Ventura : Judge Reprimanded For Taped Remark

A Ventura-based administrative judge has been reprimanded for leaving a racially offensive remark on a legal aide’s answering machine, officials said Monday.

Judge Oliver Boyer left a message Nov. 6 on Norman Ortiz’s machine that began with the greeting, “Hola, Taco,” said Mark Kahn, assistant chief of the state Division of Workers’ Compensation.

Kahn said he orally reprimanded Boyer last week and will send him a written reprimand soon. Boyer, who listens to workers’ compensation cases, has already apologized to Ortiz about the remark, he said. Ortiz is of South American descent, Kahn said.

“It was done in anger, and not intended as a racial comment,” Kahn said. “It still shouldn’t have been done. We have a very good judge who lost his temper.”

Kahn said his investigation last week revealed that Boyer had been angry at Ortiz because of something improper that Ortiz had allegedly done in a workers’ compensation case. Kahn declined to give more details.

Boyer was annoyed that Ortiz’s answering machine greeting was entirely in Spanish, and criticized him because he could not understand it, Kahn said.

Ortiz lives in Camarillo and works with various attorneys on workers’ compensation cases, Kahn said. Ortiz could not be reached for comment Monday. Boyer referred all questions to Kahn.

“Mr. Ortiz never filed a complaint, he went directly to the news media,” Kahn said. “I didn’t know about it until I got a call from a reporter. This has really gotten out of hand.”