Judge’s Spectator Search Order Is Focus of Inquiry

Ventura County Municipal Judge Steven Hintz is being investigated by the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance for his much-criticized search of spectators in his courtroom last year, sources said this week.

Hintz declined to comment on the investigation, which could result in a reprimand or removal from the bench. Commission attorney Victoria Henley said the agency has a policy against commenting on an investigation or even confirming that an inquiry is under way.

But several sources at the Ventura County district attorney’s office and the public defender’s office said commission investigators have sought information about the courtroom search last November.

On Nov. 13, Hintz had signs posted on his courtroom door warning that spectators might be searched and asked for identification. Two days later, he had bailiffs lock the doors and search the 20 spectators in the courtroom. The visitors also were checked for outstanding warrants. No weapons or warrants turned up.

Hintz said he took the action to put the public on notice that they might be searched, not because of any threat or other incident. The action was denounced by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, who said it could intimidate witnesses, and by Public Defender Kenneth I. Clayman, who said it was unconstitutional.

Later, the sheriff’s officials who supervise the bailiffs said such random searches and warrant checks would not be repeated.

Sources said the commission is also inquiring about Hintz’s decision last August to allow a deputy district attorney to sit on a jury that convicted an Oxnard man of using heroin. Although both sides later asked for a new trial on the ground that the deputy prosecutor should not have been permitted on the jury, Hintz refused, saying it had been a fair trial.

He later ordered a new trial, citing what he called prosecutorial misconduct in another aspect of the trial.

One source said Hintz has hired Ephraim Margolin, a San Francisco attorney, to represent him. Margolin has previously represented judges before the commission and practices in San Francisco, where the commission has its office.

Margolin said he could not discuss the case or even say whether he is handling it.

Hintz, 44, was appointed to the bench in 1982 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. The former Navy defense attorney and prosecutor received his law degree at UC Berkeley in 1971. He was a deputy district attorney in Ventura County before being appointed to the bench.

The commission, which meets monthly, is made up of five judges appointed by the state Supreme Court, two attorneys appointed by the State Bar of California and two citizens named by the governor.

The panel investigates complaints about judicial misconduct and can discipline judges by sending an advisory letter, a private admonishment or a public reproval--a type of reprimand. It also can recommend that the California Supreme Court publicly censure a judge or, in the most extreme cases, remove a judge from office.

In 1989, the commission issued a public reproval of Ventura County Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clark for allowing Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) to come to his home to discuss her daughter’s numerous traffic tickets.

The next day, the judge took “several unusually lenient actions in connection with the tickets” without informing the prosecutor, the commission said. The commission also noted that Clark had an otherwise unblemished record and had accepted responsibility for mishandling the case.