Suspended Judge Receives Sentence of 6 Months in Jail

A Municipal Court judge on Friday handed out the harshest sentence yet to suspended Ventura County jurist Robert Bradley: six months in jail.

“It is clear that Judge Bradley has a terrible problem with alcohol,” Santa Barbara Municipal Judge Denise de Bellefeuille said before handing down her sentence. “I can’t imagine a greater fall from grace. . . . I do feel punishment is in order at this time to clearly show Mr. Bradley that this behavior will not be tolerated.”

Bradley did not appear in court Friday because he is in an alcohol rehabilitation center in Prescott, Ariz. De Bellefeuille ordered Bradley to be back in Ventura County on Sept. 2 to begin serving his jail time.

Bradley, 57, has been arrested five times since Dec. 6. His most recent arrest occurred May 15 in east Ventura, about two miles from the sober-living house where he had been staying.

Bradley, through his attorney Friday, also pleaded guilty to violating an emergency protective order that prevents him from contacting his estranged wife and riding a bicycle drunk. For those additional counts the judge added a $250 fine and a month in jail--to be served concurrently--to the six-month sentence.

In court Friday, Bradley’s attorney, Santa Barbara-based Samuel Eaton, urged the judge to consider that Bradley’s drinking problem is medical in nature. Eaton asked the judge to give Bradley a light sentence, and said Bradley needs rehabilitation, rather than punishment.

“He has lost a position of regard and esteem in the community,” Eaton argued. “He has humiliated himself. . . . I urge you to feel that if custody time is warranted, it is as minimal as possible.”

But Deputy Atty. Gen. Allison Ting argued Bradley’s actions are serious and “should be met with consequences.” She said Bradley needs to spend time in jail, not just in a rehabilitation center.

Quoting from the Prescott center’s brochure, Ting said, “Refreshing splendor of pine trees in which to continue receiving treatment is not what we have in mind when we say consequences.”

Judge de Bellefeuille agreed.

In addition to serving six months in jail, Bradley was ordered to pay a $250 fine for riding his bicycle while intoxicated. After the jail term, Bradley will face three years of formal probation, during which the judge ordered him not to “molest, annoy, threaten nor harass Dorothea Bradley,” his estranged wife.

While in Ventura County Jail, Bradley, as a judge, must by law be sequestered from other prisoners. But his attorney said being alone is the worst possible thing for Bradley as he struggles to overcome his alcoholism. Eaton said he plans to argue at a later date that Bradley serve his time at a labor farm, perhaps in Santa Barbara.

The judge sealed court documents Friday, keeping Bradley’s latest probation report confidential.

Bradley’s fall after 13 years on the Superior Court bench began on Dec. 6, when the judge was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving near his Ojai home.

Nearly a month later, on Jan. 3, Bradley was arrested again on suspicion of drunk driving in Santa Paula.

Sentenced to 30 days in jail plus probation after pleading guilty to both drunk-driving counts, Bradley served his sentence in the Pasadena City Jail and was released March 17.

Then, on April 25, he was arrested twice in one day. First, officials said, he violated his probation by being drunk and breaking into the home of his estranged wife in Ojai, using a knife from his back shed to pry off the screen and crawl through the window.

He was jailed, and a Ventura judge issued an emergency protective order, ordering him not to contact his wife. But Bradley called his wife five times that day, and was arrested again.

Citing Bradley’s convictions, and a report that he appeared on the job while apparently under the influence of alcohol, the state Commission on Judicial Performance suspended Bradley from the bench March 20.

The commission will have a pretrial hearing on the matter Wednesday.