A Case of ‘Stage Fright’ Pays Off for Ex-S.D. Judge

A former San Diego municipal judge who resigned from the bench because of intense “stage fright” has been awarded a disability pension now worth $56,002 a year, court records reveal.

Former Judge Joseph K. Davis, 44, will receive the retirement pension for the rest of his life. The amount of the pension is keyed to the annual salary paid an active municipal judge, so that, as the salary goes up, so will the pension.

Davis won the pension as part of the settlement of a lawsuit with a state administrative agency over the severity of the psychiatric problems he suffered during most of his eight years on the bench, the court records indicate.

The “stage fright,” complicated by “depression with anxiety,” was so severe it interfered with Davis’ ability to perform routine judicial tasks and required him to take “inordinate” amounts of tranquilizers to get through the job, according to Davis’ lawsuit. Often, it caused him to miss work entirely, the suit said.

Although Davis tried to hide the problem, it worsened, the suit said. He began experiencing panic in any public setting in which he was expected to speak. Eventually, his ability to do his job was “totally impaired,” so he quit and applied for the pension, the suit said.

Davis could not be reached for comment. A source close to him said he is still in San Diego but not working.

His San Diego attorney, John Mitchell, declined comment Tuesday on the case. Vista Superior Court Judge Kevin Midlam, who ruled in Davis’ favor and then approved the settlement that ended the case, said Tuesday that the law “compelled” him to do both.

Only a handful of California judges request a disability pension in a given year, anywhere from five to 12 in each of the last 10 years, said Jack Frankel, chief counsel at the state Commission on Judicial Performance, the agency that oversees the retirement benefits and discipline of state judges. Nearly all of those requests were granted, he said.

The legal fight in Davis’ case developed after the commission first approved his pension application--and then denied it.

Davis stepped down from the bench Jan. 1, 1989, the final day of a six-year term. Appointed to the bench in April, 1980, and elected to the post in 1982, no one was surprised when he decided not to seek another term.

At the time, it was widely thought he had made the decision because his pregnant former girlfriend accused him in November, 1986, of beating her. Prosecutors filed a misdemeanor battery charge, but the woman declined to testify at Davis’ trial in February, 1987, and the charge was dismissed after a jury deadlocked, 11 to 1, for acquittal.

The episode appeared to doom Davis’ reelection chances, and he did not run again.

But, in the case Davis filed last summer in Vista Superior Court asking for his disability pension, he made no mention of the battery charge. Instead, he detailed the progression of his psychiatric difficulties.

Davis had been a lawyer for seven years before Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. made him a judge--practicing with the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and with the San Diego city attorney’s office--but his suit said it was about a year after he took the bench that his troubles began.

He found it particularly difficult to advise people charged with crimes of their constitutional rights and to read instructions to juries in criminal and civil cases, the suit said.

Davis tried to disguise his disorder, according to the suit. He made a tape of the constitutional advice he had to give and played it back in open court. He made sure jury instructions were given in writing.

Still, the condition worsened, the suit said. Davis’ attendance at work was sporadic, and “he thought he was having a nervous breakdown.”

Despite his disorder, Davis ran unopposed for election in June, 1982.

Five months later, he saw his family doctor, who diagnosed Davis’ condition as “stage fright” complicated by “depression with anxiety,” according to the suit. The doctor prescribed Valium, a tranquilizer, as well as an antidepressant and told Davis to take a few weeks off work.

When Davis returned, the Valium helped some, but, over time, he realized he was becoming dependent on the drug, the suit said.

By 1987, Davis, who had been prescribed 15 milligrams of Valium in 1982, was up to as much as 40 milligrams daily, the suit said. He needed the “inordinate” amount of medication just to get through a day on the bench, it said.

That summer, Davis saw a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him as “suffering a social phobia,” according to the suit. On Dec. 4, 1987, Davis voluntarily stepped down from the bench and applied to the Commission on Judicial Performance for the disability pension.

State law provides for lifetime monthly payments equal to 65% of an active judge’s salary for any judge who shows that he or she can no longer perform the job because of a mental or physical disability that is--or is likely to become--permanent.

Davis stopped working entirely after filing his December, 1987, request, although he continued to receive his full salary until his term expired last January.

Through 1988 and 1989, Davis saw various doctors and psychiatrists as the state commission reviewed his case. In legal briefs that Davis’ lawyer and the state attorney general’s office--representing the state commission--would later file in the lawsuit, the focus was not on whether Davis was disabled but whether the disability was permanent.

One San Diego doctor who examined Davis, in fact, said that panic disorders are “among the more disabling” of psychiatric illnesses to strike otherwise healthy people. People who suffer from them, Dr. Stephen Shuchter said in a letter to the state commission, have a predisposition toward the condition, often genetic, “as is probably the case with Judge Davis.”

Three doctors who saw Davis concluded he was permanently disabled. Based on that information, the state commission voted twice, in June, 1988, and again the next month, to approve Davis’ pension.

After the July vote, California Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas, who had final approval over the actions of the commission, referred the matter to another doctor, Stephen S. Marmer in Los Angeles. Marmer said he was unable to conclude anything about whether the disability was permanent without information about any treatment Davis might be receiving.

With that report as the only new information at a December, 1988, meeting, the commission reversed itself and voted to deny Davis the pension, in part because Davis was not involved in any “significant” treatment program.

A couple of months later, Davis, hoping for reconsideration, met with Marmer in Los Angeles.

After the meeting, Marmer issued a new report in April, 1989, saying again that Davis was disabled. Then he said, according to the suit, he was not certain whether the condition was permanent.

The commission voted in May, 1989, to deny the pension. Shortly afterward, Davis filed suit in Vista Superior Court, seeking to overturn the ruling.

In September, 1989, Midlam reversed the commission, saying the agency had been arbitrary. In a written decision, he said none of the doctors disputed that Davis was no longer able to perform as a judge, and all of the experts had said the condition was or was likely to be permanent.

Two months later, last November, Melvin R. Segal, a deputy attorney general in San Diego, settled the case rather than appeal.