Governor Gavin Newsom continued attacking federal judges On Wednesday evening. He called into question the character of San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez following a “scared straight” approach to a defendant’s daughter in court last month.
Newsom tweeted a link from San Diego Union-Tribune tweeted about the incident:
“Judge Benitez on full display. THIS is the man who is deciding the fate of CA’s assault weapons ban. A man that will handcuff innocent kids in a courtroom for the sake of humiliation. I’m the dad of a 13-year-old daughter – this sickens me.”
Fox News reported:
The outlet detailed a moment during a Feb. 13 hearing where Benitez told a U.S. Marshal to handcuff the 13-year-old daughter of a defendant who was in court to decide probation revocation following five years in prison and five years of supervised release on a drug conspiracy charge.
After the man told Benitez he was concerned for his daughter because she seemed to be going down the path that ultimately landed him in jail, Benitez asked the girl, who was reportedly crying, to approach him on the stand and had her briefly handcuffed in an effort to scare her away from criminal behavior.
The act resulted in a misconduct complaint being filed against Benitez, which will be reviewed by a higher court.
Benitez explained that he intended to scare her away from doing drugs and ending up in a court like her father.
The father’s defense attorney described the incident in a motion as “psychologically damaging and harmful.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
Now a 9th Circuit judge will review the complaint, conduct an inquiry and decide what action to take, which could include dismissal of the complaint, corrective action levied against Benitez, or the formation of a special committee to further investigate. The initial review will be completed by the 9th Circuit’s Chief Judge Mary Murguia unless she happens to be disqualified from reviewing a complaint against Benitez, in which case the most senior active judge who is not disqualified would take over.
Newsom lashed out at a panel of three judges from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals a month earlier, after they struck down a law that banned people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms.
He went off on the judges and called them “zealots” who were “hellbent on a deranged vision of guns for all.”
Benitez, who overturned California’s decades-old ban on assault weapons in 2021, before a higher court reinstated the law, has consistently been a target for Newsom since the decision happened nearly two years ago.
Newsom calls him an “activist judge” and “a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby and National Rifle Association”.
The constitutionality of California’s weapons ban has been in a limbo of sorts following the reinstatement. Benitez is expected to release a second decision in the coming weeks.
Benitez declined to comment Tuesday through his administrative law clerk. They wrote in an email that the judge “regrets that he is not permitted to comment on matters pending before the court.”
