Judges Decline to Stand in Judgment of Colleague

Judges of the San Diego Municipal Court, concerned about the appearance of impropriety, will not preside in the battery case involving their colleague, Judge Joseph Davis, his attorney said Tuesday.

Frederic Link, presiding judge of the Municipal Court, will arraign Davis today on a charge of beating his pregnant girlfriend, according to defense attorney Jan Ronis. Then, under an agreement with Ronis and city prosecutors, Link will transfer the case to one of the county’s other municipal courts--in either Chula Vista, El Cajon or Vista.

“The appearance of impropriety was so bad having this case in the San Diego Judicial District that the citizens would not like it,” said one Municipal Court source, who said he was relaying the feelings of judges who had discussed the matter informally. “It would just look so bad.”

The city attorney’s office issued a complaint last week charging Davis, 41, with a battery Nov. 23 on his live-in girlfriend, Anna Monica Garcia.

Though Garcia, 24, initially made a citizen’s arrest on Davis and sought a restraining order barring him from further contact with her, she subsequently refused to cooperate with city prosecutors. According to Ronis, Garcia has repudiated her allegations and is again living amicably with Davis.

The court’s handling of the matter stands in stark contrast to the municipal judges’ conduct the last time one of their colleagues faced a criminal charge.

In 1981, when Municipal Judge Lewis Wenzell was charged with eight misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution, the other judges for several weeks blocked him from hearing further cases--an embargo that ended only when the judges acknowledged they had no power to freeze-out a colleague.

In emotional private sessions, the judges later debated whether to call for Wenzell’s resignation and if they should support a recall vote seeking his ouster. Ultimately, Wenzell resigned--but only after his conviction on five counts of soliciting was reversed on appeal, the recall measure qualified for the ballot and the state Commission on Judicial Performance recommended his removal from office.

In every way, the case involving Davis, a former Legal Aid Society attorney and city prosecutor, has remained a low-key affair.

Davis has maintained his court calendar since his arrest. The municipal judges have held no meetings to discuss his status. And the case has generated little publicity, though Ronis has alleged that prosecutors are pursuing the charge against Davis because they object to his judicial philosophy.

In Wenzell’s case, a retired judge from Sonoma County conducted the arraignment. Later, the case was moved to Orange County for trial, over the objection of the district attorney’s office.

Chief Deputy City Atty. Stuart Swett declined Tuesday to comment on questions regarding the site of proceedings in Davis’ case.