Judicial Candidate Angers Justices

A candidate for Superior Court judge has deeply angered his own bosses at the state appeals court over a campaign mailer implying that he’s helped justices get tough with lower court trial judges on criminal cases.

The justices of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana took the rare step of writing to the Orange County Superior Court to disassociate themselves from the mailer. It was written by one of their research attorneys, Tom Dunn, who is running against Superior Court Commissioner Sheila Fell for an open judicial seat.

“Mr. Dunn . . . does not speak for this court,” wrote Presiding Justice David G. Sills. “None of our justices have delegated their decision-making responsibilities to staff . . . and are quite upset with any implications to the contrary.”

But Dunn says he did nothing wrong and that it’s “ridiculous” for the justices to impugn his motives over what he says amounts to no more than a “misunderstanding.”

If Dunn loses Tuesday’s election, the question remains how seriously he has jeopardized his own position at the Court of Appeal. Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. is so upset that he wrote to Fell that Dunn is “unfit to be a judicial officer.”

Though an appellate court lawyer, Dunn works directly for Justice William W. Bedsworth. Bedsworth has declined to comment, saying he needs to look into the matter. But he did join the other justices (except Justice Kathleen O’Leary, who was out of the county) in helping Sills word his letter to Superior Court Presiding Judge C. Robert Jameson.

Jameson was quoted in Friday’s Los Angeles Daily Journal, a legal newspaper, as being indignant over the mailer.

Dunn’s mailer states in part: “In the appellate courts, I have worked to ensure that trial judges are required to impose consecutive prison time for violent felons who personally use a firearm in the commission of their offenses.”

Sills said he’s received numerous complaints about the mailer from Superior Court judges. In his letter to Jameson, Sills also criticized Dunn’s comments on Fell’s performance in a pending case: “Allow me to also reassure you that our policy prohibits all personnel of this court from commenting on cases pending here or in your court.”

“What we do at the Court of Appeal is decide whether a trial was fair and the law was followed,” Sills said in an interview Friday.

Dunn insists that they are all misinterpreting the mailer and that he was actually referring to work he did on appeals while he was a deputy district attorney.

But when he e-mailed Crosby that explanation, Crosby sent back a one-word reply: “Bull.”