Two Retired Santa Barbara Judges Die in Past Week

In the past week, two retired Santa Barbara Superior Court judges — James Herman and Bruce Dodds — died. Combined, Herman and Dodds accounted for 38 years on the bench. 

First elected in 1977, Dodds served until 1998 and was known for a no-nonsense demeanor that some charged bordered on the gratuitously rude. But that style — coupled with the crystal ball he often wielded when dealing with recalcitrant attorneys — helped Dodds settle cases that many at the time thought could not be settled. Off the bench, Dodds played a mean game of tennis and had a lively sense of humor. 

In 1995, the Commission on Judicial Performance sought to have Dodds censured for impeding an investigation into fellow judge James Slater, who in 1993 deflated the tire of a handicapped van that had been parked in his courthouse parking space. Dodds reportedly walked by as Slater was letting the air out of the offending van’s tire without saying anything. Later Dodds declined efforts by an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office to interview him and instructed his staff to do likewise. Ultimately, Dodds would talk directly with Slater himself, at which time Slater acknowledged his actions. Dodds appealed his censure to the California Supreme Court, which ruled in Dodds’s favor on the grounds that his conduct was merely prejudicial rather than willful.