Media Under Attack by Santa Clara County Courts

In conduct that feels oh so familiar with the McCarthy Era, Santa Clara County Court insiders continue to try to lash out at reporters and members of the media critical of the courts and their use of pubic funds.

​As previously reported, individual judges  in Santa Clara County, especially in family  law cases, appear to be abusing their power and authority to retaliate against litigants who are  suspected of being  critical of the Santa Clara County Courts, especially  when those litigants are believed to associate with the media, or other groups supportive of First Amendment Rights. 

When the  Judge Persky controversy  exploded on the national stage, Santa Clara Court officials  went to work attempting to seek  out  and silence reporters and media outlets critical of the courts or the many programs the courts oversee. 

Santa Clara County's public information officer, Joe Macaluso, (JMacaluso@scscourt.org ), appears to not have worked merely to provide public information about the county's courts, during that time. Instead Mr. Macaluso appears to have , on his own, or as directed by his court bosses, attempted to thwart public records requests and media requests, in an attempt to  deter the media from exposing systemic problems in Santa Clara County Courts. 

​Mainstream media has not been deterred . The Metro News just published a scathing article on the court's misuse of interpreters. In a county with the language  diversity issues Santa Clara County faces, this is simply disgraceful.

Interpreters are just the tip of the iceberg. The practices and policies Santa Clara County Courts are employing  are so harmful to the integrity of our legal system.

​Since 2010 , Santa Clara County residents became outraged after a  trustee of a disabled man was allowed by the Santa Clara County Courts. To silence the criticism, the county formed committees with politicians like Jim Beall, and included judges like Mary Ann Grilli. Santa Clara County presiding judges and top court administrators knew Santa Clara  was one of the worst in the state where   probate and receiver issues were at hand.

​After the county  formed  a  committee, placating the public, Santa Clara County courts went immediately  went back to their old policies and practices ,  using unscrupulous trustees, referees, custody experts , CPAs and vocational examiners , who continue to impose court corruption on the county's  elderly,  poor, undereducated   and children who are trapped  in the probate and divorce cases, where the county has a monopoly.


​When litigants speak up, judges retaliate more. In a 2015  case before Judge Towery , a women tried to speak up about  the money her husband was stealing in a business as he sent her into bankruptcy and dragged out the divorce.

​Judge Towery, in  every abuse of power and discretion imaginable, defined the couple's date of separation ( when it was not legally before him ) , and ran with the date claimed by husband and his lawyer,  8 years earlier than  the date claimed by  the self represented mother.  No notice, no trial , no evidence, and with the bang of his corrupt little gavel and in violation of every family code imaginable, Judge Towery singlehandedly  terminated  the wife's right to long term support or proper business valuations, sending her to bankruptcy and her ex husband to the country club.

​In case after case, Santa Clara County Courts consistently demonstrate a willingness to impose ​gender  bias, financial  misconduct and gross violations of due process on local litigants. The county's judges do with  such zeal , that the public trust in the legal system has been vacated .

​Judges who have forgotten they serve the people , and our greater society,  have abandoned their oath with such an  effervescence that they must be stopped and reeled in by media scrutiny  which serves the public interest. .  

​A  federal case is set to be heard in  San Francisco later this month. where the issue of media and litigant rights to free speech and association  with groups  critical of Santa Clara County courts will take center stage.  In  that case Santa Clara County Courts have gone to extraordinary  efforts and legal expense to keep "emails and blogs " that disparage the courts, out of  the public record and away from the prospective jury.  

​Now that the Judge Persky controversy involving the  Stanford rapist sentence  is in every mainstream outlet in  country, as well as thousands of emails and blogs, we wonder just how Santa Clara County Court arrogance will continue to keep the corrupt mismanagement  and decades of misconduct out of the media, and away from federal court oversight .