Tag: Richard I. Fine

This is the underlying story of how judges taking illegal county and court payments and county supervisors making such payments to increase their own salaries corrupted the California judicial system. California’s Judges Are the Highest Paid State Judges in the U.S. California Superior Court judges can earn $186,000 per year in state salary plus state benefits before receiving “Supplemental Judicial Benefits” under the formula of Govt. Code 68203. Superior Court [Trial Court] judges in Los Angeles County currently earn as high as $379,604 in total annual wages [$310, 268 –regular pay; $69,336- other pay] and $51,116 in total annual retirement and health cost in a regular pay range classification of $189,041 according to the Office of the State Controller Government Compensation in California 2015. Why Does LA County Pay “Supplemental Judicial Benefits”? In 1988, LA County Supervisors justified the payments stating they were necessary to “attract and retain qualified people to serve as judges on the LA Superior Court.” This reason was reiterated 20 years later in Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles, 167 Cal.App.4th 630 (2008) Review Denied 12/23/2008 [Sturgeon I] in which the Court stated at page 638 in relevant part: “here there can be little doubt the benefits that the county provides its judges enhance the recruitment and retention of judges who serve in Los Angeles. Indeed, in support of its motion for summary judgment, the county relied upon a 1988 report on judicial compensation that found judicial salaries were not by themselves sufficient incentive to retain or recruit judges in the Los Angeles area.” (Emphasis added.) On its face, such explanation doesn’t make sense. Paying a sitting judge a “supplemental benefit” will not retain him in office as he/she must face an election to retain his/her… Read More

Contact and keep contacting California’s State Senators and State Assembly Members and urge them to support and enact the Campaign’s Amendment to SBX 2 11 (also known as the “Fine Amendment”) until the Amendment is enacted. ​Contact and keep contacting County Supervisors in all counties making illegal payments to judges and demand that they stop the illegal payments until all illegal payments end. Vote out all incumbent judges ​in every election in the counties where counties and/or courts give payments to judges until the payments stop and each judge who took a payment is out of office. Contact and keep contacting the President, U.S. Senators and Congressional Representatives urging the President to institute an Executive Order requiring prosecution and other actions and urging the Senators and Representatives to institute investigations into: (1) the reasons why the U.S. Department of Justice: (a) did not prosecute the judges for violating (i) the supremacy and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution requiring them to follow the U.S. Constitution and U.S. laws; and (ii) 18 U.S.C. Section 1346 (the intangible right to honest services) for taking illegal payments from counties that were appearing before them as parties; (2) the reasons the U.S. Department of Justice or the IRS did not prosecute the judges and counties for not paying taxes on the illegal payments into the judges 401K plans when the judges were not employees of the counties amongst other things; (3) whether the U.S. Government violated any laws by making Title IV and other payments and grants to the State of California, the California Courts and Judiciary and California Counties when the counties and the judges were violating federal law; and (4) whether such U.S. Government payments should immediately stop and remain stopped… Read More