Please click on the following links if you want more information on Judge McBrien:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/group_seeks_recall_of_tree
_cutting_judge_for_evil_terrorism_from_the_bench/
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=8108
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=631790
http://judgerecall.net/palmer.htm
http://cjp.ca.gov/PubAdm/McBrien%20PubAdm%204-25-02.pdf
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=370137
http://www.judicialaccountability.org/articles/
FedJudgechopsdowntrees.htm
http://www.sacbar.org/members/saclawyer/august2002/
cover_story.html
http://www.saccourt.com/geninfo/overview/judicial.asp

The partial grounds for the proposed recall are as follows:

Judge McBrien is a disgrace to the American judiciary system and an extreme danger to children, petitioners and respondents.

McBrien destroyed a young boy by awarding the father custody after multiple investigations substantiated he had sexually abused the boy.

McBrien awarded custody to an abusive mother ignoring medical evidence and graphic pictures showing serious physical abuse to her young daughter.

McBrien destroyed trees on public property to improve the view from his home. Charged with a felony, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.

After receiving a public reprimand from the Commission on Judicial Performance, he was promoted to the position of family court presiding judge.

McBrien has now embarrassed his profession by abandoning a trial in mid-session. McBrien issued a judgment destroying the respondent’s real estate holdings and financial stability. Respondent filed an appeal. McBrien obtained, in secrecy, a copy of the court transcripts, altered them and had the respondent’s career destroyed.

McBrien has broken at least two California Code of Judicial Ethics canons: A Judge Shall Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in All of the Judge’s Activities and a Judge Shall Perform the Duties of Judicial Office Impartially and Diligently.

Excerpt from Dave Palmer's JUDICIAL MISFITS: A factual expose of an industry answerable only to itself

SAN FRANCISCO - Ulf Carlsson is not shy to admit he's bitter - and it's largely thanks to Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Peter J. McBrien. Not only does Carlsson believe the family law judge denied him a fair hearing during his divorce trial two years ago, but he also says McBrien went so far as to get him fired from his longtime government job.

Now joined by a group of fellow angry litigants, the Gold River resident is determined to get McBrien kicked off the bench - and plans to go to the voters to do it.

Carlsson and his supporters - 30 mostly family law litigants who had bad experiences with the judge - have filed a draft petition with the county's elections department seeking McBrien's recall. Elections officials approved the document late last week.

In the petition, recall backers call McBrien a "disgrace to the American judiciary system and an extreme danger to children and parents."

Listing specific case numbers, it accuses McBrien of, among other things, altering documents to destroy Carlsson's career, giving a boy back to his sexually abusive father in another case, and ignoring evidence that a mother physically abused her daughter. It also mentions that McBrien cut down trees on public property, for which he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and was reprimanded by the state's Commission on Judicial Performance.

"When will your evil terrorism be stopped?" the petition asks.

McBrien declined to comment on the recall effort earlier this week other than to release to the Daily Journal a copy of his statement in answer to the petition. In it, he cites his experience: a deputy attorney general for 10 years, a judge of the Municipal and Superior courts for 20 years.

"I deny disgracing the American judiciary system. I deny giving children to sexually or physically abusive parents. I deny cutting down trees on public property. I deny abandoning a trial midsession or altering any public record," he wrote.

But Carlsson said the complaints are valid and far from isolated. He claimed he gets contacted daily by people who have had bad experiences in McBrien's courtroom, either referred through fellow backers of the recall or made aware of the effort through new stories.

"It's just the same story: This judge destroyed their lives," he said.

Making a recall election happen will be a difficult - and costly - endeavor, according to Brad Buyse, campaign services manager for the county of Sacramento.

To qualify, backers must obtain 29,752 signatures - 20 percent of the registered voters - by Aug. 20.

Elections officials would have 30 working days to verify the signatures, Buyse said, meaning the recall effort would not meet the deadline for the November ballot.

The county would have to hold a special election which Buyse estimates could cost "a few million."

McBrien would not be the first Sacramento judge targeted for recall. In 2004, Tony Andrade, who was involved in the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, attempted to get Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster ousted for upholding the state's domestic p artnership law.

Buyse called the new effort "one person's vendetta, it seems, against a judge."

"A recall, the way I feel, is for gross malfeasance in office," he added, "not [because] you don't like the way a judge ruled."

A graduate of USC Gould School of Law, McBrien, 62, was appointed to the municipal bench in 1987 by Gov. George Deukmejian and elevated to the Superior Court in 1989 following court unification.

His judicial career hit a rocky patch in 2000 when he was charged with felony vandalism for cutting down oak trees on public land, arguably to give him a better view from his American Canyon home. McBrien and the owner of the tree-cutting business pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and had to pay a $500 fine and $20,000 restitution. McBrien later received a public admonishment from the Commission on Judicial Performance.

Attorneys interviewed for a 2003 Daily Journal profile of the judge described McBrien as patient with self-represented litigants and gave him fairly positive marks. Asked about the tree cutting offense, he said at the time, "People can draw their own conclusions" about the fact that no one ran against him in the 2002 election.

"The issue is whether I'm fit for office," he said. "Does this make me a worse judge? Most people have benefited from adversity in life, ... maybe gaining greater compassion for fellow humans."

Carlsson, 48, argues that McBrien was anything but compassionate, when he presided over the divorce of him and his former wife, Mona Carlsson, three years later. McBrien left the bench near the end of the trial to take a phone call while Carlsson's attorney was cross-examining a witness, Carlsson said. And he abruptly ended the trial before hearing all of Carlsson's side of the story.

Carlsson later lost his job with the Department of General Services, after he says someone sent them a copy of a court transcript discussing Carlsson's ownership in a rental property. His superiors questioned whether Carlsson properly disclosed his ownership in the property to his employer and the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Carlsson said he learned from a court reporter that McBrien asked for a copy of the transcript, and Carlsson believes the judge sent it to his employer.

Carlsson said he's lost close to $1 million as a result of McBrien's ruling in the divorce, yet his story is "nothing compared to what these 30 other people went through."

Carlsson said he has no intention of going away and plans to "keep pushing."

"I hope I can make a difference now," he said.

Order book on www.Amazon.com Judicial Misfits: A Factual Expose of an Industry Answerable Only to Itself, by Dave Palmer Jan 7, 2008. Judge Peter McBrien is featured in the chapter titled "Criminals".