Justices Won’t Drop Case Against Ex-Judge

SAN FRANCISCO —  The state Supreme Court has refused to dismiss disciplinary charges against former Los Angeles Municipal Judge David M. Kennick, saying allegations of misconduct must still be resolved even though the judge has retired from the bench.

Kennick’s removal had been sought by the state Judicial Performance Commission on charges that he improperly favored attorney-friends in court appointments and suggested to a highway patrolman that the officer could drop the drunk-driving case in which the judge was later convicted.

The justices, in an order filed Thursday, said that when the commission recommends removal, the court must determine whether such action would be warranted had the judge not retired--and, if so, whether Kennick should be permitted to practice law.

The action followed a series of unusual moves in the case of the 51-year-old Kennick, who took medical leave from his post in 1987 after serving as a judge for 15 years.

Last year, after the commission asked for the judge’s removal, Kennick informed the court he had retired irrevocably from the bench and urged that the case be dropped as moot.

The court then ordered the case dismissed, but hastily reinstated the matter when the commission objected. The disciplinary process would be frustrated, the commission argued, if accused judges could evade final resolution of the charges simply by voluntarily stepping down.

Last December, the court sent a letter to Kennick offering to drop the case if he agreed not to practice law or again seek judicial office. In reply, Kennick’s attorneys told the justices that if the purpose of the proceedings was “protection of the public,” his retirement from the bench was sufficient and the case should be dismissed. But he would not voluntarily relinquish his right to practice law, the attorneys said.

“Any decision ordering disbarment without a hearing on that precise issue, even if in line with the California Constitution, would result in the denial of equal protection and due process under the United States Constitution,” the attorneys said in a letter to the court.

In Thursday’s one-page order, signed by Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas, the court formally denied Kennick’s motion to dismiss the proceeding as moot.

The court gave lawyers for both Kennick and the commission until March 17 to file additional briefs on whether Kennick should be suspended from the practice of law.