Panel finds Contra Costa County judge committed sexual harassment

A panel investigating Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge John T. Laettner found he committed willful misconduct in office, including sexually harassing female attorneys and staff and having undisclosed ex parte communications with attorneys.

In its 144-page report, issued Friday, the panel of special masters appointed by the Commission on Judicial Performance said it found clear and convincing evidence of four counts related to sexual harassment and two counts related to remanding defendants off the record. Three counts related to racial bias, encouraging defendants to plead guilty and failure to recuse were not proven, according to the report.

The report followed a 10-day evidentiary hearing in which the panel heard testimony from 60 witnesses and reviewed over 300 exhibits. The commission will now review the report and the record and determine whether to impose discipline, which could include removal from the bench.

"Although it is undisputed that Judge Laettner had (and has) an exemplary work ethic, is a responsible and conscientious judge, and an asset to the Contra Costa County Superior Court, ... Judge Laettner failed to remain continually conscious, as all judges must be, of his position and crossed the boundary between permissible and impermissible conduct," the special masters wrote.

In one incident in 2016, Laettner was accused of telling a female deputy public defender, "Sometimes having you in here is like having a teenage daughter. You constantly argue with me and you just keep talk, talk, talking until you get what you want," according to the report. Laettner admitted to making the comment but said it was a joke and compliment, according to the report.

In a separate conversation, he told the same attorney, "Your parents hadn't spanked you enough." Laettner apologized for the comment during the hearing, according to the report.

Laettner argued throughout the proceedings that the allegations were the result of the county public defender's campaign against him in response to disagreements over a pretrial bail program, according to an October brief.

"It's clear we're here because the public defender's office in Contra Costa County was out to get Judge Laettner," the judge's attorney, James T. Murphy, said during closing arguments in April.

Murphy, of Murphy Pearson Bradley & Feeney, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

In the report, the special masters said they did not consider the motivations behind the investigation when making their assessment but saw the accusation as an aggravating factor.

Other aggravating factors included that Laettner was "not credible or not truthful" in some of his testimony and that two employees' jobs were affected by his conduct. But two judges, including a former Commission on Judicial Performance member, and an attorney testified in Laettner's favor, and he doesn't have any prior disciplinary history, according to the report.

The special masters were 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice M. Kathleen Butz, Orange County Superior Court Judge Douglas J. Hatchimonji and Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Russell L. Hom.