The Commission on Judicial Performance filed a notice of formal proceedings against Judge John Laettner.

Two portraits emerged Friday of Judge John Laettner, the Contra Costa County jurist facing disciplinary charges for allegedly demeaning women in his courtroom and skirting legal procedures in cases.

In closing arguments before a three-judge panel in Sacramento, Mark Lizarraga, trial counsel for the Commission on Judicial Performance, described Laettner as a judge who “lacked candor” and offered “absurd” defenses to claims he had improper ex parte conversations and made inappropriate comments about women's physical appearances.

“It's clear from the testimony, women who are entering Judge Laettner's courtroom are subject to disparate treatment by Judge Laettner,” Lizarraga said. “None of these comments are being made to men.”

Laettner's attorney, James Murphy of Murphy Pearson Bradley & Feeney, called his client “a dedicated public servant” and said many of the accusations against him are baseless or misconstrued and driven by public defenders angry at him for denying their bail requests.

“Did [Laettner] do some things that are wrong? Admittedly he did,” Murphy said. “But I don't think any of his conduct in this case warrants a finding of willful misconduct or conduct prejudicial.”

The panel—Justice M. Kathleen Butz of the Third District Court of Appeal and Superior Court Judges Douglas Hatchimonji of Orange County and Russell Hom of Sacramento County—must now consider witness testimony and hundreds of pages of filings before submitting a report to the Commission on Judicial Performance. The commission will then decide whether and how Laettner should be disciplined.

Laettner has been accused of willful and prejudicial misconduct. If the commission sustains the allegations, he could face censure or removal from office.

A former Tulare County prosecutor, Laettner served as an assistant U.S. attorney in California's Northern District between 1989 and 2006. He was then appointed to the Contra Costa bench by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In September, the commission charged Laettner with nine counts or wrongdoing dating back to 2008. Four of the counts involved comments by the judge that commission counsel said “would reasonably be perceived as sexual harassment or sexual discrimination.”

In one instance, commission attorneys alleged Laettner told grand jurors that a prosecutor—who was sometimes in the courtroom during the comments—was “beautiful” and that she was one of his favorite attorneys, and that he liked to say that he “married Ms. Bell” because he performed her wedding ceremony.

In 2017, Laettner allegedly told a deputy public defender who is part Japanese American that he “knew some 'very beautiful half-Japanese twins in college,' or words to that effect. [He] also asked her intrusive questions about her racial ancestry, background and upbringing,” the commission alleged.

Murphy said that only two lawyers complained about his remarks and when one confronted him, “he took it to heart” and never made such comments again.

Laettner was also accused of resetting bail in the absence of a defendant, failing to disclose to a public defender an ex parte communication he had with a prosecutor, revoking a defendant's “own recognizance” status in his absence, prejudging a minor's case, improperly offering a 25 percent reduction in jail days for defendants who pleaded guilty, and failing to disclose in three criminal cases that his son worked for the district attorney's office.

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