Judge Should Be Censured, Panel Says

The California Commission on Judicial Performance on Thursday recommended that a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge be publicly censured for making sexually inappropriate remarks to a court stenographer and directing ethnically offensive comments to other court employees.

The commission found that Judge Norman Gordon referred to a court clerk as “the little Mexican” or “peon” and called another stenographer, who is of Japanese ancestry, “little Buddhahead.” He once referred to a female judge as a “sow.”

“Judge Gordon’s use of insulting and demeaning language when speaking about other members of the judiciary, or when speaking to or about Hispanics or Asian Americans is intolerable,” the commission said in a 10-page decision.

“Expressions such as ‘peon,’ ‘little Mexican,’ and ‘Buddhahead’ do not reflect merely an insensitivity to what Judge Gordon referred to as ‘political correctness.’ They are indicative of arrogance and prejudice, such that members of any ethnic group would be justifiably wary and suspicious of any court that used such language.”

Censure is the most severe form of discipline that can be imposed on a judge short of being removed from the bench. Since 1970, only 16 judges have been censured in California, according to commission records.

During a hearing this year, Gordon denied making offensive comments. His attorney, Robert C. Baker of Santa Monica, told the commission during a March hearing that the stenographer who accused Gordon of making the sexual remarks was “a calculating, scheming liar.”

The commission acknowledged that conflicting testimony was presented about events that allegedly occurred from April 1990 to October 1992. However, the commission found that the judge allowed an atmosphere to develop in his Long Beach courtroom and offices that encouraged “offensive, crude and demeaning sexual name-calling.”

In early 1992, according to the decision, the stenographer, who was identified only as “Carol A.,” told other court employees that she and her husband were trying to have a baby. In her office she maintained a calendar where she circled the dates on which she was most likely to conceive.

On more than one occasion, according to the commission, Gordon “inquired of Ms. A if she had sexual relations with her husband by asking her: ‘Did you get any last night?”’

Additionally, Gordon referred to her as “little copulator,” asked Ms. A about her sexual organs and referred to her gynecologist with a crude sexual term, according to the decision.

While on vacation, Gordon mailed Ms. A. a postcard with a sexually suggestive picture of an orangutan lying on its back and sent another court employee a postcard containing a picture of a scantily clad woman holding the nipples of her exposed breasts.

On the other hand, the commission decided that there was no convincing evidence to support the stenographer’s claims that Gordon had touched her in sexual ways on several occasions. The commission based its conclusions on a three-judge fact-finding panel that heard 22 witnesses.

In conclusion, though, the commission said that “the sexual references used by Judge Gordon in dealing with his staff are totally inappropriate for any judge. . . . While Judge Gordon may not have set in motion that tawdry series of events which took place in his department, he participated in them, allowed them to happen during the period of April of 1990 through October of 1992, and did nothing to discourage them.”

The decision states that after she left Gordon’s staff in December 1992, the stenographer filed a civil lawsuit against him, which was settled on undisclosed terms.

The recommendation to publicly condemn the judge for misconduct will be forwarded to the state Supreme Court. A law approved by California voters in 1994 allows the commission to censure judges or remove them from office without the Supreme Court’s approval. But Gordon’s case arose before the law passed.

Gordon, 69, was appointed to the court by Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. in January 1983, after being in private law practice for 28 years. The commission decision states that Gordon said during closed-door hearings this year that he planned to retire at the end of 1996.

Neither Gordon nor Baker, who also is defending O.J. Simpson against civil wrongful-death charges, returned calls seeking comment.