Ex-Judge Faces Third Drunk Driving Charge

Retired Superior Court Judge Hugo Fisher was arrested Saturday night for driving under the influence of alcohol, the third such incident involving the former jurist in the past six years.

If convicted, Fisher could face a mandatory 120-day jail term as a three-time drunk driving offender under a new state law that took effect Jan. 1, said a San Diego County prosecutor who asked not to be identified.

Fisher, 65, was arrested aboard his sailboat, which was docked in a slip in the Harbor Island marina, shortly after he allegedly fled the scene of a two-car collision on the ramp leading from Harbor Drive to Harbor Island, said Harbor Police Sgt. Jen Borgen. No one was hurt in the accident, she said.

Fisher was booked into County Jail about 7:30 p.m. on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, hit and run, and driving with an expired license--all misdemeanor charges, Borgen said. About an hour later, Fisher was released after posting bail of $675, a spokeswoman at the jail said.

A breath test was performed on Fisher, but the results were not available, Borgen said.

Fisher was charged twice with drunk driving in 1981 while still on the Superior Court bench. In April, 1981, he was fined $400 and placed on three years’ probation after pleading no contest to the first charge.

He was arrested again Thanksgiving Day on the same charge, which violated his probation. He pleaded guilty Jan. 18, was fined again and was ordered to attend a year of rehabilitation classes for repeat drunk driving offenders.

Fisher was later ordered to refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages for three years and to avoid entering bars and liquor stores except during the course of employment.

Those charges were not his only troubles at the time. In December, 1981, the state Commission on Judicial Performance recommended that Fisher be censured for his handling of a $5 million conservatorship case involving a former actress.

In July, 1982, the Supreme Court upheld the recommendation, which came after a three-year investigation concluded that Fisher had repeatedly held one-sided meetings outside the courtroom with attorneys involved in the case, without the knowledge of the former actress or her attorneys. The censure carried no other punishment.

Fisher retired six months later after 16 years on the bench, his long career as a judge, legislator and head of the state’s Resources Agency marred by the events of his final two years in public service.

Both previous drunk driving arrests came before the Jan. 1, 1982, effective date of a new state law requiring that convicted drunk driving offenders serve some jail time.

But Saturday’s arrest occurred 17 days after the effective date of a new state law allowing courts to consider prior drunk driving convictions that occurred within the past seven years, the prosecutor said. Before this year, only convictions from the previous five years were considered, he said.