A Letter to
Presiding Judge James Bascue

Just a day or two ago, J.A.I.L. sent out a News Journal about the Los Angeles judges entitled, "Judge's Party Time Ends," exposing how the judges in Los Angeles were living the lifestyles of the rich and famous off the bribes, uh, er, donations of attorneys who practiced law before these judges. The below is a response written to J.A.I.L.

Under the law of California, the proper place to lodge a complaint when the offender is a commissioner, and not a judge, is his boss, the presiding judge of the Superior Court, and in the below case, that is Mr. Jim Bascue.

Commissioners serve purely at the bidding of the presiding judge of the court, and are neither appointed by the governor nor elected by the people, and thus do not fall under the disciplinary arm of the California Commission on Judicial Performance, for whatever that may be worth.

Commissioners are merely attorneys from the community appointed and commissioned by the presiding judge. So the below letter to Jim Bascue was truly the proper forum under law for Eileen Johnson to seek redress of grievance, and it was incumbent upon Mr. Bascue to consider her complaint against Commissioner Robert Zakon. But, sad to say, her response is a typical response one receives from complaints lodged against commissioners.

-Ron Branson-
[email protected]


April 1, 2022
 
Judge James Bascue
Presiding Judge of the Superior Court
111 North Hill Street, Room 204
Los Angeles, Ca. 90012-301
 
Dear Judge Bascue,

Approximately 10 months have passed since I first contacted you concerning the judicial misconduct of Commissioner Robert Zakon and my attorney, Mr. Lawrence Sobel at a hearing on 5/11/01 in the Family Law Court of San Fernando. A ruling was made, contrary to an existing judgment, with no logical explanation as to why. It was financially devastating to myself and my children but very profitable for my ex spouse.

Over the course of 5 months, I wrote you 6 letters which included copies of court documents and correspondence that supported my claim of having been mistreated in Commissioner Zakon's court; that they had conspired against me for their own personal benefit and that a "procedural" error had occurred as well. I also had the court transcripts. Despite this evidence, your response was to repeatedly defend their actions and tell me to hire another attorney which you knew I could not afford to do. To this day, I am still paying off the money I spent to hire an attorney, Mr. Sobel, who betrayed me.

To add insult to injury, you chastised me for bothering you with my complaint and sent copies of all of the my letters, along with your negative responses, to Commissioner Zakon, Lawrence Sobel and my ex's attorney, Jeffrey Lipow, which compromised me greatly when I had to appear in that same court again in September, this time without legal representation. You had clearly given the Commissioner permission to continue abusing me while playing up to his attorney buddies which he did. I reported his biased actions and condescending behavior towards me at that hearing in detail to you as well.

To my shock, I discovered on 11/20/01 that you re-assigned Robert Zakon to his post as Commissioner in the Family Law Court of San Fernando. If you were not in a position to help me "undo" the damage that his unethical and prejudicial behavior had already caused me, you did have the authority to insure that he would not be able to continue to cause undue harm to people like me in the future by not re-assigning him as Commissioner of the Family Law Court in San Fernando.

As it stands now, I have absolutely no chance of receiving justice in the Family Law Court. Any of the issues spelled out in my judgment can be and are being ignored as both sides know that I cannot possibly win in this man's court room, no matter how right I may be.

Today I read the front-page story concerning the "coffee and flowers fund", supported in large part by local attorneys for the benefit of the Judicial Officers of the Los Angeles Superior Court, and the concerns that these contributions from attorneys "....were improperly influencing cases before judges."

It is apparent now that I am not the only victim of unexplained back-room deals (Chambers Conferences) and the "buddy system" between judicial officers of your court and their attorney friends.

It seems clear that you support unethical behavior in the court system as long as it can be kept hidden and that you have no concern for the victims of these actions... . who have little or no resources to continue their fight for justice. It is not about "justice" at all, is it? It is just a corrupt game ruled by money and perks going to the chosen few.

Sincerely,
 
Eileen Johnson
California JAILer
Woodland Hills, CA
[email protected]
 
Cc:Sen. Sheila Kuehl
National Organization for Women
Ron Branson, J.A.I.L.
Troy Anderson, Daily News
Dean Baquet, Los Angeles Times
Richard I. Fine

PS from Ron: Barbie says Jim Bascue will greatly appreciate knowing that a copy of her letter to him was sent to "Ron Branson." (Smile)

Home.