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An Alameda County Superior Court judge was publicly admonished Tuesday by a state judicial commission in San Francisco for misconduct related to campaign financing.
The Commission on Judicial Performance acted in the case of Tara Flanagan, a former prosecutor and former family law practitioner who won an election for an open seat on the court in 2012.
The commission said Flanagan violated the state Political Reform Act by failing to disclose that her campaign treasurer Carol Pranka was the true source of two loans totaling $25,000.
Instead, Flanagan deposited the checks in her personal bank account and then listed the funds as loans from herself. She also failed to inform her treasurer that the treasurer was required to file campaign reports for contributions of $5,000 or more, the commission said.
The same issue came before the state Fair Political Practices Commission in 2015 and in that case, Flanagan and her treasurer agreed to pay fines of $6,000.
The Commission on Judicial Performance, made up of judges, lawyers and members of the public, has the power to investigate judicial misconduct and impose punishments ranging from private reprimand to removal from the bench.
In choosing a public admonition for Flanagan, the commission said it took into account that her errors were unintentional and that she cooperated with the two investigations.
But it said that as a lawyer and a judicial candidate, Flanagan had a particular obligation to familiarize herself with the law on campaign contribution reporting.
“When a judicial candidate violates financial reporting laws and wins the election, public respect for the judiciary is undermined,” the commission said in the admonition.
Through her lawyer, Flanagan issued a statement saying, “I deeply regret the mistakes I made in 2012 when I was a first-time judicial candidate and did not understand how to properly report a personal loan that I used for campaign expenditures.”
“After the error was discovered I fully cooperated with the FPPC and the Commission on Judicial Performance,” Flanagan said.
“I amended the campaign reports and reported the mistakes to the Commission on Judicial Performance. I appreciate the full consideration the commission gave to this matter,” she said.
— Bay City News Service
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