Justice Must Be Served

Several voices were missing last week when a panel of out of town judges convened in Ventura to determine the future of suspended Superior Court Judge Robert Bradley.

One by one, Ventura County’s leading legal authorities testified that Judge Bradley should be allowed to return to the bench as a temporary judge once he has beaten the drinking problem that fueled a yearlong public debacle. He is charged with nine counts of judicial misconduct, including two drunk driving convictions, showing up to work drunk, failure to do his job and habitual use of alcohol while a judge.

Depending on the panel’s recommendations, Judge Bradley could face penalties ranging from private admonishment to removal from office. The latter would bar him from ever hearing cases again--even as a temporary judge, a $397-a-day position that Bradley has expressed interest in.

District attorney, presiding judge, public defender--the leaders of Ventura County’s courthouse fraternity took the stand to declare that Judge Bradley is a good man with a bad problem, a man who should be allowed to resume his judicial role if he can beat his alcoholism.

But no one spoke for Judge Bradley’s estranged wife, who has endured more than a year of embarrassment and fear, never knowing when or where or in what condition he might pop up next. It is known that he broke into her house with a knife, that he threatened her life on at least two other occasions and that, in one day alone, he telephoned her five times in violation of a court order.

No one spoke for other motorists, parents and children in Ojai who were endangered the night Judge Bradley was arrested by the California Highway Patrol after he ran a stop sign and was found to have nearly triple the legal limit of alcohol in his blood. Neither did anyone speak for people imperiled by his documented drunk driving in Santa Paula a month later.

No one spoke for the taxpayers who have continued to pay Judge Bradley’s $107,000 salary for the past 12 unproductive months.

Perhaps most significantly, no one spoke for the uncounted hundreds of Ventura County residents who will always wonder if their cases might have received less justice than they deserved because they were heard before an alcohol-impaired Judge Bradley.

Attorneys for Judge Bradley and for the state Commission on Judicial Performance now must submit written arguments to the panel. After that, the three judges have 60 days to submit their recommendations to the commission. A ruling is expected in the spring.

As many Ventura County families know all too well, alcoholism is a disease that is never truly beaten, only held at bay one day at a time. Part of that process is making amends to those done wrong in the course of drinking.

The Times wishes Judge Bradley strength, courage and good fortune as he attempts to rebuild his life. But we believe the public’s faith in his judgment has been too profoundly shaken for him to effectively resume presiding over a courtroom. He should stay off the bottle, off the public payroll and off the bench.