Wife’s Position Blocks Plan to Elevate Judge : Law: John E. Dobroth will not be moved to Superior Court. His spouse works for the D.A. A conflict of interest was feared.

A decision to temporarily elevate a Municipal Court judge to Superior Court was abruptly canceled Friday because the assignment conflicts with his wife’s position as a chief deputy in the district attorney’s office.

The plan to move Judge John E. Dobroth to Superior Court for six months was designed to solve the conflict-of-interest problem posed by the November promotion of Lela Henke-Dobroth to a post supervising misdemeanor cases handled in Municipal Court.

But Dobroth realized his transfer to Superior Court could have left him with few cases to handle because his wife sits on a panel of top prosecutors that discusses the felony cases that the district attorney’s office files in Superior Court. And Dobroth wants to avoid even the appearance of any conflict of interest.

So presiding Municipal Court Judge John R. Smiley decided to keep Dobroth in Municipal Court, even though that assignment has carried its own problems since Henke-Dobroth’s promotion.

“It is an ongoing delicate situation that John Dobroth’s wife is one of five chief deputies in the district attorney’s office,” Smiley said. “It becomes more difficult for us to keep a flow of things going to John. He never runs out of work, but it becomes a daily challenge.”

Dobroth said--and attorneys agreed--that he tries to be as honest as possible about any appearance of conflict, even though he rarely knows anything about a case before it is assigned to him.

“It certainly adds an extra layer of thinking when you’ve got to be more alert to any kind of appearance of impropriety,” Dobroth said. “That’s not something many other judges have to worry about.”

Dobroth said he had no reservations about his wife taking on the new assignment. “I want her to do what she wants to do,” he said.

The Dobroths married 10 years ago, when both were deputy district attorneys. Dobroth ended his 14-year career as a prosecutor in 1986, when he was elected to the Municipal Court bench.

Henke-Dobroth has spent much of her 14 years as a prosecutor involved with sexual assault and domestic violence cases. She kept that assignment when she was promoted to chief deputy, but her responsibilities were expanded to include supervision of her office’s misdemeanor and juvenile units.

Because misdemeanor cases are the mainstay of Municipal Court, Dobroth now has to get written permission from all attorneys who appear before him before he can hear their cases.

Assistant Public Defender Jean Farley said her attorneys disqualify Dobroth from their cases more than half the time because of his wife’s assignment.

“I think he’s really in a difficult position and I frankly feel like it’s unfortunate that you can have a marital relationship that ends up having such a bearing on (your) professional life,” Farley said. “I hope he finds the proper niche for him.”

Smiley said Dobroth will be assigned to the preliminary hearing courtroom beginning April 3. Preliminary hearings always involve felonies, so Dobroth will not have the potential conflict that he now has with misdemeanor cases.

Also, preliminary hearings are held before Henke-Dobroth and other top prosecutors review most felony cases, Smiley said.

Henke-Dobroth said that except for problematic cases, she takes no part in deciding what criminal charges are filed by the units she supervises. After the preliminary hearing, however, she does have the final say on what sexual assault and domestic violence cases reach Superior Court.

Her promotion was part of a major reorganization in the district attorney’s office. Although the responsibilities could have been grouped differently to avoid any conflict with her husband’s work, Henke-Dobroth said the final decision “was made based on what was best for our office.”

Dobroth was supportive of her decision to take the job despite the potential problems, she said.

“He has encouraged me to do whatever I want to do and to go as far as I can without regard to how it may or may not affect his job,” Henke-Dobroth said.