GOP attorney general candidate faces charges
Republican candidate Steven Bailey is facing nearly a dozen charges of judicial misconduct for allegedly having misused his post as an El Dorado County Superior Court judge prior to stepping down last August to run for state attorney general.
Allegations of wrongdoing range from Bailey launching his campaign for AG while still on the bench to placing DUI defendants in a private, alcohol monitoring program where his son works.
Bailey is due to appear before
the state Commission on Judicial Performance next week to answer to the charges, which could result in a formal censure — though it wouldn’t impact his serving as attorney general.
The case was filed in February, well before Bailey’s second-place primary showing set the stage for a November showdown against Democratic Attorney Xavier Becerra. Still his attorney, James Murphy, questioned whether next week’s hearing was “politically motivated or a brazen attempt to sabotage Judge Bailey's campaign.”
Complaints against Bailey include:
That he raised money and campaigned for attorney general, including speaking at events in Southern California, while still on the bench.
That he improperly allowed his photo (in his judicial robe) to be used by a political polling firm and that he once commented about gay men having good taste in how to dress.
That he accepted event tickets as gifts outside of ethics guidelines and failed to report in a timely manner covered payments for lodging, meals and honoraria at a judicial conference.
And, more seriously, that he ordered criminal defendants to use the services of CHI Monitoring, a private company that provides alcohol monitoring bracelets to the county’s probation department, without disclosing that his son worked for the firm.
Murphy said Bailey had followed the rules, citing an April 2009 opinion by the California Judges Association that he was not required to disclose his son’s employment at CHI unless the son was called to testify before the judge.
“This is such garbage,” Murphy said this week when we questioned him about the conflict allegation.
Six members of the Commission on Judicial Performance are appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democraticcontrolled legislative leadership, with three others appointed by the state Supreme Court.
Greg Dresser, the commission’s director and chief counsel, denied the case against Bailey was in any way politically motivated. He said the charges were filed on “a good-faith basis, and I think we can prove all the charges by clear and convincing evidence.”
There’s certainly no question that Bailey’s politics run counter to most Democrats in Sacramento — the South Lake Tahoe Republican, for example, has blasted Becerra’s move to defend California’s sanctuary city law and blames progressive Democratic policies for seeking to “empty the prisons, decriminalize crime” at the expense of public safety.
Bailey’s attorney claims the case was instigated by El Dorado Superior Court Presiding Judge Suzanne Kingsbury, who had a falling out with Bailey several years ago after he raised questions about her 18year tenure as presiding judge — a job that in other jurisdictions is typically rotated.
According to one recent commission filing by Murphy, Kingsbury and her staff were so determined to get rid of Bailey that they “tracked his movement” and conducted searches of his activities on the internet without his knowledge.
Kingsbury, who lists “no party preference” on her voter record, did not respond to our request for comment.
One thing is for sure — both sides say the fight has been both costly and time-consuming, with thousands of pages of documents submitted.
“We think the charges are serious,” commission boss Dresser said.
Prior to running for attorney general, Bailey spent 8½ years on the bench.
If the charges are upheld, not only might he face a public censure, but he could be barred from serving on the bench again or even being assigned to cases as a retired judge.
The case will be heard before a special threemember panel of judges in Sacramento starting Sept. 4, but it will likely be several months — and well after the November election — before it makes a recommendation to the commission. Even then, the commission won’t issue a final ruling until hearing further arguments from both sides.
In any case, not the best way to start the final race to be the state’s top lawman. Garbage go round: Mayor London Breed, who issued a call Tuesday for other cities to join San Francisco in reducing their garbage output, might want to take a look in her own backyard.
Breed is urging cities to cut their solid waste generation by 15 percent by 2030 — and cut their landfill hauls by 50 percent by 2050.
“We all need to work together ... to save our planet for generations to come,” Breed said in a statement announcing the challenge.
Goals are goals — but, according the recent city controller’s report, San Francisco is “not meeting” its own targets.
The average amount of refuse sent to the city’s primary landfill has increased slightly but steadily since a low of 1,222 tons per workday in December 2013.
In the most recent count, the average workday haul had risen to 1,582 tons in June 2018 — an increase of about 360 tons a day, or nearly 23 percent.
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@ sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross