Judge Accused of Misconduct by State Panel

Judge John D. Harris will automatically be reelected on March 2 to another six-year term on the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench despite allegations disclosed Thursday that he had invited a rape victim to dinner after she testified in his courtroom.

Harris, who is running uncontested, also asked out lawyers, made sexual comments to court staff and lied to investigators, according to the state Commission on Judicial Performance. The commission charged Harris, 69, with misconduct and could decide to publicly admonish, censure or remove him from office.

“You engaged in a pattern of misconduct by making inappropriate comments to attorneys, jurors, and court staff with whom you dealt in your official capacity,” the commission wrote to Harris in a notice of charges.

Each year, the commission receives about 1,000 complaints and charges about four to 10 judges, said Chief Counsel Victoria B. Henley.

Harris denies any misconduct and will fight the accusations. “We are getting ready for doing battle,” said Ed George, his attorney. “We are prepared to defend them and explain them.”

George said Harris, who is married and has two adult children, has had a distinguished, 30-year career as a hard-working, conscientious and friendly judge and had meant no harm with the alleged statements or conduct.

“I think, truly, that they are misinterpretations,” George said. “He is not a sexual harasser.... He has a very funny sense of humor. I think that’s what caused the problem here.”

The commission gave this account of the judge’s actions in the rape case: Harris met the victim in his chambers after sentencing the defendant to prison. He complimented her eloquent remarks during the sentencing hearing and invited her to join his family for dinner. After she had accepted the invitation, Harris suggested that just the two of them have dinner at a restaurant instead. She accepted, but later canceled.

Defense attorney Sean Erenstoft, who represented the defendant, said he believes Harris engaged in “completely inappropriate behavior.”

“If these allegations are true, he is not fit to sit on the bench,” Erenstoft said.

In a similar situation, Harris commended a 16-year-old victim in his chambers for her bravery in coming forward against her uncle, who had molested her for years. The judge is said to have told her that he could be her grandfather. He allegedly offered to write her a recommendation when she applied for college.

In both cases, according to the commission, the judge violated the code of judicial ethics because he had behaved with impropriety or the appearance of impropriety and because he had met with the victims without defense attorneys present.

The commission also cited several other situations of alleged misconduct, dating from October 2002 to October 2003.

During jury selection in a case in which the defendant was accused of exposing himself, Harris allegedly asked a juror, “Did some woman make a pass at you and get you angry? I’ve been waiting for that to happen to myself.”

In another case, he thanked the attorneys for not excusing an attractive female juror, saying, “A judge has to have something to look at during trial.”

While being screened for weapons at the South Gate courthouse, Harris is said to have told a female security officer that he wanted to go into his chambers so she could search him there.

The judge twice asked an attorney to go out to lunch and also invited her to go shopping, according to the commission. The California Code of Judicial Ethics prohibits judges from using the “prestige of judicial office” to advance their personal interests.

Harris worked as a city attorney for 13 years before joining the bench as a commissioner in 1973. He was elected to the Municipal Court in 1984 and elected to the Superior Court in 1998.

After the conduct in the sexual assault cases had become public in 2000, Harris was transferred from the downtown criminal courthouse to a civil court in Van Nuys. He was transferred last year to a South Gate courthouse.

“The presiding judge doesn’t have the power to remove him,” said Allan Parachini, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

There are about 420 judges in Los Angeles County.

Harris told the commission that no supervising judge had ever “counseled, criticized or reprimanded” him for his conduct, although his bosses had twice met with him to discuss his behavior. The second time, in April 2003, Harris said, he was advised that women had complained that he persistently asked them to lunch and that he commented about a court employee’s body.