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Brian1946's avatar

What are your opinions on Judge Lemkau?

Asked by Brian1946 (32268points) March 8th, 2010

Katie Tagle warned Lemkau that her former boyfriend, Stephen Garcia, had threatened to kill their son.

Tagle even presented e-mails and text messages to Lemkau, sent by Garcia, that indicated Garcia planned to commit murder-suicide.

Despite the warning, Lemkau approved Garcia’s visitation request. Ten days later, Garcia shot and killed the baby boy and himself.

Here’s the rest of the report: http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/victorville-17779-judge-lemkau.html

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7 Answers

Captain_Fantasy's avatar

What was Lemkau’s reason for approving the visit?

Brian1946's avatar

@Captain_Fantasy

The only reason that I’ve read about so far is that Lemkau thought that Tagle was lying.

BTW, I added a link to the rest of the report to my question.

Captain_Fantasy's avatar

It would be really easy to say “how could a judge be so dumb” but these things aren’t usually so cut and dried and they appear in print.
Still, if there are threatening texts and email, I’d think there’d have to be a very compelling reason to dismiss them. I’m curious to know what the judge was thinking. If the judge was negligent in his duties, he shouldn’t be allowed to be a judge.

casheroo's avatar

I believe he told the woman, on record, that she was lying..and gave the guy visitation. He probably feels pretty crappy for not taking her seriously. I don’t know why he felt she was lying, maybe he can shed light on that because if I were her..I’d sue or do whatever I could to make him lose his job.

TLRobinson's avatar

I think he underestimated Garcia’s mental state; and for that, I hope he is reminded daily of his mistake.

I say keep him on the bench. He will probably now be the most sensitive judge presiding. He’ll THINK next time (hopefully).

filmfann's avatar

Judges refer to themselves as The Decider of Truth.
It has to be quite a blow to their self image to realize so quickly and so obviously that they are not.
The guy fucked up, and his mistake caused the death of a child. Quitting his job won’t fix that.
I hope he can find a way to forgive himself.

truthor's avatar

I like the positive thinking of TL and filmfann, but . . . the judge was also quoted by the Associated Press as saying “this happened at the worst possible time for my candidacy” and “it’s not as if I let a homocidal – suicidal psychopath on the street – he was already there” weeks after the murder suicide. It also turns out this same judge was already removed from the criminal bench for his inability to determine admissible vs. inadmissible evidence, failure to follow the law and unprofessional conduct. He also reputedly has an issue with females – whether parties or attorneys. It sounds like he is not particularly well suited to be a judge.

And, under no circumstances should he ever have called the woman a liar and threatened her with serious consequences if she didn’t drop the matter.

Finally, he should have considered the consequences. If she were lying and he ordered supervised or suspended visitation pending an investigation, the father would have missed alone time or time with his son. But, if she was right, which it turns out she was, then two people are needlessly dead and two families are forever changed.

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