Judge Bradley Argues He Can Stay Sober, Finish Term

Judge Robert Bradley petitioned a state judicial panel Monday, asking for another chance to show he can stay sober and serve out the last year of his term on the Superior Court--and arguing that a dissolving marriage aggravated his drinking problem.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance announced Friday that it is suspending Bradley and has filed misconduct charges that could lead to his permanent removal from the bench.

But Bradley’s lawyer, Thomas C. Brayton, argued in Monday’s appeal that Bradley--after completing 30 days in an alcohol treatment program in March and staying sober for another month--should be allowed to finish his 16th year as judge on the bench.

“[Bradley] has had a distinguished judicial career to December 1997,” Brayton wrote. The judge, he added, “recognizes that it is his obligation to demonstrate his ability to maintain sobriety in order to sit as a judge during the remainder of his term of office.”

If Bradley, who pleaded guilty to driving drunk Dec. 6 and Jan. 3, begins to drink again, Presiding Judge Charles Campbell will be aware of it and remove Bradley, Brayton said.

Bradley, 56, had been in a Port Hueneme rehabilitation program since he left Pasadena City Jail last week, after serving 20 days for two misdemeanor counts of drunk driving.

His attorney, in the most extensive explanation of Bradley’s conduct this winter, told the judicial commission that at least part of the judge’s problem was related to problems with his wife, Dorthea, who filed for divorce in February.

Bradley successfully completed a four-week rehabilitation program after his December arrest, but resumed drinking after his wife told him she had been seeing Deputy Dist. Atty. Miles Weiss for several months, Brayton said.

After his second drunk-driving arrest and after being sent home from work Jan. 13 because he was under the influence of alcohol, Bradley entered a second treatment program, which he left before completing.

“After leaving that program, [Bradley] learned that his wife had filed a petition for dissolution of marriage, after which he resumed drinking,” Brayton wrote.

At that point, an upset Bradley phoned Weiss.

Bradley “admits that he made comments about a male friend of his wife’s, Miles Weiss, that may have been perceived as threatened violence,” the lawyer told the commission. “The comments were made out of frustration in context of a deteriorating marriage. . . . The comments were not intended to threaten violence.”

Nor has Bradley made any more threats since then, Brayton said.

Dorthea Bradley, a court reporter who has been the judge’s wife for 17 years, said his appeal to the commission is misleading since the couple have been separated since February 1997.

“I’m saddened to see that even at this point it appears that Bob is not taking responsibility for his substance-abuse problem and still blaming others,” she said. “That’s unfortunate and sad.”

Bradley’s alleged threats toward Weiss were cited by the commission as a reason to suspend him with pay until a variety of charges are resolved at a hearing.

Bradley could be removed from the bench for the rest of his term, which ends in December, and be barred from appointment as a temporary jurist in retirement.

In a letter to the judge, commission Chairman Robert C. Bonner said the suspension is justified not only because of Bradley’s misdemeanor drunk-driving convictions but because he has “threatened violence toward others.”

The letter was not specific, but part of Bradley’s sentence Feb. 24 was to have no contact with Weiss.

On Monday, Weiss said he could not comment on the case.

“The available evidence . . . is clear and convincing that you are unable to control your alcohol problem and that you are a threat to your own safety and the safety of others,” Bonner wrote Bradley. “It therefore appears that ‘immediate, irreparable and continuing public harm’ has resulted from your conduct, and that further harm is likely to occur if you continue to serve as a judge.”

The commission will probably decide on its proposed suspension within the next two weeks, said Victoria Henley, the panel’s chief counsel.

Bradley is charged with six counts of misconduct, including two drunk-driving convictions, showing up for work under the influence of alcohol, failure to do his job and habitual use of alcohol while a judge.

The judge has until April 2 to answer the full set of misconduct charges and request a hearing. Henley said a hearing before a three-judge panel appointed by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court would probably occur within two months.