Panel Scolds Judge for Ordering Search of Citizens
A Ventura County judge who ordered citizens locked into his courtroom and searched in 1990 suffered a stinging slap Friday from the California Commission on Judicial Performance, which said he abused his authority.
The commission reported that Municipal Judge Steven Hintz violated the citizens’ constitutional rights and violated judicial guidelines in two other 1990 cases.
The commission made its criticism public in a letter of reproval, the least severe form of discipline available to the watchdog panel, which also can ask the state Supreme Court to remove judges for improper conduct.
The commission said that Hintz, a former prosecutor who has served on the Municipal Court since 1982, improperly criticized jurors for their verdict in a July, 1990, case.
It also said Hintz acted improperly in the August, 1990, trial of a man who was convicted of heroin intoxication by a jury that had a Ventura County prosecutor as its foreman.
Hintz declined to comment, but issued a public apology Friday “to all the citizens of Ventura County and to any person whom I have offended in these incidents.”
The apology concluded: “I hope this resolution will enable me to continue to enjoy the confidence of the litigants in the Ventura County courts.”
Hintz is the seventh judge in California to be reproved by the commission, and the second from Ventura County.
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