California judge reprimanded for calling parents ‘rotten,’ ‘stupid’

He called parents in his courtroom “rotten,” “stupid,” and in one case, a “total human disaster.”

One woman’s daughter might as well begin “walking the streets as a hooker” because of the way her mother behaved in court, he told her.

Those pointed comments, among others, came back to haunt Solano County Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Healy, who was publicly admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Performance Wednesday despite his defense that he was only trying to help.

Healy, who has been a judge in Solano County since January 2011, presides over family court cases, which the commission recognized are “high-conflict” and “difficult.”

Where Healy argued he was only using “blunt and evocative language” to drive home seriousness of the situations of those before him, the commission said he crossed the line.

The comments, the commission concluded, are “the antithesis of imparting the importance of respect.”

Much of the commission’s criticism was aimed at Healy’s comments during one specific case -- that of a mother accused of driving drunk in the middle of the night with her child in the car. Meanwhile, the child’s father was facing a criminal domestic violence case.

One specific Healy diatribe, the commission said, lacked the patience, dignity and courteousness judges are expected to exercise in their official capacity:

“I just think, to be honest with you, sometimes people are just rotten, and they can’t respect other people. Everything’s drama. It’s like they’re trying out for Jersey Shore … Maybe what I should do is have CPS save your child from both of you because you are both rotten,” Healy said.

In other instances, Healy warned people they’d be thrown in jail if he was “in the wrong mood” and mockingly said one “morbidly obese” father wasn’t going to get a job because he was “at risk of dying any time.”

Healy acknowledged the impropriety of his conduct, the commission said, but denied violating the canons of judicial ethics.

“However the contentious nature of the case, [it] does not relieve a judge from the duty to treat litigants in a dignified, respectful and courteous manner as required,” the commission wrote.

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