Suspended Judge Taken Into Custody Again

For the sixth time in nearly as many months, suspended Ventura County Judge Robert C. Bradley was arrested Tuesday by local authorities--this time on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation.

The 57-year-old jurist, who unexpectedly left an Arizona alcohol-treatment program July 21, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon in the room of a Ventura motel where he had been staying for more than a week.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies handcuffed Bradley and quickly escorted him to a waiting patrol car outside the Victoria Motel.

Dressed casually in tennis shoes, khaki shorts and a T-shirt, Bradley did not resist as he was led from the motel, just a few miles from the courthouse where he had presided for 13 years before numerous alcohol-related arrests.

Bradley was immediately taken to Ventura County Jail and booked on suspicion of violating his probation. He is being held in lieu of $15,000 bail, and an arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials would not specify what Bradley may have done to break the terms of his probation.

His arrest came after two probation officers stopped at the motel, where Bradley had been staying for 10 days since leaving an alcohol-treatment program in Prescott, Ariz.

During the course of a 30-minute conversation with the suspended judge, the officers decided to arrest Bradley on suspicion of a violation and contacted the Sheriff’s Department, officials said.

Under terms of Bradley’s five-year probation, he is not allowed to drink alcohol or harass his estranged wife, Dorothea.

At a court hearing last month, Bradley was also ordered to enter and complete a supervised alcohol-dependency program.

Chief Deputy Probation Officer Terry Warnock would not say which probation term Bradley is suspected of violating or when it may have occurred.

She did say Bradley was tested for alcohol Tuesday, but would not disclose results of that test, citing confidentiality laws.

After Bradley’s arrest, Warnock and the two probation officers contacted the state attorney general’s office, which is handling the prosecution of Bradley’s other criminal cases.

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Spokesman Bill Maile said state prosecutors are aware of the most recent arrest, but said he could give no details.

“I don’t have any information with regard to the alleged probation violation.” Maile said, adding that the office will review police reports in coming days and determine what actions should be taken.

Only a day before Tuesday’s arrest, state prosecutors filed a court motion to modify the terms of Bradley’s probation, fearing that after leaving the treatment facility he was at risk of violating his probation by drinking.

Prosecutors want Bradley to submit to daily alcohol testing until he turns himself into custody on Sept. 2 to begin a six-month jail sentence stemming from the earlier arrests.

“This condition is necessary because [the] defendant left his residential treatment program in Arizona and has not yet returned to any equivalent program,” prosecutors wrote in the motion filed Monday.

Bradley walked out of the program July 21 and returned to the Ventura sober-living house where he had resided months earlier, according to court documents.

It was while living at that residence that Bradley violated his probation in May by drinking alcohol and riding his bicycle while drunk.

Now that he is back in Ventura, prosecutors say they fear Bradley is “at great risk for failure to comply with the no-alcohol condition of [his] probation.”

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The motion is scheduled to be heard in Santa Barbara Municipal Court next Wednesday. Prosecutors said Bradley’s probation requirements cannot be modified without such a hearing.

The recommended alcohol testing would only last a few weeks, the motion states, and could be conducted by breath or urine tests.

If ordered to submit to daily alcohol screenings, Bradley would have to make his way to the probation agency’s offices at the Ventura County Government Center, Warnock said.

In some cases, the agency will send a county employee to a probationer’s home or work to administer a test, which consists of blowing into a machine that detects any measurable level of alcohol.

If a person fails a test, they can be rearrested or cited and released pending a court hearing on the violation.

Warnock said probationers typically are not ordered to undergo daily drug screenings, but that it has been done before. Generally, testing is conducted weekly or at random.

Bradley’s troubles began in December, when he was arrested near his Ojai home for drunk driving. He was arrested on the same charge a month later and pleaded guilty to both charges and served a short sentence in a Los Angeles County jail.

Since then, Bradley has been arrested repeatedly for violating probation, chiefly by drinking or contacting his wife.

On Tuesday, motel employees and local business owners said they had not seen Bradley under the influence of alcohol or carrying alcohol.

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“I never saw him with a can or with booze. I never smelled it on his breath,” the manager of the Victoria Motel said. “He was quiet and we never had a problem.”

The manager, who asked that his name not be used, said Bradley showed up with two suitcases about 10 days ago and used a credit card to prepay for his stay in a $37-a-night room at the two-story motel at 2350 Victoria Ave., just off the Ventura Freeway.

The manager said Bradley received a few telephone calls in his room and that he often walked to places because he arrived without a car.

“I feel really sorry for him but if he wasn’t a judge he wouldn’t get that much leniency,” hotel guest Charlotte Klebe said of the amount of time probation officers spent at the hotel with Bradley before arresting him.

The manager and several guests said they were unaware of Bradley’s history.

“I think they are making a big deal out of a human problem,” motel worker Paul Sanchez said. “If I’d known the guy had a problem, I would have helped him get help.”

Wilson is a Times staff writer and Wolcott is a reporter for Times Community News. Times photographer Steve Osman also contributed to this story.