California Central District Judge John Holcomb threw out attorney Gregory Richardson’s case to investigate a Riverside judicial officer April 8.
Richardson filed his federal petition Sept. 29, 2022, asking for the California Commission on Judicial Performance to review the appointment of Martha Bellinger to handle his divorce case in Riverside Superior Court.
Bellinger was a Los Angeles County judge until 2011. Holcomb describes Bellinger as an arbitrator, while Richardson said she was a temporary judge.
“The federal judges deem Bellinger to be an ‘arbitrator’ instead of a ‘temporary judge’, but no judge in any court has the authority to change the minimum constitutional requirements for an attorney to serve as a temporary judge. But that is exactly what Judge Holcomb did, by referring to Bellinger as an ‘arbitrator,’” Richardson said by email.
Richardson took issue with her appointment, saying in his complaint that Bellinger was appointed through an improper attorney referral service through which Bellinger shared legal fees. He also said that Bellinger cannot be a judicial officer because she is an active member of the State Bar, that she did not have her oath of office administered to her by a public official, and that only the presiding judge of a court can appoint an attorney as a temporary judge.
The CJP was the case’s sole defendant, and Richardson alleged violation of his civil rights.
Bellinger was an arbitrator, and not a temporary judge, according to Holcomb’s ruling.
The CJP argued that Richardson’s case should be thrown out because of the 11th Amendment to the Constitution, and because they are not a person within the meaning of civil rights law.
Holcomb agreed.
The 11th Amendment bars federal suits which seek injunctive relief and damages against a state agency, and civil rights violations can only be brought against individuals, Holcomb wrote.
“There is no conceivable way for any amended claim against the CJP—the sole defendant in this case—to pass muster under the 11th Amendment,” Holcomb wrote.
Holcomb wrote that agencies can waive their 11th Amendment immunity. Richardson had requested the CJP to waive theirs, he wrote by email.
Case No. 5:22-cv-01709.
Read the complaint here.
Read the ruling here.
Richardson will refile his claims, he said by email.
