Circuit Judge Jeff Ashton charged with misconduct by state judicial disciplinary commission

Judge Jeff Ashton of the Ninth Circuit Court Wednesday was charged with judicial misconduct by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC), which has the authority to discipline judges. 

Ashton is currently in a Nov. 5 runoff against attorney Alicia Peyton for the Group 15 seat on the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court. 

The JQC outlined what it termed a “pattern of misconduct” in its Notice of Formal Charges. 

“Your repeated unwillingness or inability to govern your behavior raises questions about your fitness for judicial office, and the foregoing behavior constitutes inappropriate conduct that violates Canons 1, 2, 3B(4), 3B(5), 3B(7) and 3E(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct,” the JQC stated in its Notice.

Charges include “behav[ing] intemperately, including shouting at people appearing before you, and otherwise lacking the patience, dignity, and courtesy required by the Code of Judicial Conduct.” 

It’s also alleged that Ashton showed clear bias toward parties and attorneys appearing in his courtroom.  

In its Notice of Formal Charges, the Investigative Panel of the JQC stated that after meetings on March 21 and Sept 19, a majority of its members found “probable cause exists for formal proceedings to be instituted” against Ashton.

VoxPopuli reached out to Ashton for comment on the charges but did not hear back by press time. We will update the story with any comments received.

Eight instances of misconduct are described in the Notice, including threatening an attorney with criminal contempt, demonstrating bias through “facial expression and overall demeanor,” signaling to one side’s attorney and a refusal to remove himself from a case after a plaintiff alleged bias and petitioned for a new judge. 

The Notice of Formal Charges also indicates that the JQC had previously warned Ashton about “allowing [him]self to be provoked into intemperate behavior by what you perceive as unprofessional conduct by attorneys or parties.” The document references a prior case in which Ashton was “recorded shouting down an attorney who appeared before you …” That case had been closed, but the JQC reopened it with these proceedings as “part of a pattern of misconduct.”

Ashton has 20 days to file a written response to the charges.

Sanctioned judges can be privately or publicly reprimanded, fined, suspended or removed from the bench, according to the JQC website.  

Ashton was elected to the circuit court in 2018 after serving one term as state attorney. He lost re-election in 2016 after it was revealed he'd visited AshleyMadison, the affair site for married people. Prior to that, Ashton spent 30-years in the state attorney's office where he prosecuted notable cases, like Casey Anthony, who was accused and ultimately acquitted of killing her two-year-old daughter.

Ashton survived a three-person race in the Aug. 20 election, in which none of the candidates earned 50 percent of the vote, as one of the two top vote-getters. He now faces attorney Alicia Peyton in the Nov. 5 runoff.