Justice’s daughter, attorneys speak on his behalf at discipline hearing

LOS ANGELES -- Justice Jeffrey W. Johnson was a loving father, trustworthy mentor, good friend and reliable career advocate, according to his daughter and several attorneys who testified Monday at a hearing into physical and verbal sexual harassment and bullying accusations against the appellate court justice made by 17 women.

Johnson wept as his adult daughter, Chelsea Johnson, spoke about a rough period during her senior year of college at Brandeis University in 2014. The justice also sobbed late last week when a woman testified about how he mentored her and helped children at the charter school where she worked.

The hearing, expected to last 19 days, entered its third week Monday. Three judicial officers designated special masters by the Commission on Judicial Performance are hearing the testimony of witnesses called by the commission's examiners and Johnson's attorneys. If the special masters conclude Johnson engaged in judicial misconduct, they can recommend discipline up to removal from the bench. The women who testified against him range from fellow justices on the 2nd District Court of Appeal to former court workers, attorneys and a California Highway Patrol Officer assigned as his security detail.

California Highway Patrol Capt. Aron Ching characterized one of Johnson's accusers, a CHP officer who testified last week, as "not a strong officer in our unit."

Tatiana Sauquillo, a CHP officer for 10 years who is now on leave, testified that Johnson propositioned her many times in the car and the courthouse, described sexual acts he wanted to commit on her, and ran his hand along her thigh once during the time she was assigned to drive and protect him. She said she made no complaints about him but requested a transfer from the judicial protection unit.

In his testimony, Ching referred to an on-duty collision Sauquillo did not report in a timely fashion.

"She was involved in a traffic collision on duty and failed to report it," he said, noting the accident occurred on a Friday and was reported the following Monday.

James Jefferson, another California Highway Patrol officer who worked in the Judicial Protection Service alongside Sauquillo, confirmed her testimony that she had not made any complaints about Johnson or reported his behavior when she worked in the unit.

The justice's daughter, Chelsea Johnson, testified she recently broke up with her boyfriend, whom she identified as John.

"He was older than I was. He was a Marine for 10 years before I met him," Chelsea Johnson testified, noting John had deployed twice, once to Fallujah in Iraq.

In breathless, emotional testimony, Chelsea Johnson spoke of a traumatic scene she witnessed as she returned to her dorm room from a meal with friends to find "the whole floor was covered in blood; there was razor blades."

"He's screaming at me that it's my fault, and I did this to him," she testified, saying John began stalking her after the incident, causing her to have persistent panic attacks.

These attacks could only be alleviated by regular calls to her father, who she said ably shepherded her through one of the darkest periods of her life.

Stephen Addezio, a workers compensation attorney in New Jersey with Malamut & Associates, said Johnson was integral in helping him develop a professional manner when he worked for him as an extern.

"He genuinely cared where we landed," Addezio said. He mentioned Johnson took a keen interest in his staff's legal interests and worked to help them network in relevant fields.

"If we had a problem or a question, ... he was always open and available," Addezio told the special masters panel.

Addezio said Johnson urged him to resign himself to working harder than he ever had before and to put serious effort into improving his writing skills.

Johnson's attorney Paul S. Meyer of Costa Mesa asked Addezio about an incident at the Spring Street Bar in which Johnson and a young woman argued, according to testimony from witnesses called previously by the Commission on Judicial Performance examiners.

Addezio said a young woman approached their party and antagonistically addressed Johnson. Something to the effect of, "My dad works at the court. He says you're a moron," Addezio testified.

The testimony appeared to be a reference to either the daughters or the niece of Justice Thomas L. Willhite, who previously testified his daughters told him about seeing Johnson drunk and hitting on younger women at the Spring Street Bar near the courthouse. Willhite also said his niece told him Johnson told her something to the effect of, "I have dirt on your uncle, some veiled kind of threats like that" as part of a diatribe against her that made her cry. This interaction allegedly occurred at the Spring Street Bar as well.

During cross-examination from Commission on Judicial Performance attorney Mark A. Lizarraga, Addezio said he used Johnson as a reference to get his first job out of school.

Janet Levine, an attorney at Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP, testified she opposed Johnson on a case from much earlier in both their careers. The two got along professionally, she said, bonding over the experience of being new parents.

"I had an interest in his children. He had an interest in mine," Levine said. She never found Johnson to have been inappropriate at all during her working interaction with him, she told the panel.

Joshua Roberts, an attorney representing injured workers for Van Nuys-based firm Straussner Sherman, similarly testified to Johnson's good nature. He "took an interest in getting to know me," and they shared details about their lives, said Roberts, an extern for Johnson in the spring of 2012.

"He provided excellent guidance with respect to professional choices I was making," Roberts said, adding that Johnson was there for him when he went through a difficult breakup.

Roberts also testified about the incident at the Spring Street Bar, saying a woman called Johnson an "idiot" and "identified herself as the daughter of another justice." Under questioning from Lizarraga, Roberts also said he received a letter of recommendation from Johnson and likely more than one reference.