Friday, December 12, 2025
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Former San Bernardino Commissioner Draws Public Admonishment for Abuse of Authority
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Former San Bernardino Superior Court Commissioner Robert Driessen yesterday drew a public admonishment from the state’s judicial disciplinary agency for abusing his authority between December 2022 and April 2024, highlighting one incident in which he told a litigant that he was an “authority higher than God” when she objected to his imposition of an improper restraining order against her.
Yesterday’s decision points to a series of cases in which the Commission on Judicial Performance (“CJP”) said Driessen “modified orders made by other judges, denied fee waivers based on his own contempt for fee waiver recipients, ordered an undetermined amount of cash be donated to charity in a dissolution matter, and cut up drivers’ licenses to make a point.”
One of the cited cases was a 2023 small-claims matter arising out of a cancelled trip to Hawaii. Driessen awarded the plaintiff, Barbara Patterson, $2,739.
During a hearing on a motion to vacate the ensuing judgment, the then-commissioner denied the request and ordered the defendant, David L. Hanson, to pay by cashier’s check, saying that “[t]he problem is if you give a personal check, trust me, I know what’s going to happen.”
Hanson requested “some kind of letter from [Patterson] to say that she will not contact the friend, and she knows who I’m talking about.” Driessen responded that he would “do you one better” and “order her not to do it.”
Higher Authority
When Patterson interjected by saying that her church “has ordered me to talk to” the unnamed party, the commissioner replied that “I’m a higher authority than God” and remarked “God can do whatever in the afterlife, but my order is going to be is if you contact them, the judgment’s going to reverse and you’re going to owe him the money.”
Rejecting Patterson’s plea for clarity on the name of the party, Driessen directed her to refrain from contacting “anyone that he’s associated with” and declared that “this chapter in your life” is over.
The CJP commented:
“Commissioner Driessen abused his authority by issuing an unlawful restraining order against Ms. Patterson, without evidence to support it or required due process….”
As to the former commissioner’s assertion that he possessed authority to issue the order because small claims courts are courts of equity, the CJP said:
“A small claims court has jurisdiction for an injunction or other equitable relief (rescission, restitution, reformation, or specific performance) only when a statute expressly authorizes a small claims court to award that relief….Commissioner Driessen’s order required Ms. Patterson to refrain from a particular act (contacting Mr. Hanson’s associates), which requires a specific authorizing statute that was not present….”
Donation to Charity
During a March 2024 hearing in divorce proceedings, he declared that $80,000 in cash that was purportedly taken from the marital home was “from elicit gains” on the part of the husband, who was in state prison at the time of the hearing, and ordered that the “money…be put in a trust fund and donated to a charity involving domestic violence/victims of trafficking.”
Addressing the decree, the CJP declared:
“Commissioner Driessen’s order to donate an undetermined (and possibly nonexistent) amount of money to charity was an abuse of authority.”
Saying that he also had expressed bias against parties who were proceeding in forma pauperis, and had, in one case, denied a fee waiver without regard to the legal standards applicable to such a determination, the commission also accused him of repeatedly misconstruing the record to presiding judges after complaints were lodged against him and of cutting up licenses of drivers who had been ticketed for travelling at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour.
Driessen was appointed to the court in 2021 after having served as judicial staff counsel since 2015. He stepped down last year and is now a Riverside County deputy district attorney.
Ten members voted for public admonishment and one did not participate in the proceedings.
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