Seventeen attorneys are supporting a motion to disqualify Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mary Ann Murphy from an ongoing child sex abuse trial, citing alleged favoritism in the presence of jurors, racial bias and a lengthy history of abusive behavior.
Attorney Nicholas C. Rowley, who is representing six victims suing the Mountain View School District in South El Monte for sexual abuse inflicted by a teacher, filed the motion this week and submitted written complaints to Presiding Judge Sergio C. Tapia II and the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance.
“Judge Murphy’s bizarre behavior is scary for lawyers and is hurting their clients who can’t stand up for themselves,” Rowley told the Southern California News Group. “She’s a bully. People have been tolerating that for decades. This is the first time anyone has stood up to her.”
Rowley said in the complaint submitted to Tapia that his clients in the Mountain View School District case, who are Latino, have routinely been subjected to Murphy’s wrath.
‘Screams at lawyers, witnesses’
“She screams at lawyers and witnesses, she displays blatant favoritism in the presence of the jury, and her treatment of non-White lawyers and litigants, including my own clients and co-counsel, is so disparate that it creates the appearance of racial bias,” Rowley said.
“The system failed these children when it allowed them to be molested by their teacher, and it has failed them again by placing them in a courtroom with a judge who is cruel, demeaning and abusive. No party should have to try a case in that environment, much less a victim of sexual abuse.”
The lawsuit seeks $100 million from the Mountain View School District, alleging negligence in the employment of teacher Joseph Alfred Baldenebro. Baldenebro was sentenced to 20 years in prison for inappropriately touching girls ranging in age from 8 to 11.
Rowley alleges Murphy, a former federal prosecutor appointed to the bench in 1993 by Gov. Pete Wilson, has “pulled out every stop” preventing him from adequately representing his clients, including banning him from performing normal questioning of prospective jurors during the process known as voir dire.
“Judge Murphy was rude and interrupted me from the very beginning of my voir dire in a way that I have never experienced in what was 185 jury trials before I started this one,” Rowley said in the motion. “Judge Murphy refused to allow me to treat the prospective jurors with courtesy, despite my express ethical obligation to do so.”
Rowley added he believes Murphy is unfit for the bench, based on her “explosive temper and partiality.” “I believe that an investigation will reveal a reign of terror by Judge Murphy that must be stopped.”
Murphy could not be immediately reached for comment.
Complaints filed with state
Rowley’s complaint to the Commission on Judicial Performance further details Murphy’s alleged disruptive behavior, including:
- Screaming at attorneys, witnesses, court staff and jurors, to the point that some break down in tears.
- Arbitrarily confronting observers and throwing them out of her courtroom under false pretenses to prevent the documentation of her behavior.
- Showing bias against people of color, including using racially charged language — such as claiming a Latina attorney “scurried,” as if like a cockroach or a rat.
- Demonstrating cruelty and callousness toward the most vulnerable litigants, including willfully traumatizing a 12-year-old quadriplegic in one case and a child sex-abuse victim in another.
- Failing to control the proceedings before her to the point that lawyers become physically aggressive with one another, with no repercussions.
Rowley alleges Murphy has violated the cannons of the California Code of Judicial Ethics requiring judges to perform duties “impartially, competently and diligently” while being be “patient, dignified and courteous to litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers, and others.”
A Los Angeles Superior Court spokesperson did not specifically address Rowley’s motion, but said complaints against judges are investigated by Tapia.
“Should a complaint investigation conclude that there has been a violation of a provision of the Code of Judicial Ethics, appropriate corrective action may include reporting the violation to the appropriate authority, including the Commission on Judicial Performance,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The Commission on Judicial Performance did not respond to request for comment.
Attorneys detail judge’s behavior
Sixteen plaintiff and defense attorneys submitted declarations with the court in support of Rowley’s motion, detailing their observations and encounters with Murphy.
“They have appeared in her courtroom, they have seen how she acts, and they are putting their careers at risk to tell the truth about a judge who has gone rogue,” Rowley told the Commission on Judicial Performance.
Attorney Sarah Havens, president of the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, said in a declaration she visited Murphy’s courtroom on March 21 to watch Rowley square off against Dana Fox, a prominent attorney representing the Mountain View School District.
During voir dire, Murphy repeatedly interrupted and reprimanded Rowley, which seemed to turn prospective jurors against him, Havens said.
“It was palpable,” Havens said. “I could hear it under their breaths, I could feel it in the room. I do not believe that any prospective juror in that Friday courtroom could fairly sit on a panel after what they witnessed and experienced in that courtroom.”
Attorney Keith Bruno, who is Rowley’s co-counsel in the Mountain View School District case, said that during a March 14 hearing that Murphy acted aggressive, exasperated and inexplicably hostile toward a retired teacher describing how she had reported a tip about another teacher suspected of being a pedophile.
Sung “Sean” Kim, another attorney who submitted a declaration, recalled that following a 2024 sidebar in Murphy’s courtroom a defense attorney “shoulder-checked” his co-counsel in front of jurors, called him “bush league” and made an overture of fighting in a nearby parking lot.
“This physical aggression from one lawyer to another in the courtroom occurred within Judge Murphy’s presence,” Kim said. “Yet, Judge Murphy neither acknowledged the incident, nor did anything to intervene.”
Attorney Alex Guerrero said in a declaration that Murphy’s abusive behavior was so well known that his office was forced to call more than 10 different court reporters for jury selection because so many turned down the job when they found out she was assigned to the case.
Rowley said that since filing the motion and complaints six more attorneys have provided declarations and Murphy’s behavior has improved. “Judge Murphy is a smart judge and knows the law inside and out,” he said. “We need judges with that level of experience and not the abusive Judge Murphy.”