Judge Admonished For Salacious Online Claim

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeff Ferguson acted with “reckless disregard for the truth” when he accused a prosecutor running for a judgeship of having a sexual relationship with a defense attorney whom she opposed in court, says the Commission on Judicial Performance. The accusation was posted online during a heated 2016 judicial contest between Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner and Karen Schatzle, then a senior deputy district attorney for the county. Ferguson backed Steiner, who was censured in 2014 for having sex with women in his chambers. When Schatzle made a comment about Steiner’s sexual behavior on the North Orange County Bar Association Facebook page, Ferguson shot back with his own claims. The commission said Ferguson could not provide any factual support for his claim, and that he later admitted “he was wrong to write the post, recognized that it fell outside the bounds of professionalism and the decorum expected of a bench officer, and apologized for his conduct.”