Former Jurist Sues County Over Dismissal From Post

A former court commissioner who was fired during a controversy over her practice of jailing traffic court defendants she suspected of lying has sued the county, alleging that Presiding Glendale Municipal Judge James R. Simpson ordered her to fix traffic tickets for two friends.

Dona Bracke, 46, made the allegations in a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Simpson declined comment on advice of counsel.

“I wish I could speak up, but my attorney told me not to,” Simpson said.

Neither Simpson nor the county had been served with the lawsuit by Monday afternoon. A county spokeswoman said she had no information on the suit, and the county counsel’s office had no comment.

Bracke, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, was fired Dec. 11, 1998, after eight years on the bench. Her suspension and firing followed complaints over the perjury charges.

“This woman was railroaded,” said Sherman Oaks attorney Diane Goldman, who filed the lawsuit for Bracke on Dec. 13. “When was the last time you ever heard of a judge being fired--even for a violation of a clear standard?”

Goldman said Simpson once asked Bracke to fix a ticket for a non-lawyer whom Simpson knew and another time asked her to “take care of a ticket” for a colleague. Bracke refused, Goldman said.

Goldman would not identify the people who allegedly would have benefited, nor specify when the incidents occurred. She said that Bracke had no written proof, but that the charges will be borne out by testimony.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert B. Werner, who supervises felony matters in Glendale, said his office has never received a complaint about any requests by Simpson to fix tickets. Such allegations, if true, would constitute obstruction of justice, and his office would be the proper place for such allegations to be brought.

Victoria Henley, a spokeswoman for the Council on Judicial Performance, said Simpson has never been publicly disciplined or been the subject of formal proceedings for this or any other matter.

Beginning in November 1997, dozens of defendants who appeared before Bracke to pay speeding tickets left with felony perjury charges after allegedly lying about having car insurance, supposedly to avoid a $1,300 fine for first-time offenders enacted in January 1997.

When Bracke suspected fraud, police and lawyers said, she routinely called a defendant’s insurance company, or had her bailiff do so, to verify whether that person was insured.

Many were arrested and jailed on the spot on either perjury charges or the lesser offense of presenting false documents.

Some lawyers and police officers and the head deputy district attorney in Glendale defended her crackdown, saying Bracke did nothing more than follow the letter of the law.

Others, including the head of the county public defender’s office in Glendale, defense lawyers and a Superior Court judge, accused Bracke of overstepping her legal authority. Some said her private telephone calls denied the defendants the ability to cross-examine their accusers, making the calls illegal “ex parte communication.”

At least two of the cases were later thrown out, however, when it was learned that the insurance companies gave the court incorrect information.

Goldman, Bracke’s lawyer, said her fellow judges were told in weekly judicial meetings how Bracke was handling proof-of-insurance and perjury issues.

She said that it was never a problem until the court received a written complaint from a defendant and that even then, she was given the option to continue the practice. But Bracke stopped the phone calls from the bench, Goldman said.

Bracke alleges wrongful termination, breach of contract, unfair employment practices and infliction of emotional distress. She is seeking compensation for loss of wages and diminished earning capacity, punitive damages, unspecified damages for loss to her reputation, interest and attorneys’ fees and costs.

“Now she’s without a livelihood,” Goldman said. “She’s been fired, and her ability to earn a living and support her children has been destroyed.”