Sonoma County, California Superior Court Judge James G. Bertoli is now the proud owner of a public admonishment (available in full below). Listen, Above the Law’s “judicial ethics” tag is filled with a wide variety of questionable behavior from jurists, but I’m pretty confident this is the first time that a judge’s love of their high school alma mater gets them in hot water with professional responsibility authorities. The California Commission on Judicial Performance issued a public admonishment of the judge after he led an effort block the renaming of his high school.
This may not seem like the sort of development to devolve into name calling and protests but that’s what happened. Bertoli’s high school, Analy High School was merging with its rival, El Molino High School. El Molino students would go to the Analy campus, and the school board temporarily renamed the combined school, West County High School. And, as reported by Law360, this is when the hard feelings started.
The proposed consolidation and renaming became a “controversial and emotionally-charged” local issue that “involved lawsuits, protests, and petitions to recall members of the school board,” and played out for the rest of 2021.
For roughly eight months, Judge Bertoli was a major figure in the movement to preserve the Analy name.
He served on the board of directors of the Analy Alumni Association and repeatedly made his position known at in-person events, some of which he helped organize, and on social media.
Many local residents were well aware he was a sitting judge and local newspaper coverage always identified him as such, creating the appearance Judge Bertoli was “lending the prestige of [his] office to” the alumni association, the decision said.
The commission said Bertoli “demeaned the judicial office” with his behavior. That included calling opponents “a bunch of frickin’ (I cleaned that up) morons!” on social media, calling the school board “myopic, analytical, and self-aggrandizing,” and claiming outside actors had “greased the palms of school administrators, board members, athletic directors, etc.”
Judge Bertoli’s attorney, James A. Murphy, said of the admonishment, “The biggest problem we have with this is the chilling effect it could have on the speech of other judges.”
But, for my money, the best revelation about Bertoli and his judicial temperament isn’t even about the high school.
The commission also said Judge Bertoli should have known better, because in 2021 he received an advisory letter warning him about using his status as a judge to promote his band, “Court ‘n’ Disaster.”
“The band’s website identified Judge Bertoli as a sitting superior court judge,” the commission said. “Photographs on the website identified the judge as ‘Judge Jimmy Bertoli.’ Marketing and promotional materials also identified the band as ‘your standard courthouse band.’”
But in the end, despite the questionable nature of the judge’s behavior, his campaign was successful. In December 2021, the school board voted to keep the Analy name.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
