Commission on Judicial Performance. Photo: Cheryl Miller/ALM Sonoma County Judge Disciplined for Diving Too Far Into Local School Debate
The Commission on Judicial Performance said Superior Court Judge James Bertoli violated canons barring judges from engaging in certain political activities.
October 30, 2024 at 06:19 PM
5 minute read
A Bay Area judge who became publicly and sometimes pointedly involved in a heated high school re-naming debate was admonished by the state's judicial watchdog agency, according to documents released Wednesday.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge James Bertoli "engaged in improper political activity [and] improper social media conduct that demeaned the judicial office" when he took to Facebook and a newspaper's editorial pages to decry a proposal to change the name of his alma mater, Analy High School in Sebastopol, the Commission on Judicial Performance stated.
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