California Judge Taking Heat For Her Rulings, Courtroom Conduct

[WSJ_law_blog]

Joyce Allegro (pictured), a judge in the Santa Clara County Superior Court, is getting a lot of unwanted attention over her handling of cases.

In the latest example, courtesy of the Mercury News, the 6th District Court of Appeals last month overturned the conviction of Salee Amina Barnes-Mohammed, an investment advisor from Beverly Hills, on charges of failing to appear in court.

In a published opinion, the appellate judges wrote that Allegro effectively ignored state law by not dismissing the charge.

By dismissing Mohammed’s conviction on the grounds of insufficient evidence, the appeals court avoided addressing the defendant’s numerous other complaints about the case, which became contentious as the judge sparred openly with the defendant during the nine-day trial in 2006.

It turns out the Mercury News did a feature in 2006 on “prosecutors-turned-judges who engaged in questionable behavior,” citing Allegro as one such example. The piece cites another reversal of a conviction that occurred on Allegro’s watch, this one being manslaughter. Judges handling the appeal said her rulings, including blocking a defense expert from testifying, during trial “serious prejudiced” the defendant, writes the Mercury News. In an interview, Allegro said defense attorneys were wrong all along in their belief that she couldn’t be fair in certain types of cases because of her background.

In the Mohammed case, Judge Allegro told the defendant, who represented herself for most of the trial, to “be quiet” more than 50 times and called her “completely rude.” The judge said, at one point: “Do you want to be physically gagged? I can do that if I have to and will if I have to.”

Here’s one particularly nasty exchange, from page 20 of the defendant’s appellate brief:

“Ms. Mohammed: Your Honor, may I pose a request to the court that I be allowed time to provide the information which I have prepared but (sic) not with me today that will counter the lies that are in that discovery material?

The Court: You are going to have to stop making statements like “lies”. I’m not going to allow that, ma’am. I’m not going to allow that at all –

Ms. Mohammed: Your Honor nearly everything I say is a prevarication and I’d like to corroborate, Your Honor –

The Court: You’re not going to call names in this courtroom.

Ms. Mohammed: Well, Your Honor, ma’am, with all due respect –

The Court: Ms. Mohammed, I’m going to have you taken – held in the holding cell if you can’t behave yourself. You don’t talk when I’m talking.”