Tani Cantil-Sakauye Still Unaccountable, Unpunished for Alleged Misuse of State Funds, Financial Fraud Against Taxpayers

Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court and Chairperson of the California Judicial Council.

Watch the ABC news report video:

Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye Caught Using Highway Patrol as Personal Limo and Security Service from Sacramento Superior Court News on Vimeo.

Institutionalized Socioeconomic Bias Revealed in Traffic Courts Scandal: Judges Still Unaccountable for Systemic Code of Judicial Ethics Violations

Statewide traffic courts scandal news reports expose institutionalized socioeconomic bias against the poor by California courts and judges. Over two years later, no disciplinary action taken against a single judge by the California Commission on Judicial Performance.  

Former Sacramento Family Court Judge Tani Cantil-Sakauye Blamed for Statewide Court Corruption Problems

California court watchdog groups charge that the leadership of the state Judicial Council bears primary responsibility for a string of court scandals compiled in this video from the California Courts News YouTube Channel. An ABC News 10 investigation into misuse of the California Highway Patrol by the chief justice as a taxi and shopping service is included. 

Indifference and incompetence by Judicial Council Chair Tani Cantil-Sakauye and senior management at the agency has resulted in an epidemic of court corruption in California, including a Los Angeles County court clerk accused of stealing $6,000 from people filing name changes, a case fixing scheme uncovered by the FBI in Orange County, and a massive, statewide traffic courts scandal. 

California Supreme Court Corruption: Whistleblowers Charge Supreme Court Justices with Enabling Bias Against the Poor in Family Courts

California Supreme Court Justices Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Ming Chin, Leondra Kruger, Carol Corrigan, Goodwin Liu, Mariano Cuellar and Kathryn Werdegar are accused of enabling family court bias against financially disadvantaged and disabled "pro per" litigants who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.

Institutionalized Socioeconomic Bias 

California Supreme Court judges are ignoring and thereby enabling systemic bias against the poor in family courts throughout the state, Judicial Branch reform advocates have charged.  

Earlier this year, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and the state Judicial Council were engulfed in a nationwide firestorm of controversy when a report released by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that traffic courts throughout the state were trapping the poor in long cycles of poverty using fines, fees and driver license revocations. 

Family court whistleblowers have catalogued examples showing that similar, institutionalized socioeconomic bias occurs in family courts, where more than 70 percent of court users cannot afford to hire an attorney. "This is a statewide epidemic of the same scale as the traffic courts scandal," said Ulf Carlsson, a whistleblower and former state employee. "Like they did in that debacle, the Supreme Court is playing deaf, dumb and blind to the problems." 

Sacramento Family Court News, an online, nonprofit journalism organization recently published an investigative report compiling court scandals attributed to Judicial Council Chair Tani Cantil-Sakauye. To view the report, click here. Other sources of news and information about socioeconomic bias in state courts include the California Supreme Court & Judicial Branch Report Tumblr, and the Judicial Misconduct Facebook Community. 

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye Starves Courts of Funding, Spends Millions on Limo and Security Service for High Court Judges

Judicial Council Chair Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye Caught on Camera Using Highway Patrol as Personal Taxi Service

Tani Cantil-Sakauye caught in the act by News10 in Sacramento.

ABC News10 in Sacramento has caught California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in the act of using the California Highway Patrol as a personal taxi and security service at taxpayer expense.

Emmy Award winning News10 investigative reporter Thom Jensen and his photographer tailed Cantil-Sakauye and her personal, armed CHP officer and driver to her home in a gated community in the Sacramento area.

As the video records, Jensen received an inhospitable reception from the chief justice and her CHP valet. At minute 1:40 of the clip, former 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice Arthur Scotland is caught on camera telling a lie to cover for Cantil-Sakauye - his long-time former colleague from Sacramento County Superior Court, the Third District Appellate Court, and the Deukmejian administration...

Click here to read the complete article at Supreme Court of California News.

Tani Cantil-Sakauye Sacramento Family Court Alumnus Earns Worst Supreme Court Opinion Runner-Up Title

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye Supreme Court Opinion Called 2nd Worst of 2012-2013 Term

A California Supreme Court opinion authored by former Sacramento Family Court Judge Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye was called the second-worst opinion of the 96 rulings issued over the high court's 2012-2013 term, according to an annual review published in the August issue of California Lawyer.

Complete story at Sacramento Family Court News: click here. 

Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye Responsible for Maintaining Public Confidence in Judicial Branch

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye Entrusted with Legacy of Chief Justice Ronald George to Preserve Court Access for Financially Disadvantaged

Four years ago today an historic vote was held in the California Senate Judiciary Committee. The final vote tally was was 3-2, allowing Assembly Bill 590 to move forward in the legislative process. AB 590 included the Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act, which proposed to establish a pilot program for the appointment of legal representation for unrepresented low-income parties in civil matters involving basic human needs.

For the full article, click Read more >> below...

Jack Halpin Shasta County Judge Barred from Bench

Family Court Dispute Leads To Removal of Shasta County Judge Jack Halpin

A retired Shasta County Superior Court judge has been barred from the bench — possibly stemming from a complaint filed by a Mount Shasta attorney accusing the county court of abusing the state's system that allows him to handle some cases even after retirement, according to the Redding Record Searchlight newspaper.

It's unclear whether the notice barring Judge Jack Halpin from the Shasta County bench is related to the "quo warranto" lawsuit proceedings initiated by Mount Shasta attorney Barbara Kauffman. A quo warranto is essentially a motion to initiate removing someone from a public office, but the attorney general's office has to approve one before it proceeds — a step meant to safeguard officials against frivolous lawsuits.

Click here to read the full article at the Record Searchlight. 

Sacramento County Family Court Hon. Peter J. McBrien Felony Charging Document from 2000

Sacramento County Family Court Judge Peter McBrien Charged with Felony Criminal Conduct 

Family Court Controversy Documents

Family court Judge Peter McBrien 2000 felony charging document with attached D.A. investigator report. Summons in lieu of arrest warrant charging Peter James McBrien with the commission of a violation of Penal Code section 594, a felony. With the five-page investigation report of Sacramento County District Attorney's Office Criminal Investigator Craig W. Tourte detailing Judge McBrien's responsibility for the destruction of public owned trees valued at more than $20,000 in the Ancil Hoffman Park Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, California. Judge McBrien had the trees destroyed to improve the view from his home, according to the investigators report. 

The case was resolved when McBrien pleaded no contest to a reduced, misdemeanor charge. Click here for the full story. Click here for local coverage of Judge McBrien at Sacramento Family Court News. Hon. Peter J. McBrien, is a Sacramento County Superior Court, family court judge. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye was a Sacramento Superior Court Judge from 1997-2005 and presided over the first court in Sacramento dedicated solely to domestic violence issues, working closely with Judge McBrien.

Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye to Speak in Riverside for Law Day USA

Chief Justice To Discuss Importance of Judicial Branch

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye will speak at a luncheon at the Riverside Mission Inn in Riverside on May 9. The occasion is “Law Day USA” a day of national dedication to the principles of the “rule of law” and our democratic form of government.  The event is sponsored by the Riverside and San Bernardino County Bar Associations and will be held at the Riverside Mission Inn in Riverside. 

In attendance will be more than 200 jurists and attorneys, according to the Judicial Council. The master of ceremonies will be retired U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson, and the Chief Justice will be introduced by Court of Appeal Presiding Judge Manual A. Ramirez. Indigent family court litigants without lawyers - who make up 75 percent of family court users - apparently are not invited to the affair.