A Los Angeles County judge appointed by former California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has been removed from office over a persistent pattern of misconduct in the courtroom.
On Tuesday, the California Commission on Judicial Performance ordered Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Draper to be removed from office for making a number of racist and sexist remarks in court, according to Courthouse News Service.
“Judge Draper persistently violated the standards governing judicial behavior and engaged in extensive and severe misconduct,” the commission said in a statement.
“Judge Draper’s misconduct reflected either a concerning lack of familiarity with ethical precepts, or an unwillingness to conform to those precepts,” the statement continued.
The California Commission on Judicial Performance’s 87-page order listed numerous examples of Draper’s behavior, including one from February of 2023, when he was presiding over Odom v. Los Angeles Community College District, a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit.
During a posttrial hearing featuring a black female attorney working for the defense, Draper launched into an unsolicited discussion about the skin tones of blacks, interracial relationships and racial mixing, black football players and the history of black quarterbacks, and Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act.
When talking black skin tones, he used terms like “coal black” and “light brown.”
The commission found these comments irrelevant and gratuitous, and concluded that they constituted prejudicial misconduct.
During another incident connected to the Odom litigation, Draper invited two female attorneys into his chambers. During the ensuing conversation, he recounted how male attorneys at his former law firm supposedly treated female secretaries.
At one point, he described the male attorneys telling their secretaries, “You better be able to f*** better than you can type.”
The commission concluded that this behavior also constituted prejudicial misconduct.
The most serious finding from the order was that in June of 2023, Draper sent an email to commission personnel and several other judges, including retired Judge Lance Ito (who presided over the 1995 double-murder trial of former football star O.J. Simpson), that included confidential records from a 2017 juvenile dependency case involving child sexual abuse allegations.
Among the records were multiple photographs of two minors naked in a bathtub. The commission found that disclosing these confidential juvenile records was misconduct.
According to the commission’s report, Draper also repeatedly made inappropriate comments about female colleagues.
For example, on two occasions he told Presiding Judge Samantha Jessner that she was “cute when [she was] mad.” After Jessner explained that the remark was inappropriate, Draper doubled down and repeated it, the report stated.
Draper also repeatedly told court administrator Lindsey McFarlane that she was cute, including in emails copied to other employees. In addition, he patted female court counsel Phu Nguyen on the head several times during a hallway encounter. She testified that she hadn’t welcomed the contact and was embarrassed, the report stated.
The commission concluded that this behavior reflected gender bias and was inappropriate for a judge.
In its final report, the commission slammed Draper for refusing to accept responsibility or display even a modicum of remorse.
