Articles of Interest |
Associated Press |
Santa Barbara judge ousted from bench in ethics flap SAN FRANCISCO – A Santa Barbara County judge convicted of drunken driving and admonished for courthouse improprieties was ordered removed from the bench for concealing her girlfriend as the source of a $20,000 campaign donation. Hall “has shown an inability to control her behavior, demonstrating a strong likelihood she will continue to commit misconduct in the future,” the commission said. It was the sixth time since 2001 the 11-member commission ordered a judge removed. The agency said Hall concealed the $20,000 donation because she did not want to reveal during her 2002 re-election campaign that she was having a romantic relationship with a woman named Deidre Dykeman. Hall claimed she inadvertently broke campaign rules by not reading them, the commission said. Her live-in relationship with Dykeman became public Dec. 21, 2002, when Hall was arrested for drunken driving after having a fight with Dykeman in their Santa Ynez Valley home. Dykeman said Hall bit her and threatened to shoot one of her dogs. The judge, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.18, was convicted and sentenced to three years of probation. She was acquitted of charges stemming from the tangle with Dykeman. Hall was appointed to the bench in 1990 by Gov. George Deukmejian, a Republican. The commission also found that Hall improperly demanded to know why a prosecutor wanted her removed from a criminal case. Criminal attorneys can dismiss a judge without stating a reason and judicial canons bar judges from questioning their removal from a case. In 2005, the commission privately admonished Hall for defying a fellow judge's order not to attend the arraignment of Michael Jackson because all the seats in the gallery were taken. She disobeyed the judge and refused a bailiff's request to leave the courtroom. The case is Inquiry concerning Judge Diana R. Hall, No. 175.
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