Judge Is Disciplined Over Use of Influence

An L.A. Superior Court judge was publicly admonished Tuesday for writing a letter on court stationery to settle a personal dispute with the city of Downey.

The Commission on Judicial Performance disciplined Judge Joseph Di Loreto for a 2004 letter asking for more time to remove a trailer next to his law offices at 8607 E. Imperial Highway in Downey. He also implicitly requested that the city not sue him for keeping the trailer there past the end of 2004, when he told officials it would be moved, the commission’s report stated.

“I will remove my trailer when the building is ready for occupancy,” Di Loreto wrote in his letter on Dec. 29, 2004, which included the court’s seal and identified the letter as “personal” in parentheses below his judicial title. “I thank you for your kind patience in this matter.”

Di Loreto’s conduct provoked the commission to impose one of its highest sanctions, said Victoria Henley, the commission’s director. Beyond public admonishment for judicial misconduct, a judge could be publicly censured or, at worst, removed from office, Henley said. The commission’s statement was posted on its website.

This is the second time Di Loreto, who has been a judge since 1995, has used his clout on the bench to handle personal matters. In 2001, Di Loreto used judicial stationery to claim ownership of a racing car that he and his “long-time personal friend” Robert Barton had been fighting over, the commission reported. He was privately reprimanded that year, Henley said.

In both cases, Di Loreto maintained that the letterheads came as no surprise because the recipients already knew he was a judge, the commission reported.

The trailer dispute was resolved when Di Loreto removed it from the lot in April 2005, said James Eckart, a city prosecutor.

Di Loreto’s lawyer, Edward George Jr., did not return calls seeking comment.