The Committee on Judicial Performance has removed Judge Richard Stanford from serving as a judge. This is sad. Judge Stanford has been a brilliant judge for over 20 years and I have personally known him to be fair and to treat all those that come before him with the utmost respect. He was a former prosecutor before becoming a judge, but as a judge he has shown the ability to make sound legal decisions over his lengthy career.

Many years ago Judge Stanford made the mistake of suspending some fines for members of his family on minor traffic offenses. Of course it was an error in judgment to do this. He should have not have been handling cases that came before him where the accused were members of his family.

However, we think it is an incredibly harsh punishment to remove Judge Stanford for the bench for these errors in judgment.

Every day our clients commit crimes far more serious than this and we are able to have them placed on probation and they more often than that never see a day in jail. They certainly do not lose their job or career for their commission of a criminal offense. So it is fair for Judge Stanford to lose his “entire career” as a judge over these few errors in judgment.

This is a sad situation and we encourage your comments on this situation.