The Commission on Judicial Performance and Orange Superior Court Judge Salvador Sarmiento have agreed that the jurist will be censured in exchange, essentially, for his getting to remain on the bench.
The censure if for Sarmiento intervening in his wife's traffic case before an OC court commissioner, which the judicial panel agreed was aberrational and not worthy of removal proceedings.
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As the Weekly reported last month, talk of a possible settlement postponed a looming disciplinary hearing by the commission's so-called Panel of Special Masters.
Judge Salvador Sarmiento May Settle Ticket Flap and Latest Alleged Judicial End-Around
On Nov. 18,
2010, Santa Ana Police cited Mrs. Sarmiento for failing to
yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. When she failed to pay the $234 bail
or appear in court by a Jan. 19, 2011, deadline, the matter was sent to the
Superior Court collection unit.
That's when Judge Sarmiento approached traffic Commissioner Carmen Luege to get a $300 civil assessment that
had been added to the ticket waived. When Sarmiento's clerk
later checked the status on the ticket and saw that the assessment was
still noted, the judge persuaded Luege to set a trial date.
His wife showed up, pleaded guilty and paid the full fine, including the
civil
assessment.
Judge Sarmiento was later accused of improper action, willful misconduct
in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the
judicial office into disrepute. He initially denied any wrongdoing, claiming
his interactions with his clerk and Luege regarding the ticket were
simply to find out the proper procedures one must follow.
The panel previously removed Orange Superior Court Judge Richard Stanford for waiving or reducing traffic fines and penalties for several friends and family members. But the commission claims that case was different, because the interventions happened over a five-year period, while Sarmiento is only known to have acted improperly once.
And the commission claims a public censure still represents a “severe sanction” that reflects the seriousness of the judge's misconduct.
“By attempting to influence another judicial officer on behalf of his wife, Judge Sarmiento engaged in serious judicial misconduct which severely damages the reputation of the judiciary,” the panel writes. “. . . Judge Sarmiento's conduct makes it more difficult for judges throughout the state to maintain the trust and respect of the public.”
Sarmiento was a commissioner from 1997 to 2003, when he became an Orange County Superior Court judge. His handling of Broadcom co-founder and Newport Coast billionaire Henry T. Nicholas III's messy divorce was slammed in 2010 by fellow Judge James L. Waltz, who eventually assumed Sarmiento's divorce court duties, and later a three-judge panel of the Orange County-based state appellate court.
Moxley Confidential: Henry Nicholas' Divorce Is More Secret Than Yours
Sarmiento, the president of UC Irvine's Alumni Association, was faulted for keeping secret many court records embarrassing to Nicholas, who has made major contributions to the university's engineering and computer science programs and established The
Nicholas Prize, which recognizes
innovative collaborative research.
Billionaire Henry T. Nicholas Bombs in Court Secrecy Attempt
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.