And this is why I did not jump to publishing the admonishment of Judge Dale Reinholtsen

And this is one reason why I did not jump to publishing the admonishment of Judge Dale Reinholtsen.

This comment was made on Rose's blog watchpaul.

Anonymous9/05/2015 5:29 PM

So the actual decision can read online here.
http://cjp.ca.gov/res/docs/public_admon/Reinholtsen_Pub_Adm_09-03-15.pdf

There are several cases on here, and at least two can be described as high-profile, Tooby Ranch and Floyd Squires. A fair assumption is that the complaint on the delay in deciding the cases came from the lawyers involved in the cases discussed in decision, since they are aware of the time limit and intimately know when the case became submitted. A further deduction can be inferred that in each of those decisions there were winners and losers. The winning attorney rarely is so upset with a Judge that they would be motivated to complain. They are just happy they won. So the one case which jumps out at me as being a huge one-sided almost total victory was Floyd Squires. The winning attorney on that was Brad Floyd. The losing attorney was (in my opinion deserving of her very own watchcyndy blog) none other than Cyndy Day-Wilson. This woman really rubs people the wrong way. So much so that Lance Madsen planned and did everything possible to orchestrate her firing. He did this to be launched after his death. She is a terrible lawyer. She is really incompetent and has the personality to want to rat out Judge Reinholtsen. We will never know. (Complaints are naturally secret.) I bet Wilson was behind this and bet that she leaked this to LoCo.

There are many reasons for the backlog in the Humboldt County courts: the previous DA administration, state cutbacks that affect court staff and hours clerk's office is open, and what this commenter pointed out. Any disgruntled attorney, citizen or politically motivated special interest group angry at Judge Reinholtsen could have leaked the information.

Should this admonishment be covered? Absolutely. LOCO hardly covers the court. I find it highly unlikely they monitor the Judicial Council of California site daily. The first thing I texted a friend was, did someone leak this to LOCO?  I am not saying that is the case, but it is a question worth asking.

The TS covers court sometimes but has not covered any other court corruption article. So this isolated article rightfully again raises the inferences the commenter points out about who, if anyone, leaked the story. Easy to link a public document and make a couple of calls but at least TS contacted Judge Reinholtsen's lawyer and the Judicial Council for comment.

Why were LOCO and TS the only two local sources to know about this and why is the only coverage of this admonishment all in the last two days? Not a single article outside that time frame. Not a single article cites a source and the content is almost identical.

Will the Judicial Council of California be this vigilant in disciplining the former CEO Kerri Keenan after their investigation? And what are they going to do about the current workload of staff and Judges now? The Judicial Council of California should look at why there needed to be an investigation of Judge Reinholtsen in the first place. If this was an issue before as the TS article claims , where were the safeguards the Judicial Council should have put in place the last time this happened?

Judge Reinholtsen's lawyer Mr. Timothy Needham pointed out some of the reasons this occurred. Does it excuse what was done, no. How do we know what the investigation uncovered if we don't have the Judge's response to view?


And another anonymous comment this morning on watchpaul. http://watchpaul.blogspot.com/2015/09/bad-news-judge-dale-reinholtsen.html#comment-form

Anonymous9/06/2015 9:37 AM
You will find Judge Reinholtsen working in the law library on his days off......his case load is unmanageable, as is the work load of the other bench officers that he "could have assigned his cases to". Can we get to the real problem at the Court? Kerri Keenan decimated the operations of the Court. Mr. Tozzi has the same management team that implemented and carried out her tyranny reorganizing the Court. There is no reorganization, just a moving of the players around. unscrupulous and unethical behavior continues at the Court. That is why so many people have severed their employment. It seems as though the bench officers continue to keep their heads in the sand.
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