SAN FRANCISCO– A Northern California judge is under investigation by a state agency for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments when addressing a deputy public defender, failing to recuse himself from cases involving attorneys and other people he interacted with, sexually harassing him of women and other ethical violations.
Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Gregory Kreis was notified last week that he is charged with 19 ethics violations dating back to 2015.
California’s Commission on Judicial Performance, which investigates complaints against members of the judiciary, said in its notice of formal proceedings that Kreis is accused of “willful misconduct while in office, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute brought, and acting inappropriately.”
Kreis, who was appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017, has until Feb. 22 to respond to the commission. He was previously a Humboldt County public defender.
Kreis said in a statement on social media last week that the allegations against him were “outright lies” and noted that they come as he is seeking re-election. He is running in the March 5 primary for another six-year term.
His attorney, James A. Murphy, said Friday that the investigation stems from a lawsuit filed by Rory Kalin, a former Humboldt County deputy public defender, who alleged that Kreis assaulted him from a boat during a 2019 camping trip and had repeatedly called him “Jew boy.”
That lawsuit has now been settled.
“There is no factual support for this claim,” Murphy said.
It is one of the allegations made by the Commission on Judicial Performance that is now being investigated. The committee also details allegations from the same boat trip that Kreis suggested Kalin be fired, mocked his appearance and gave a lap dance to another public defender’s wife while drunk.
The committee noted that Kreis allegedly lied to the presiding judge, who was investigating rumors that Kreis had an affair with a court employee. Another count alleges he sexually harassed a female acquaintance at a social gathering and on another occasion sneaked into a friend’s bedroom, exposed his genitals and tried to wake her during a party at the woman’s home.
Most of the commission’s charges stem from Kreis’s alleged failure to recuse himself from cases involving lawyers he had worked with or associated with, or people associated with his wife or whom he knew through social circles.
Murphy said he will show that Kreis provided appropriate information to “the parties and/or counsel so that they may decide whether or not to seek his disqualification,” Murphy said.
“I can tell you that we had witnesses who will contradict the Commission on Judicial Performance’s allegations as set out in the notice of formal proceedings,” he added.
The judge is also accused of using cocaine between 2013 and 2017, before becoming a judge, driving with an open alcoholic beverage, making inappropriate comments on the bench and improperly giving legal advice.