Censured Riverside County judge to resign

A Riverside County judge who was censured for working only a few hours a day has agreed to resign with a pledge to never work again for a state court, a state judicial watchdog group said Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based Commission on Judicial Performance publicly censured Riverside County Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Sheldon, 60, after determining that he routinely left court before noon for nearly two years without authorization or notifying his supervisors.

Occasionally another judge handled Sheldon’s work in his absence, the commission found.

“Judge Sheldon has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for his obligations to his fellow judges, the public and the reputation of the judiciary,” the commission said in announcing Sheldon’s censure.

Sheldon will take accrued vacation until Oct. 23, his effective resignation date, a commission spokeswoman said. State judges usually receive six weeks paid vacation a year, and some courts have permitted jurists to accrue vacation days from one year to the next, the spokeswoman said.

Former Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Sheldon to Municipal Court in 1989 and former Gov. Pete Wilson elevated him to Superior Court.

In 1998, the commission publicly admonished Sheldon for frequent absences from the bench and for allowing employees under him to take care of his duties.

At times, Sheldon would leave his courtroom to “jog on a courthouse staircase” while his clerks entered pleas, executed sentencing documents and stamped his signature on forms, the commission said.

That action led to Sheldon being dubbed “the jogging judge,” though he and attorneys who appeared in his court defended his absences.

Sheldon has worked as a judge in the Indio branch of the Riverside County court since 2005, deciding when to remove children from unfit parents and when to return them.

In a 2001 profile, the Daily Journal, a legal newspaper, reported that Sheldon was a snake hunter and herpetologist whose passion for reptiles led him to pursue his legal career in the desert.

His attorney, Reginald A. Vitek, could not be reached for comment.

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maura.dolan@latimes.com