The judge who left in a rush

Today's Daily Journal front page carries the story of Ted A. White, an attorney who quit abruptly as a $115,000-a-year immigration judge in Los Angeles before completing his first year. Not very many of these judges leave.

White's departure was made stranger because sheriff's deputies and an assistant chief immigration judge were on hand when White packed up his books, photos, some handguns and ammunition he kept stored in his chambers, and was escorted out of the Lancaster detention facility, just north of Los Angeles, according to sources.

U.S. Department of Justice officials said White resigned May 29, just a few days shy of completing the one year probationary period required of all new judges. White's brief stint on the immigration bench is among the shortest in recent times....

His departure comes a year after U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ordered an inquiry into the immigration courts, promising to weed out rude or intemperate judges.

[snip]

"When Judge White was on the bench he would say things that weren't really about the law," said one lawyer who appeared multiple times before White. "I had a client who had one drunk driving conviction, and the judge denied him bond and said he was a threat to society. Then White opened a booklet and began reading DUI fatality statistics to him."

On another occasion, the lawyer said he watched as White chided an immigrant who presented his pay stubs during a court hearing.

"He told the man, 'It's people like you who are driving down the wages in construction,'" the lawyer said.

The piece is by Daily Journal staffer Sandra Hernandez.