Bradley Ordered to Begin 6-Month Jail Term

Suspended Ventura County Judge Robert C. Bradley was ordered Thursday to immediately begin serving a six-month jail sentence for violating probation.

“You’re ill, very ill,” Judge Denise de Bellefeuille told Bradley after issuing her ruling in Santa Barbara County Municipal Court.

Bradley, 57, whose drinking problem has landed him in jail six times in the past eight months, admitted he had violated his probation earlier this week by drinking.

In addition to his jail term, Bradley was ordered to enter a six-month alcohol-treatment program. He will also be placed on five years’ probation.

“We all want you to get well and rebuild your life,” De Bellefeuille said. “I wish you the best of luck.”

Bradley, who had been scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on his most recent probation violation, quietly thanked De Bellefeuille before deputies took him into custody.

Bradley, who has been temporarily removed from the Ventura County bench, could have faced additional jail time as a result of the latest offense.

But after meeting with De Bellefeuille for 50 minutes in court chambers Thursday morning, state prosecutors agreed not to seek further punishment if Bradley begins serving his previous sentence and admits himself into a supervised treatment program.

“I really think the attorney general and the judge showed a lot of compassion,” said Ventura defense attorney Tim Quinn, who represented Bradley at the court hearing.

Talking to reporters outside the courtroom, Quinn said Bradley “is very much relieved” to have this latest legal hurdle behind him.

“It’s been a nightmarish year,” he said, referring to Bradley’s struggle with alcoholism, the collapse of his marriage and repeated run-ins with authorities.

Quinn declined to comment on details of Bradley’s most recent arrest. He said he drove Bradley to court Thursday morning because the judge’s driver’s license has been revoked.

Asked why Bradley unexpectedly left an alcohol-dependency program last month, Quinn declined to go into details but said the decision was partly financial.

Bradley had planned to enter a less-expensive alcohol-dependency program in Ventura County, Quinn said, but was arrested on the probation violation before that could occur.

Bradley, who still receives his $107,000 salary until a judicial panel takes up his case in October, dropped out of a 90-day treatment program in Prescott, Ariz., on July 21.

De Bellefeuille had previously agreed to postpone Bradley’s six-month jail sentence--for prior alcohol-related offenses--until Sept. 2 to give him time to complete the program.

But when Bradley returned to Ventura County last month and failed to immediately enter another program, authorities became concerned.

Suspecting Bradley might be drinking, Santa Barbara County probation officials sent two Ventura County probation officers to the motel where Bradley had been staying to check on him.

During that visit Tuesday, officers learned Bradley had indeed been drinking alcohol and he was arrested. Bradley bailed out Wednesday afternoon, only to be returned to custody Thursday morning.

Bradley will serve his six-month jail term at Ventura County’s Todd Road Jail. Because he is still a local judge, authorities will not house him with other inmates, officials said.

But Quinn said he hopes the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department can find a way to jail Bradley without keeping him in total isolation.

Bradley’s legal troubles began in December when he was arrested for drunk driving near his Ojai home. He was arrested a month later on the same charge in Santa Paula.

He later pleaded guilty to those offenses and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, plus probation.

In April, Bradley broke his probation requirements by getting drunk and taking a cab to the home of his estranged wife, Dorothea. He broke into the house and was subsequently arrested and ordered to stay away from her.

But within hours, Bradley called her four times, violating a protective order and prompting an additional arrest. He pleaded guilty to charges stemming from those incidents and other charges were dropped.

A month later Bradley again violated his probation by drinking at a Ventura bar near the sober-living house where he was staying and riding a bicycle while intoxicated.

Bradley had hoped to avoid jail for that offense by being placed on an electronic monitoring program, in which authorities would keep track of his movements through an electronic bracelet.

Santa Barbara County probation officials, however, said that is no longer an option.

Bradley is the not first California judge to do jail time for an alcohol-related offense.

In 1994, former Compton Municipal Judge Albert Garcia, convicted in a drunk-driving accident that left his female companion dead, was sentenced to a year in Los Angeles County Jail.