Judge Must Stand Trial in Domestic Violence Case

A Santa Barbara County judge accused of pulling a gun on her domestic partner during a drunken confrontation was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on criminal charges that could end her legal career.

There is sufficient evidence to bring Superior Court Judge Diana R. Hall to trial on charges including battery, brandishing a gun and drunk driving, said Judge Carol Koppel-Claypool, a San Bernardino County jurist hearing the case to avoid any conflicts with local judges.

Hall, 52, was arrested Dec. 21 on suspicion of drunk driving after a 911 call to Santa Barbara sheriff’s deputies from her domestic partner, Deidra Dykeman, who told officers Hall had pulled her hair and threatened to shoot one of their two cairn terriers.

Dykeman, an engineer and former Air Force research physicist, was the key prosecution witness Wednesday during the five-hour preliminary hearing that focused on the couple’s increasingly unhappy relationship. The alleged incident came just as Hall was facing a move by local defense attorneys to routinely disqualify her from hearing cases.

At the time, Hall was based in Lompoc where public defenders revolted against her judicial temperament and general attitude of toughness in the courtroom. Dykeman described Hall as extremely upset by the defense lawyers’ moves to systematically disqualify her from hearing criminal cases.

Dykeman testified that the couple became romantically involved in 1998 and bought a house together in the Santa Ynez Valley.

But the judge wanted to keep the nature of their relationship secret for career reasons, Dykeman said. She said Hall often introduced her as her gardener or housekeeper and sometimes as her dog walker.

The relationship had been deteriorating for two years, Dykeman continued. One constant irritant for her was that Hall routinely attended social events by herself, leaving Dykeman alone at home.

The troubles on Dec. 21 started when Dykeman discovered that Hall had taken some Christmas wrappings that Dykeman had purchased for herself to the office. Both left the house during the day, but the argument began shortly after Dykeman returned home around 9 p.m., she said.

“I never saw her like that before,” Dykeman said. “She was yelling for me to get out of her house. I told her I wasn’t getting out. She said if you don’t get out, I’m going to shoot one of the dogs.”

According to Dykeman, Hall later came out of the bedroom with a loaded .38-caliber revolver. She said the judge smashed her telephone on the floor, breaking it, and warned her not to call police before she drove off.

The judge was stopped by sheriff’s deputies and refused to take a Breathalyzer test. She was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and taken to Santa Ynez Hospital, where she registered a .18 blood-alcohol level. The legal limit is .08.

The two felony charges against Hall are using a gun to dissuade a witness and destroying a telephone to block a crime victim from calling police. The battery, brandishing a gun, and drunk-driving charges are misdemeanors.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance is required under state law to suspend without pay any judge convicted of a felony. When such convictions are unchallenged or are upheld on appeal, judges are removed from office.

During Wednesday’s preliminary hearing, defense attorney Jack Earley suggested that Dykeman’s motivations in reporting the domestic violence stemmed from her increasing unhappiness with Hall’s treatment of her. Attacking that accusation, Assistant Dist. Atty. Kimberly Smith asked Dykeman if she was distorting her testimony out of revenge.

“I would never lie about something like this,” Dykeman said.

Hall, formerly a prosecutor in both Shasta and Santa Barbara counties, was appointed a Municipal Court judge in 1990 and was elevated to the Superior Court in 1998 when the two court systems were consolidated.

She was reelected to her position last year. Her challenger was Charles Biely, a Santa Barbara County prosecutor whose campaign collapsed after pornography was found on his workplace computer. Biely resigned from the district attorney’s office.

After Biely’s withdrawal, Hall criticized him for embarrassing the courts, commenting: “It’s things like this that make the public lose faith in the criminal justice system.”

Since her arrest, Hall has been taken off criminal cases in Lompoc and reassigned to the civil courts in Santa Maria, where she has observed how other judges handle civil cases.

On Wednesday, Earley requested an April 18 hearing to have Hall’s prosecution handled by the state attorney general’s office instead of the Santa Barbara district attorney’s office. A trial date is expected to be set then.