CONTRA COSTA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE JUDY JOHNSON ACCUSED OF EMBEZZLEMENT
A former employee of the State Bar of California — who California Governor Jerry Brown appointed to the Contra Costa County Superior Court bench under questionable circumstances involving his cousin, former California Public Utility Commissioner Geoffrey Brown — is accused in federal court of committing myriad financial crimes and acts of fraud.
Documents filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia reveal that Judy Johnson of Rodeo allegedly engaged in predicate acts of racketeering through and by means of money laundering, mail and bank fraud, as well as conversion of funds.
Johnson, female, black, is no stranger to financial schemes. For the past 8 years, she has been quietly serving as the president of an entity with a misleading name (California Consumer Protection Foundation AKA “CCPF”). This entity absorbed close to $30 million in class action cy pres awards, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission on utility companies. CCPF forwarded those funds to mostly questionable ACORN-like entities in South Los Angeles or to an entity headed by Michael Shames known as UCAN — presently under federal grand jury investigation in San Diego.
It appears that Johnson misused her position with the State Bar of California as “clout” to obtain cy pres awards from the settlement of class actions prosecuted and defended by various law firms in courts and before the CPUC. In addition, while never prosecuted for the scheme, some have speculated that Johnson and cohorts Robert Hawley (whom Johnson labeled the “Wizard of OZ”) and Starr Babcock were “in” on a financial scheme perpetrated by former State Bar employee Sharon Pearl, who was lightly prosecuted by then-attorney general Jerry Brown, cousin of Geoffrey Brown.
The lawsuit, filed as a civil-racketeering action by Marina Del Rey-based community activist Daniel Dydzak, also names as a defendants Starr Babcock and Robert Hawley.
According to confidential sources familiar with the situation, Dydzak filed the suit in Washington DC, because he is extremely concerned that given the caliber of the defendants and the fact that they are in control of the justice system in California, they will seek to injure him in various ways, including in seeking to somehow derail the suit.
According to these sources, Tom Layton, investigator from the State Bar of California who is well connected with Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca, in the past paid a visit to Dydzak’s neighborhood, and sought to convince his neighbors to falsely accuse Dydzak of various acts of misconduct, including providing improper and unlawful legal counsel.