Municipal Court Judge Sues Register for Libel

Municipal Judge Calvin Schmidt, who is targeted in a corruption probe, filed a libel suit against the Orange County Register on Tuesday, contending the newspaper printed unfounded allegations that he gave lenient treatment to two prostitutes in exchange for sex.

Schmidt, 59, one of six Harbor Municipal Court judges who has come under scrutiny by the state Commission on Judicial Performance, seeks unspecified damages against the Register, contending it published false allegations about him in a series of articles that began last October.

“We believe the lawsuit is without merit and will vigorously defend our articles,” said Register Editor N. Christian Anderson.

In a closed hearing last summer, the Commission on Judicial Performance investigated allegations against Schmidt, but no decision has yet been rendered. The commission’s probe of another Harbor Court Judge, Brian R. Carter, was dropped when he retired from the Newport Beach post in February.

Many details of the commission’s investigation into Schmidt, Carter and other Harbor Court judges were published in other newspapers, including The Times.

In a Superior Court lawsuit, Schmidt claimed the accusations in the Register were made recklessly and without adequate investigation. Before the Register published the stories, it had been advised “by other judges that they, and not Judge Schmidt, were the ones involved,” the suit said.

“The Register also ignored matters of public record known to it or accessible to it that the sentences involved were consistent with published Harbor Court policy, and Orange County rules, and as a matter of law were not favorable decisions, but rather normal decisions,” the suit states.

The suit says the Register was notified of the errors verbally on many occasions. In addition, Schmidt’s attorney submitted a written demand for a clarification of a March 10 article, but none was printed, according to the suit.

In that story, X-rated film star Pamela Weston said she had testified before the Orange County grand jury that a friend of Schmidt’s “might have” interceded with Schmidt on her behalf when she was arrested on prostitution charges in 1984.

Weston’s 10-day jail sentence was reduced to 10 days of community service. The Register said the grand jury was trying to determine whether Schmidt reduced the term in exchange for sex. In interviews with the Register, Weston denied sexual involvement with the judge.

In a March 13 letter to Register Editor Anderson, attorney H. Warren Siegel said the Register knew that Harbor Court Municipal Judge Frances Munoz, not Judge Schmidt, reduced Weston’s sentence and made no mention of that in its story. Siegel demanded a published clarification of the story.

In other stories, the Register reported that Schmidt allegedly offered to reinstate the driver’s license of convicted prostitute Della Christine Johnson in 1984 in exchange for a promise of sex. She told police that Judge Carter later collected on that promise by having sex with her. Carter denied it.