Retired Judge Out of Order Defending Self at Hearing

Former Orange County Superior Court Judge James Randal Ross returned to the courtroom Tuesday, this time on the other side of the bench.

Disregarding the adage that he who represents himself has a fool for a client, the retired jurist was a bit rusty as he began defending himself against a series of misconduct charges, including accusations that he routinely snoozed while on the bench.

Pacing with his hands stuffed in his back pockets, Ross was often plodding and sometimes contentious during the first day of a disciplinary hearing being held before a three-judge Commission on Judicial Performance panel.

Ross, 71, was repeatedly scolded for sitting on the wooden courtroom railing, interrupting a witness and wandering astray with his questioning which the judges often failed to find relevant.

“All right, I lost my head,” Ross said at one point after being admonished by one of the judges.

“Judge Ross, don’t editorialize, just ask the questions, please,” an exasperated Judge Patti S. Kitching said at one point. “Judge Ross, please don’t sit on the railing,” she admonished on several other occasions.

Among the allegations against Ross: falling asleep during three trials; telling inappropriate jokes; using the bench as a place to sell copies of a book he wrote about his great-grandfather, outlaw Jesse James; and threatening retaliation if complaints were made about him to the commission.

At one point during Tuesday’s hearing--despite the admonishment to stick to the issues--Ross launched into a long joke about three Marines, two lawyers and a judge all trying to get into heaven with the punch line having the Archangel Gabriel saying it was the first time a jurist had gotten there.

Ross was a Superior Court judge in Orange County from 1983 until his retirement in 1995. Charges were brought against him this year. If the accusations are proven, Ross could be privately or publicly admonished, censured and barred from assignments in any state court.

Ross hopes to be cleared by the commission so he can continue hearing cases on a part-time basis, which many retired judges do. He said the allegations have prevented him from getting any assignments since his retirement, resulting in about $250,000 in lost income.

Lawrence Eisenberg, who was president of Orange County Trial Lawyers in 1993, was the hearing’s first witness and also was admonished for his sometimes testy replies and heated remarks during cross-examination under Ross.

“We want to have decorum in this courtroom and we will insist on it,” Kitching scolded.

Eisenberg alleges that during Ross’ last case in 1995, the judge “coerced” him into signing a declaration that he would not to report Ross’ actions to the commission. The formal complaint against Ross alleges that he threatened Eisenberg with a contempt hearing when the attorney balked at signing the waiver.

Outside court, Ross would not say why he insisted on the waiver but said he had a good reason that would come out later in the hearing. Despite his shaky start, which included continually referring to Eisenberg by a variety of wrong names, Ross said that he is enjoying every minute as the main attraction.

“I love it,” he said. “I love it and I’m ready.”

Liza Ross, an attorney and the retired judge’s daughter, is helping her father with the case.

“He paid to put me through law school and I believe in him,” she said.