Monday, November 18, 2013

New Santa Cruz county judge assignment

A reader writes:
You may have heard that Judge Ariadne Symons is moving to family court in Watsonville and Commissioner Irwin Joseph has moved to the court in Morgan Hill.
No, I didn't hear. I see the Santa Cruz judicial assignments page says:
2013:
Watsonville:

Department C: Judge Jeff Almquist
Family Law/Small Claims

Department D: Judge Stephen S. Siegel
Family Law/Domestic Violence/Family Preservation Court/Family Law Pro Per Court (Moves to Dept. 1 November 25, 2013)

2014:
Watsonville:

Department C: Judge Jeff Almquist
Family Law

Department D: Judge Ariadne Symons
Family Law/Domestic Violence/Family Preservation Court/Family Law Pro Per Court
So it appears that Symons is replacing Siegel, with Almquist staying on the family court. I don't know how they decide betweeen Dept. C and D.

I guess Joseph is still a commissioner because he was passed over for a judge appointment, thanks to those who explained his incompetence to the governor's advisory committee. Judge Morse was apparently demoted to a lower court.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.scscourt.org/general_info/contact/courthouses/southcounty.shtml

Yes, Irwin Joseph is now in Morgan Hill and still a mere commissioner. "Types of cases heard: Civil (Limited Jurisdiction), Criminal, Dependency, Family, Small Claims, and Traffic"

Anonymous said...

An attorney who has advertised on your site in the past told me a couple years ago that Watsonville case numbers ending in 3, 6, or 9 went to one judge and other cases to the other judge. The court clerk could probably tell you the current formula.

Judge Symons used to be a prosecutor who handled the toughest murder cases and is a newcomer to family law. You'd think they'd break in a new family judge on cases where both sides have an attorney rather than with pro pers. An inexperienced judge with two parties who are not lawyers sounds like a recipe for some bad decisions which might not conform to state law. Maybe the clerks will help her. On the other hand, she must know the rules of evidence better than a typical family court judge, which could make for an improvement.

She has no children, and was elected in 2008 on a platform of being a woman:

http://www.scsextra.com/story.php?sid=66596

"Both candidates tout the perspective they would bring to the bench: Symons as another female justice and Wright as the only defense attorney.

"Symons said it's "shocking" there are only two women among the eight men sitting on the bench."

She's up for election again in 2014 if there's any challenger.

Anonymous said...

Judge Morse is up for election, too.

http://www.votescount.com/jun14/judge.htm

Maybe she'll retire.

Anonymous said...

I just got my infant taken from me by her, and she showed incompetence and carelessness when examining the evidence presented by my ex.
I'm scared to even talk about it for fear of being in contempt of that contemptable and unjust court.
I'll say that a photograph was submitted by my exs attorney that had had color values tampered with, and was portrayed to Ms Symons as one situation, but had she scrutinized that photo, she would have discredited it and my ex immediately.
I was too shocked to defend myself, and could not afford representation. In dealing with a crafty perjurious ex and a unethical lawyer, free legal help is useless.
I'm being retailiated against for contacting her ex husband to alert him to her abuse and neglect of the children she has purposefully alienated from him to keep them in "her tribe".
It's really sick, and I wish I had some help to construct all the documentation that I have into a coherent and unignorable picture.
I just want to father my little girl, and know that the other kids are alright and safe with their capable and willing father instead of a filthy neglectful screaming and predatory home as it was when i arrived, but was not while I was on the job.
I fell for the girl, stayed for the needy kids / good guy commitment / hope of a compatible and productive domestic partner, and ended up hoodwinked into a new baby and then gotten rid of because I tried to be a responsible parent and to cover up her abuses and incompetencies.
The poor lady is in waaay over her head and the children pay hardest.
Somebody please see this SOS and help me find help.
I'm doing all I can, but it's like living with my heart impaled on a spike all the time when I try to put it together and am so powerless to help my litlle girl. She gets picked up by one arm, screamed at, and ignored or handed off to 9 year old to care for along with a 4 year old. Shes 9 mos now, but has been subjected to this treatment while in her mothers care and was hidden until a nanny cam caught it.
I got busted for "spying" and the very very alarming multi incidental photographs as well as the mother trying to hire me to kill her ex and a photo/audio capture of her 14yo attacking the 9yo who was caring for my infant.
Nobody has any pity for how crazymaking this is for me, and nobody appreciates that I'm abiding by unfair laws.
its un american.
Please
please
please
If you've been through this, or have real help to offer,
or survived neglect and abuse,
or want to see a little girl grow up whole....
Please help make this right.
It's not even about me, just save my little girl from hell.

Unknown said...

I think we should all get together and have her fired!! dsteelman1928@yahoo.com

Unknown said...

If you have a problem with her like I did: Write the Commission on Judicial Performance at 455 Golden Gate Avenue Suite 14400 San Francisco CA 94102-3660 (415) 557-1200.

Anonymous said...

I agree completely with the statements made about Judge Symons. She has a power trip issue and is more concerned with her image than actual justice. I have heard many complaints about her and is also racist (hearsay). She tends to give maximum sentences rather than the punishment fitting the actual crime or circumstances.

She sentenced my grandson to 9 years in prison for assaulting a homeless repeat sex offender who is in and out of jail for rape and still on the street. This man pulls a knife on people and has mental issues more than likely from drug abuse.
My grandson was 17, no priors, no gang affiliation, he was drunk and made a mistake cutting this mans face when he came out of the bushes at him and his girlfriend in the dark.

Mayhem applies to disfigurement or disabling someone and the victim barely has a visible scar on his lip. Murderers get less time than my grandson received.

She is not for justice nor shows no compassion so the individuals case is taken into account to make sure the law adequately reflects the crime. She is more concerned about creating an image for herself, establishing a woman's lib approach in the community (I am a woman by the way) rather than fairness and should be removed from the bench.

I will definitely write the commission to let them know my views on this power hungry woman who sits in judgement on people without true justice in her heart and is a Judge Judy want a be.

Concerned dad said...

Does any one know how to find out how many complaints are against her, and how we can get this judge Symons exposed? I have been dealing with her for the past year, and My attorneys (who are not local) and I, truly believe she is a biased judge, we have come to find out she is or belongs to many women's clubs or groups, if this judge was a criminal judge why would she go to family law...? We have further knowledge that the only reason she was given the position in family law was because she played the women card, sounds to me like she a sexist and brings that to the bench when she shouldn't. I agree with Donna we need to get together and expose her.

Anonymous said...

Does any one know how many people have filed a complaint or how we can find out how many have filed against her? I had an attorney tell me she had 5, about 6 months ago, but if there's a way for all of us to get together and expose her, we really need too. This judge is way out of control, and is making life impacting decisions that are impacting people lives with no concern. Please let me know if you have further information. I believe we need to expose her for what she really is, she has no business in the family law bench.

Anonymous said...

Did you file a complaint?

Anonymous said...

I agree we need too!

Anonymous said...

Do you have more information on her...complaints etc...?

Anonymous said...

I know she belongs to women's clubs and groups...which is very odd for a judge to belong too...considering how biased and sexist she is...

Anonymous said...

Please read link below and contact this reporter, it's the only way we can get her exposed.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-judges-discipline-20150404-story.html

Anonymous said...

oh YES She has three separate investigations into her and her ability to even be Judge !!! Her numbers almost up! Maybe shes not lame but Corrupt ??? On the take via election contributions !!!????

Anonymous said...

How can some one expose her? Could you provide the links or where I could view them?

Assignment Help said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

HEY! lets all join together and file a class action law suit and get her removed from her imaginary throne.
contact me if you want to go above her to the state bar and to santa cruz county.

babystuff1979@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

HEY! lets all join together and file a class action law suit and get her removed from her imaginary throne.
contact me if you want to go above her to the state bar and to santa cruz county.

babystuff1979@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Yikes folks, sounds like you all got a really bad deal. But let me give you more info about Judge Symons.

She belongs to the SC Women's Democratic Club - for political reasons, and many men belong to this club as well. She also belongs to the Rotarians and sits on a few charitable boards. None of which are strictly women oriented. She is not what you would call a feminazi.

She is very protective of children and very logical. She follows the law, he has a very good heart.

If you got a raw deal, your evidence was not clear enough to bring the weight of the law to your side. She is willing to listen and believes children need both parents in their lives unless the parent(s) is/are a danger to the children.

IMO, she's the best judge Santa Cruz has. Pray you never see Rebecca Connolly, she's completely bat shit.

Anonymous said...

None of us here got a raw end of the deal
w Judge Symons. This heartless, incompetent Narcissist shreds families to pieces. You can't take a criminal perspective when dealing w parents, and that's what she does.. she doesn't give a shit about your evidence - I've seen her even refuse to look evidence from pro per parents because she said shit like, well I'm not looking at that because I think you're a liar... who does shit like this in Family Court? The one place we need a level headed, compassionate and fair person who WANTS families to work.. well she does not, she takes her criminal law mentality and criminalizes parents. She's unfair, biased, narcissistic, has no children - so is void of that nurtuting, loving instinct that mothers have, and therefore doesn't give a shit of wrecking families. She should be disbarred for her outrageously rude, unprofessional, unpredictable, aggressive and nasty behavior. She reminds me of Judge Judy who just lost her crack pipe. She's dispicable and has no place in the family court system - which is in place to HELP parents work together to be better parents. I think it makes her happy to annihilate certain people in her court room - buy taking their custody away, limiting it to nothing, refusing to look at evidence, calling people liars. She's not fair, and she does not care about children. If she cared about children, then she would be committed to them having two parents (and get them into co parenting therapy if need be) but instead she is notorious for Fucking one parent over.. So basically, if your the parent (that wins out) then I can see how you might call her "fair". But, she is nowhere close to being fair.

Anonymous said...

I recently was issued a emergency protective order from a Deputy who was called to a domestic dispute between my ex boy friend and I. My ex has violated me many times in the past 8 months since we broke up and 2 of them were recorded by law enforcement. When
I received the TRO it was the week of thanksgiving and I contacted an agency that helps you to obtain an EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE ORDER because of the holidays they ere unable to address my needs till today and when my request was presented to Judge Symons she denied it on the basis that I took to long for the request. Now I live in fear that my abuser will continue the abuse which has been escalating since our break up in april. He has purposely left some of his belongings at my house and has been invading my privacy, steeling and destroying my property (not to mention being
verbally and physically abusive to me on a continues basis and I am so distressed and feel so helpless knowing that even the courts that are suppose to protect me have done nothing and in the mean time I have to wait till the 22of Dec,to go to court to request a tro again. Who knows what he will do knowing that I am seeking protection but in the mean time not having ANY. The Deputy at the seen arrested my ex and recommended prosecution that to was dismissed I feel like the whole system has let me down. Then on the other hand he's receiving Validation.

Anonymous said...

I had a terrible experience with her. She gave my narcissistic ex a primary residence of my 5 yo son. The timeshare went from 50-50 to 35-65, even though the whole evaluation was for school placement, not a custody dispute. There was no rime or reason to take away so much of my time with my little boy. We both suffer tremendously, and my ex is on a power trip. This judge is a heartless childless bitch who dares to make decisions about child care. She didn't rule in the best interest of a child. My 5 yo barely sees his brother from different relationship, they are so close! she stated that 9 years difference is too much for boys to be close. They are 14 and 5, and one should take one look at how they are together! my 5yo follows his big bro everywhere. The childless person tells me this BS! and what is worse, she has a power to make these decisions. I am terrified of her. I need Xanax every time I even think of Watsonville family court. I cannot believe this is happening in reality.