STATE OF CALIFORNIA
BEFORE THE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL PERFORMANCE
INQUIRY CONCERNING NOTICE OF FORMAL
JUDGE MICHAEL S. WILLIAMS, PROCEEDINGS

No. 200

 

 

To Michael S. Williams, a judge of the Napa County Superior Court
from December 2012 to the present:

Preliminary investigation pursuant to Rules of the Commission on
Judicial Performance, rules 109 and 111, having been made, the
Commission on Judicial Performance has concluded that formal
proceedings should be instituted to inquire into the charge specified against
you herein.

By the following allegations, you are charged with willful
misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings
the judicial of?ce into disrepute, and improper action Within the meaning of
article VI, section 18 of the California Constitution providing for removal,
censure, or public or private admonishment of a judge or former judge, to

wit:

21%

On or about the evening of March 9, 2016, you attended a ?Judges?
Night? dinner held by the Northern California chapter of the American
Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers at The City Club of San
Francisco. On your way out of the event, you took at least two business
card holders belonging to The City Club. The cardholders were sitting on a
table near the elevators on the 10th ?oor of the building. The cardholders
contained the business cards of the City Club?s managers. You pocketed at
least one cardholder, left, and then returned and took one or two more
before taking an elevator down to the first floor. The cardholders were
consistent with the art deco decor of The City Club, were of value to The
City Club and its managers, and were each worth approximately $50. Your
conduct could have been charged as petty theft.

On or about March 28, 2016, an AAML Fellow told you that you
had been seen on video taking the cardholders and suggested that you
return them to The City Club and self-report. Subsequently, on or about
March 29, 2016, you sent a package to The City Club that contained the
cardholders and a letter of apology. In the letter, you wrote, have no
excuse but that I had a couple of glasses of wine and was not thinking of
what I was doing.? On or about March 30, 2016, you sent the Commission
on Judicial Performance a letter stating that on an ?unexplainable impulse?
you had taken two cardholders as you were leaving a bar dinner in San
Francisco a couple weeks previously, but that you had returned them. You
later wrote to the commission that you took the cardholders so that you
could display some ?joke business cards? that you and a friend had printed
about 40 years ago and that you recently found.

Your conduct violated the Code of Judicial Ethics, canons 1, 2, and

2A.

YOU ARE HEREBY GIVEN NOTICE, pursuant to Rules of the
Commission on Judicial Performance, rule 118, that formal proceedings
have been instituted and shall proceed in accordance with Rules of the
Commission on Judicial Performance, rules 101-138.

Pursuant to Rules of the Commission on Judicial Performance, rules
104(c) and 119, you must ?le a written answer to the charges against you
within twenty (20) days after service of this notice upon you. The answer
shall be ?led with the Commission on Judicial Performance, 455 Golden
Gate Avenue, Suite 14400, San Francisco, California 94102-3660. The
answer shall be veri?ed and shall conform in style to California Rules of
Court, rule The Notice of Formal Proceedings and answer shall
constitute the pleadings. No further pleadings shall be ?led and no motion
or demurrer shall be ?led against any of the pleadings.

This Notice of Formal Proceedings may be amended pursuant to
Rules of the Commission on Judicial Performance, rule 128(a).

BY ORDER OF THE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL
PERFORMANCE

Datedj 3: 22/10/9?
W715 

Richard Simps?t??l
Vice? Chairperson

 

FILED
JUN 09 2017

peg? 

EMANCE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

BEFORE THE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL PERFORMANCE

INQUIRY CONCERNING ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SERVICE
JUDGE MICHAEL S. WILLIAMS, OF NOTICE OF FORMAL
PROCEEDINGS
No. 200

 

I, Edith R. Matthai, on behalf of my client, Judge Michael S. Williams,
hereby waive personal service of the Notice of Formal Proceedings in Inquiry No.
200 and agree to accept service by mail. I acknowledge receipt of a copy of the
Notice of Formal Proceedings by mail and, therefore, that Judge Williams has
been properly served pursuant to Rules of the Commis ion on Judicial

Performance, rule 118(c).

fir?r" 'f

Dated: 5 I 
Edith R. Matthai

Attorney for Judge Michael S. Williams
Respondent