Thursday, May 14, 2026
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L.A. Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Griego Receives Second Public Scolding from CJP
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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THOMAS J. GRIEGO Superior Court judge |
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Griego was publicly admonished by the state’s judicial disciplinary body yesterday for discourteous treatment of litigants in small claims court, marking the second time in as many years that the jurist was disciplined for abusive treatment of parties.
In yesterday’s decision, the Commission on Judicial Performance (“CJP”) highlighted four proceedings during 2024 in which the jurist made disparaging remarks, interrupted parties, or gratuitously referred to a party as “the woman.” The body wrote:
“The commission determined that Judge Griego’s conduct, in interrupting litigants when they attempted to answer his questions; making disparaging, gratuitous remarks, like repeatedly telling a self-represented litigant that a case that was not before him was ‘worthless’…; abruptly leaving the courtroom in the middle of proceedings; and instructing a courtroom employee to ‘talk to the woman’…undermined the integrity of the judicial office….‘A litigant whose case is decided by a rude, angry, and impatient judge will come away with a sense that the judge did not…handle the case with fairness and impartiality.’ ”
Citing an earlier public admonishment, issued on July 11, 2024, for similar conduct, the CJP continued:
“The commission…considered Judge Griego’s recent prior discipline to be a significant aggravating factor….During each of the hearings discussed [in the order], Judge Griego was aware he was facing public discipline by the commission for pervasive poor demeanor directed to pro per small claims parties.”
Slow Response
The commission also said that Griego committed misconduct relating to his administrative duties after he failed to immediately respond to a preliminary investigation letter sent to the superior court in May of last year. The correspondence was eventually forwarded, inside a sealed envelope, to Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Sergio Tapia in June, asking him to ensure delivery to the jurist.
After another month passed without any response, a commission staff member eventually caught Griego’s attention via email in late August. He informed the body that he had been assigned to the Magistrate Unit of the downtown Los Angeles criminal court and conducted his work remotely.
Despite being aware that court staff would forward his mail to a personal mailing address, he failed to inform employees that the contact information he provided was no longer valid, as he had not lived at the location to which the commission’s correspondence was delivered for more than a year.
A secondary post office box address was listed, but he admitted that he checked the mailbox infrequently.
Four Proceedings
The four proceedings cited by the commission were held in mid-2024. During one hearing, he questioned a self-represented plaintiff, Amy Fang Guo, who spoke in what the body described as “accented English,” about an earlier lawsuit she had filed in the superior court that might have involved the same traffic accident at issue in the matter before him.
After he discovered that a commissioner had granted a demurrer in that action, he informed Guo that the ruling meant that the earlier “case is worthless.” When he learned that the plaintiff had filed a notice of appeal, he informed her that“[t]he demurrer was granted, which means that your position on the case is wrong,” pointing out that “you’re not a lawyer, right?” and remarking, “I know what I’m talking about, okay?”
After taking a break, he asked a staff member whether she “talk[ed] to the woman,” referring to the plaintiff. Addressing Griego’s demeanor during the hearing, the CJP remarked:
“Judge Griego’s conduct was discourteous and disparaging, in violation of his duties under canon 3B(4), and his words incorrectly implied that the commissioner had issued a ruling on the merits of the claim.”
Immediate Frustration
Addressing Griego’s claim, made in objections to the commission’s Notice of Tentative Public Admonishment, that he was just trying to get the party back on point, the body said:
“While the audio recording reflects that Ms. Guo sometimes started to speak over Judge Griego,…it also reflects Judge Griego’s immediate frustration and impatience with her, and that he interrupted her multiple times when she appeared to be sincerely attempting to answer his questions. By interrupting Ms. Guo multiple times, including when she was attempting to answer his questions, the judge’s conduct was impatient, undignified, and discourteous.”
In another highlighted case, he asked a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to “talk to” a female plaintiff he accused of interrupting him after she raised a concern that the case might not be heard that day despite multiple continuances. He left the courtroom, purportedly to allow the officer to speak with the party.
He threatened to continue the matter until the parties understood “common courtesy” and accused them of taking “two bites of the apple” as well as trying to use the small claims process as a “kind of appeal” because they had each been named as defendants in a misdemeanor criminal complaint, which had since purportedly been dismissed.
Threats to Continue
The CJP commented:
“Threatening to continue a case until the parties understood the ‘rule’ not to interrupt, however, is not what the Benchguide advises, and is improper. The commission found that the judge’s conduct, as described above, including interrupting the parties, leaving the courtroom during the hearing, and telling the deputy to ‘talk to her,’ violated his duties under canons 3B(4), 1, 2A, and 2.”
In two other matters, he demanded that parties describe their positions quickly, telling one that “[t]his is a small claims court” and “[y]ou don’t go on and on and on,” a remark the disciplinary body described as “impolite.”
Acknowledging that “Griego argued extensively that his underlying serious health issues, including medications he was prescribed, contributed to his poor demeanor towards the litigants in his small claims court,” CJP responded:
“[I]f a medical condition contributes to a judge engaging in misconduct, ‘they are obligated to take time away from their duties until such time as they can once again perform their duties ethically.’…Judge Griego thus had an obligation to be…mindful of his on-bench demeanor, or to seek a reasonable accommodation, until his symptoms resolved.”
Griego, a graduate of the now-defunct Whittier College School of Law who has served on the court since his election in 2014, received an advisory letter from the body in 2017 for independently investigating a traffic accident scene, failing to disclose his receipt of ex parte information, and failing to disqualify himself. The jurist was up for re-election this year but secured another term after drawing no challengers.
Nine members—including Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench, who serves as chair of the commission,—voted in favor of the public admonishment. Beatriz E. Tapia, the sister of Sergio Tapia, was recused, and another member did not participate.
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