A California judge with a long history of misconduct has agreed to retire from the bench after being disciplined for using humor to “belittle” a plaintiff and his attorney during a trial.

The public admonishment of Orange County Superior Court Judge James M. Brooks was his second in less than 18 months by the California Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP), which disciplined him in November 2006 for mocking a civil defendant's claim of a heart condition.

During the trial of an employment law case in 2005, Brooks, among other things, flashed a hand-lettered sign saying “Overruled” when plaintiffs' counsel made objections. According to an appeals court which ordered a new trial in the case because of the judicial misconduct,

[he] allowed, indeed helped create, a circus atmosphere, giving defendants’ lawyer free rein to deride and make snide remarks at will and at the expense of plaintiffs and their lawyer. Haluck v. Ricoh Electronics (2007) 151 Cal.App.4th 994.

By retiring after 21 years on the bench, Brooks avoided harsher discipline including removal from office. He also agreed not to seek judicial assignment as a retired judge.

“In the commission's view, this result adequately protects the public from any future misconduct,” the CJP said in an April 4 decision.

The commission also previously disciplined Brooks in 1996 for making comments that reflect ethnic bias and in 2003 for referring to parties in a case as “Nazis.” In Hernandez v. Paicius (2003) 109 Cal.App.4th 452, the 4th District Court of Appeal ordered a retrial in a medical malpractice case after finding he had committed misconduct.