Judge Who Is Focus of Probe Off Duty Again

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge who is under investigation for repeated sick calls last year while apparently registered part of the time as a student at a Caribbean medical school is off work again.

Judge Patrick B. Murphy left the bench at the Metropolitan courthouse near downtown in early June, saying that he was too sick to work and would not be returning, according to court officials.

Presiding Judge Victor E. Chavez would not specify what Murphy’s illness was, but he said the jurist told him that he planned to file for disability retirement because he was “unable to serve anymore.”

Murphy, who continues to draw his $117,000 annual salary, is under investigation by federal, state and local authorities. In April, he was reassigned to downtown Traffic Court from the Citrus courthouse in West Covina, where some fellow jurists objected to his return after a five-month absence.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance initiated formal proceedings in March against Murphy for missing 157 days last year and more than 400 days since 1996.

Those proceedings could lead to Murphy’s removal from office. On Sept. 18, a special panel of appeals court judges will recommend whether Murphy’s absence amounts to a violation of judicial ethics.

“Formal proceedings are the only way to remove a sitting judge,” said Victor B. Henley, the commission’s executive director.

Henley said that a claim for disability would require the support of two physicians with “clear and convincing evidence.”

Murphy could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But in a reply to the judicial commission charges filed April 20, Murphy said he had done nothing wrong, and that his absences did not amount to an ethical violation.

The state proceedings were initiated after it was revealed earlier this year that while on sick leave and collecting his salary, Murphy apparently enrolled as a first-year student in Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, according to records and interviews.

Meanwhile, at Metropolitan courthouse, Chavez said Murphy’s belongings have been put in storage and another judge has been assigned to his courtroom.

Chavez said he called Murphy, who told him he believed he wouldn’t be returning. For now, Chavez said he has reassigned him to his own courtroom.

This way, he said, “I know in the event he should ever show up.”