Judge Scolded for Jailing Man Over Licensing : Courts: Alhambra jurist is reprimanded by the state Commission on Judicial Performance. His no-bail bench warrant policy on misdemeanors is found unconstitutional.

An Alhambra Municipal Court judge who jailed a Temple City man for four days for forgetting to license and vaccinate his dog was publicly reprimanded Monday by the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

The commission found that Judge Michael A. Kanner’s blanket policy of issuing no-bail bench warrants for defendants who failed to appear in court on misdemeanor charges violated state Constitution and Penal Code provisions guaranteeing that “individuals have a right to bail before conviction, with limited exceptions.”

Noting that the judge had issued no-bail warrants for as many as 200 people, the commission said his actions “resulted in the denial of a fundamental right to a considerable number of individuals.”

The judge has acknowledged that his no-bail policy “was wrong,” the commission said.

Kanner declined comment Monday.

Fourteen months ago, Robert C. Lewis, a 52-year-old Temple City equipment courier, was cited for failure to license and vaccinate a dog after his pet, Samantha, chased a cat into the street and was nabbed by a dogcatcher.

The next day, Lewis had the Labrador-German shepherd mix licensed and inoculated for rabies. Thinking that the matter had been resolved, the family promptly forgot about the whole thing, said Lewis’ daughter, Jackie Lewis, 24, of San Dimas.

A few days later, unknown to the Lewises, Kanner issued a no-bail warrant for Lewis’ arrest when he failed to appear in court to answer the misdemeanor charges.

On March 3, Glendora police spotted Lewis’ truck in a park-and-ride lot and ran a routine check on the license plate. When the warrant popped up, Lewis was arrested. After a night in the Glendora jail, he appeared in Citrus Municipal Court, but the case was transferred to a court in Alhambra, his daughter said.

“He had no idea what he was being held for,” she said.

She said court officials offered to release her father if he signed an agreement promising to appear in court at a future date, but by that time he was so furious that he refused to sign anything.

“The next thing he knew, they were taking him to the L.A. County Jail,” Jackie Lewis said.

Presented with evidence that the dog had been licensed and vaccinated, Kanner subsequently dismissed the charges. But at the time, the judge defended his blanket no-bail policy, saying he had been forced to adopt it to close loopholes in a system that allows more serious misdemeanor offenders to ditch court.