State Judicial Commission Urges Censure of Orange County Judge

State judicial authorities Friday recommended the public censure of an Orange County judge accused of denying poor and minority defendants access to lawyers and other basic constitutional rights.

The Commission on Judicial Performance found that Central Municipal Judge Claude E. Whitney engaged in “willful misconduct” and brought his office “into disrepute.”

The commission recommended that the California Supreme Court issue a public censure against the judge, the most severe judicial sanction short of removal from the bench.

Whitney, 64, did not return phone calls seeking comment Friday. A statement released by his attorney, Ronald G. Brower, said Whitney “acknowledges that mistakes were made by him in the past and accepts responsibility for those actions.”

The judicial investigation was prompted by a complaint filed in January 1993 by the public defender’s office.

Orange County Deputy Public Defender Allyn Jaffrey, who spearheaded the complaint against Whitney, said she was pleased with the recommendation, which comes at the close of a three-year investigation by state judicial officials.

Jaffrey said she believes that Whitney learned his lesson and that the case has made a difference in Orange County’s criminal justice system.

“The Whitney case was eye-popping to many judges, and it’s made a difference in Orange County,” she said. “Judges are more mindful of their sworn duty to uphold the constitution.”

While presiding over one of the county’s busiest arraignment courts, Whitney was accused of trying to maintain a high rate of guilty pleas by routinely denying bail hearings and interpreters for defendants.

One of the most serious allegations charged that Whitney effectively punished poor defendants who asked for an attorney by keeping them in jail for a week or 10 days before counsel was appointed.

The case divided Orange County’s legal community. Judges and attorneys took sides, with the 5,000-member Orange County Bar Assn. issuing an unprecedented resolution criticizing Whitney.

Amid the judicial investigation, Whitney easily won reelection in 1994.