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Judge admonished for rude remarks; he called litigants a 'train wreck' and a 'total human disaster'

A California judge has been publicly admonished for his “undignified and discourteous” remarks while presiding in family law cases.

The admonishment by the Commission on Judicial Performance detailed the comments by the judge, Daniel Healy of Solano County, including his suggestions that litigants were a “train wreck” a “total human disaster” and “thuggish.” He was also accused of attempting to influence a colleague’s handling of an arrest warrant against one divorce court litigant.

The Recorder covered the opinion (PDF), which has these examples:

• In August 2013, Healy spoke to litigants in a divorce case that alleged the mother had driven drunk while with her child. Healy said told the parties he didn’t think they chronically abused drugs or alcohol, but both of them “strike me as rotten.” He also called the mother a “liar” and said, “Why don’t you prove to me that you recognize what a train wreck you are, and then maybe we’ll be somewhere?” He also told the mother’s attorney that she “ought to be groveling like there is no tomorrow.”

• In the same case, Healy said he had spotted a criminal file alleging domestic violence by the father on a judicial colleague’s desk and he would suggest to the judge that a bench warrant for arrest probably wasn’t appropriate.

• In an August 2013 case, Healy commented on the father’s vulgar and threatening text messages to the mother. If the children got into the conflict, Healy said, “they’re going to do something stupid and thuggish because their father is stupid and thuggish.” The father responded that the neighbors knew he wouldn’t harm the children, spurring Healy to ask the father if he treated the neighbors like he treated the mother. “Do you call your neighbors’ wives bitches and hoes, all that? Is [that] just how you roll in your neighborhood?” He also said that life is too short to let kids be “tortured by rotten parents like you two.”

• In a December 2012 case, Healy told a litigant: “So, just an observation. This is the first time I’ve seen you, but if you are exposing your daughter to one-fifth of the attitude I’m getting from you right now, you might as well have her start walking the streets as a hooker, because that’s the life you’re going to subject her to when you treat her like this, when you flash this attitude like this.”

Healy’s lawyer, James Murphy, told the Recorder that the judge had apologized for the remarks, and he is no longer a family court judge. Murphy also said that some of Healy’s remarks were taken out of context and intended to teach a lesson.

“Judge Healy was trying to bring home to these folks that you’ve got to get your business together here,” Murphy told the Recorder. “At some point in time, the parents have to be adults and behave like adults.”