sheriff’s deputies drive him home after he was pulled over for driving erratically in mid-1997.

After a December hearing on those charges, a three-judge panel concluded in February that Bradley’s conduct violated the ethics of his profession and brought disrepute to the judiciary.

The panel’s conclusions were forwarded to the commission, which is made up of three judges, two lawyers and six members of the public.

Besides needing the commission’s permission to return to the bench, Bradley needs approval of the state’s chief justice and the county’s presiding judge if he is to serve as a judge again.

Bradley says his drinking problem is now under control, in part because he is getting treatment for a post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his military service in Vietnam.