The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced on Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez committed judicial misconduct by ordering a U.S. marshal to handcuff a defendant's 13-year-old daughter during a hearing in his San Diego courtroom last year, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The court stated that Judge Benitez had "engaged in abusive or harassing behavior," a rare finding in the case of judicial misconduct. The discipline for Benitez, who took on a lighter caseload after assuming senior status in 2017, includes a public reprimand by the Judicial Council. It also includes an arrangement that he not be assigned any new criminal cases for three years.
Benitez said the incident, which brought the girl to tears, was meant to scare her away from using drugs. But the 9th Circuit’s Judicial Council, a panel of 11 judges tasked in part with resolving disputes and enhancing public understanding and confidence in the judiciary, found Benitez’s conduct impermissible. “First, the shackling of a spectator at a hearing who is not engaged in threatening or disorderly behavior exceeds the authority of a district judge,” the Judicial Council wrote in a 25-page order. “Second, creating a spectacle out of a minor child in the courtroom chills the desire of friends, family members, and members of the public to support loved ones at sentencing.”