Ex-Colleagues Testify in Support of Bradley

Despite suspended Judge Robert Bradley’s two drunk-driving convictions and a spate of alcohol-related arrests, Ventura County’s top legal authorities told a state panel Monday that they would welcome him back to the bench if he can stay sober.

One after another, Bradley’s former colleagues described him as a hard-working and capable judge whose life derailed amid a painful divorce and a losing battle with alcoholism.

“Judge Bradley is an extraordinarily fine man and judge with an extraordinarily debilitating disease,” Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury told the panel. “If that disease were in check, I see no reason why he couldn’t do his job.”

Bradley, 57, is the first county judge to face formal proceedings on charges of judicial misconduct, which were filed earlier this year by the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

He is charged with nine counts, including two drunk-driving convictions, showing up to work under the influence of alcohol, failure to do his job and habitual use of alcohol while a judge.

A panel of three judges--all from outside the area--began hearing evidence Monday during a hearing at the appellate courthouse in downtown Ventura.

Depending on the panel’s recommendations, Bradley could face a spectrum of penalties, ranging from censure to removal from office. Although his judicial seat was already filled in the November elections, removal from office could bar Bradley from ever hearing cases as a temporary judge--a potentially lucrative job. Temporary judges earn $397 per day.

Attorneys for the state commission launched their case Monday by calling two witnesses: the county’s presiding judge, Charles Campbell, and the chief executive officer of the courts, Sheila Gonzalez.

Both testified about Bradley’s conduct over a tumultuous three-month period earlier this year, during which they said the judge twice threatened violence against his estranged wife and her male friend, and ultimately had to be barred from the courthouse after showing up to work drunk.

Campbell testified about a conversation he had with Bradley on Jan. 5, two days after his second drunk-driving arrest, in which the judge confided details of his wife’s romantic relationship with Deputy Dist. Atty. Miles Weiss.

“He said at one point, ‘Maybe I ought to blow them both away,’ ” Campbell testified. “It seemed to me he was referring to Mr. Weiss and Mrs. Bradley.”

At the time, Campbell said, he did not believe Bradley intended to hurt either one of them: “I didn’t treat it as a threat. I treated it as a state of depression on his part and a sense of hopelessness.”

Nevertheless, Campbell said, he contacted the district attorney and told him about the judge’s remark. Three days later, he handed Bradley a written memo stating that he was to be “alcohol-free” on the job.

Less than a week later, on Jan. 13, Bradley showed up for work drunk. Now uneasy about his friend’s earlier remark, Campbell then notified the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which patrols the area where Bradley’s wife lives.

“I was led to believe Judge Bradley had shown up to work intoxicated. That to me appeared to be just such an example of poor judgment, it made me reassess what he was capable of,” Campbell said.

A month later, Campbell met with the county’s supervising judges and they decided to bar Bradley from the courthouse to head off a potential confrontation between him and his wife, who works as a court reporter, or Weiss.

When questioned by commission attorney Bill Smith about how Bradley’s conduct has affected the day-to-day operation of the courts, Campbell said the local media had stirred up controversy and told the panel he and other judges have been able to keep cases on track.

“His absence did not create any significant problems that we do not deal with all the time,” he said.

Campbell, later called as a witness for Bradley, went on to testify that before his marital and alcohol-related struggles, Bradley held a position of high esteem among the county’s lawyers and judges. He said if Bradley can stay sober, he would consider using him as a temporary judge.

Although she met with Bradley daily for two years, Gonzalez told the panel she had no idea Bradley was an alcoholic until former Sheriff Larry Carpenter told her he thought Bradley had a drinking problem.

That was 10 months before the judge’s first drunk-driving arrest, she said. During the following months, she tried to help Bradley. He often called her at home after hours.

“I became like a sounding board, a baby-sitter,” she said. “He would call and say, ‘I’m going to drink.’ I felt like I was working with him on his problem.”

But on the morning of Jan. 13, she received a phone call from Bradley’s secretary, reporting that the judge was intoxicated. When Gonzalez and Assistant Presiding Judge Bruce Clark confronted him, Bradley reeked of alcohol, she said, and denied that he had been drinking.

Clark told him he had to leave. Later that day, Gonzalez drove him to an alcohol-treatment center against his will. “He was hostile, he was angry,” she recalled.

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A month later, Bradley called her from his brother’s house in San Diego. She said he had been drinking, and told her he “really did it this time,” explaining that he had left a threatening message on Weiss’ voicemail at the district attorney’s office. Gonzalez later learned that there had been no such message.

After the commission attorneys rested their case, Bradley’s lawyer called a cross-section of the county’s top lawyers and judges to testify about Bradley’s character and his judicial skills.

“I’ve seen him as a prosecutor, as a colleague [in private practice], as a trial judge and in his role as an administrator of the court,” said Ventura attorney J. Roger Myers. “I think he has always done an excellent job.”

Presiding Justice Steven Stone of the 6th District Court of Appeal, which includes Ventura County, said he has reviewed numerous cases on appeal that Bradley handled as a trial judge.

“I saw nothing that would show intemperance in the record,” he said. Asked if he would be troubled if a sober Bradley were assigned cases as a temporary judge, Stone replied: “Not for a second.”

That opinion was echoed by Bradbury: “Given a reasonable period of sobriety, I would allow my deputies to try cases before him, yes.”

And it was repeated by county Public Defender Kenneth Clayman: “He is a judge of integrity. He is a judge who is even-handed.”

Bradley was first arrested Dec. 6, 1997, for drunk driving after a CHP officer saw him run a stop sign near his former Ojai home. His blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit for driving.

A month later, on Jan. 3, 1998, Bradley was arrested for the same offense in Santa Paula. He pleaded guilty to both drunk-driving charges and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and placed on probation.

But before serving his jail sentence, Bradley had to decide whether to file papers for reelection to his Superior Court seat.

On Monday, Bradley testified in his own defense, recalling some details surrounding his back-to-back drunk-driving arrests, his repeated attempts to stay sober, and the political fallout that followed his various offenses.

Bradley told the panel that the day before he showed up to work intoxicated, he had met with Superior Court Judge Colleen “Toy” White, who advised him not to seek reelection. He said the conversation depressed him greatly.

“She told me I didn’t have a chance,” Bradley testified. “She told me there was only one issue: driving under the influence. And anything I’d done before that wouldn’t matter to the voters.”

Bradley also recalled for the panel a series of probation and protective order violations that followed his drunk-driving convictions.

On April 25, the judge broke the terms of his probation by getting drunk and taking a cab to the home of his wife, Dorothea. He admitted breaking into the house by prying open a window with a knife, but could not recall whether he had threatened to kill his wife when she asked him to leave, as he is accused of having done.

Bradley was arrested and ordered to have no contact with his wife. Within hours, however, he violated the order by calling her five times. He told the panel none of those calls were threatening.

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In May, Bradley again broke the terms of his probation by drinking and riding a bicycle while under the influence of alcohol. Bradley subsequently admitted himself to a 90-day alcohol treatment program in Prescott, Ariz. But he left the program on July 21 and returned to Ventura where he was again arrested on another probation violation for drinking.

Asked by his attorney, Thomas Brayton, to describe the effect his conduct has had on the local bench, Bradley dropped his head and said softly: “Terrible.” Bradley, who continues to draw his $107,000 annual salary through year’s end, is scheduled to resume his testimony this morning. The hearing is expected to conclude by this afternoon.