A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge was publicly admonished this week for repeatedly entering the private chambers of other jurists after hours to rifle through their confidential papers and try to access their personal computers.
The California Commission on Judicial Performance said Judge Daviann L. Mitchell, who has been on the bench since 2006, engaged in a “serious breach of the expected trust shared among judicial colleagues and entirely at odds with the behavior expected of judges.”
“Judge Mitchell’s conduct constituted a failure to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary and to personally observe high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the judiciary is preserved,” the commission said.
David Slayton, executive officer/clerk of Los Angeles Superior Court, and Mitchell could not be reached for comment.
On multiple occasions in 2023, the commission reported, Mitchell entered the chambers of Supervising Judge Denise McLaughlin-Bennett and Judge Kathleen Blanchard after court hours, without their permission.
At the time, McLaughlin-Bennett supervised Mitchell, who was serving as the court’s assistant supervising judge.
Security measures
When McLaughlin-Bennett learned someone had been entering her chambers, which contained confidential documents regarding the court’s judges, she began locking her door, and later arranged to have documents relocated, the commission said.
McLaughlin-Bennett convened a meeting with the court’s judicial officers and advised them to lock their computers in the evenings and she would have security cameras installed in the back hallways adjacent to the judges’ chambers.
However, Mitchell continued to enter McLaughlin-Bennett’s chambers without permission, prompting the door locks to be changed, the commission said.
Mitchell also used a master key to enter the locked chambers of Judge Blanchard, who was not at the courthouse, on six evenings from Oct. 31 to Dec. 11, 2023.
Mitchell rifled through papers in and on Blanchard’s desk, in closed cabinets and in a personal briefcase and also attempted to access the judge’s computer, the commission said.
“The papers Judge Mitchell searched through in Judge Blanchard’s chambers were not court files or documents necessary for Judge Mitchell to perform her judicial or adminisrative duties,” said the commission.
‘Lost her way’
Mitchell expressed remorse to the commission for her “entirely unacceptable conduct” and stated she “lost her way” during a period of significant personal and professional stress that negatively affected her mental health and ability to function normally.
Mitchell also described to the commission her efforts to seek the advice of mentors and court management to address the underlying issues with her colleagues that were contributing to her professional stress.
Improper comments to defendant
In a separate matter, the commission also reprimanded Mitchell for improper comments she made in June 2023 to a defendant about his appearance while discussing a no-contest plea agreement involving a child endangerment and annoyance case.
“You’re a younger man,” Mitchell told the defendant. “You’re a handsome man, and you are very well built, and you will be an attraction in state prison. … Is that the environment that you want to be in?”
The commission concluded that Mitchell’s remarks about the defendant’s physical appearance and how other prisoners would treat him in prison were “discourteous and undignified.”
Previous discipline
The admonishment isn’t the first time Mitchell has been disciplined.
In 2010, the commission issued Mitchell an advisory letter for failing to disclose on the record her extensive involvement in dog breeding while handling a case involving criminal abuse of dogs.
Mitchell told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2006 that she knew from the age of 11 that she wanted to work with animals. She persuaded a pet shop owner to give her a job cleaning the store, a job that grew into grooming and caring for dogs.
A former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, Mitchell established Nighthawk Rottweilers 1982, named after one of her police dogs, Hawk.
She has bred and shown dogs all over the world, including a Rottweiler named Best of Breed at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 2003.