Ex-Judge Gets Jail Time for Drunk-Driving Crash
A retired Orange County presiding judge was sentenced Monday to 75 days in jail and 5 1/2 months of house arrest for driving drunk in a crash that severely injured a motorcyclist.
Theodore E. Millard, 66, an Orange County Superior Court judge for 20 years, will begin his jail time Sept. 15 at a private facility in Long Beach called Working Alternative. During his house arrest, Millard will wear an electronic monitoring device and be allowed to leave only for work, church and doctor appointments. He was also sentenced to three years’ formal probation.
A jury on June 7 convicted Millard of driving under the influence on Dec. 5, 2003, when his Ford Explorer hit construction worker William Payne head-on as the retired judge turned left into a gas station in Orange. Millard had just left a dinner party, where, he conceded during trial, he had had three or four glasses of wine.
Payne, now 53, suffered several broken bones when he was thrown from his motorcycle. The jury also convicted Millard of causing great bodily injury.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio sentenced Millard because of the former judge’s ties to the Orange County legal community.
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