Oil’s another one. At 140 bucks a barrel — and north of $4.50 for a gallon of petrol — I’m not sure it’s more oil that we need. More gas would be good.
The last bit of gradoo is fireworks. God bless ’em, and pass the punk.
Now, last week the California Commission on Judicial Performance — an 11-member panel of folks charged with keeping an eye on the state’s jurists — bounced Orange County Superior Court Judge Kelly MacEachern from the Harbor Court for filing false and misleading expense claims for a San Diego legal conference, and for then fibbing about them under questioning. She’s appealing the decision.
MacEachern, you remember, is the judge who pulled the plug on the Benito Acosta trial after it was learned one of Costa Mesa’s contract city attorneys, Dan Peelman, had failed to be sworn in as a public prosecutor.
At the time, we pitched high and tight on Peelman and his superior — Costa Mesa City Atty. Kimberly Hall Barlow — for booting the city’s case against Acosta and thousands of public tax dollars over a rudimentary technicality. This, of course, presumed MacEachern’s ruling was legally sound.
That’s why I beefed for an appeal of the judge’s decision on the dime of Jones & Mayer, the law firm that employs Barlow and Peelman. Either Peelman and Barlow blew it, or MacEachern did. In any case, Costa Mesa taxpayers had a right to know which.
By the way, a panel of Orange County Superior Court heard arguments in that appeal on Thursday. A decision is expected in about a month.
Now, MacEachern’s ouster says nothing about her skills for applying the law in the courtroom. But it does reveal something about her ethical compass.
So, add her to the cast of color in the Acosta matter. And Costa Mesans must feel as though they’re stuck in a Monty Python episode.
