By C1 Staff
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A judge who married a criminal defendant to his girlfriend minutes after sentencing him to 53 years to life for murder is being asked to apologize to the victim’s family.
Superior Court Judge Patricia Cookson received a letter from Paul Kamenar, an attorney for the victim’s family, stating that she had caused “emotional pain” to the family and had “clearly violated” an ethics rule that says judges should avoid “undermining public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,” according to the ABA Journal.
The judge declined to discuss the incident with the victim’s family or talk with the newspaper. The family is also planning to file a judicial ethics complaint against the judge.