Commission Removes L.A. Judge 

By ERICA WERNER 
.c The Associated Press 

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A judge who falsely claimed he had once worked for the CIA in Laos and fought in Vietnam was ordered removed from the bench Wednesday. 

The state Commission on Judicial Performance found Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patrick Couwenberg guilty of willful misconduct in office, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and improper action under the state constitution. 

``He lied to become a judge, elaborated on his misrepresentations for his enrobing ceremony and subsequently lied to the commission in an apparent attempt to frustrate its investigation,'' the commission said in an order 
signed by Chairman Michael A. Kahn. 

Couwenberg's attorney, who admits his client is a compulsive liar but says it is because of a curable mental condition called ``pseudologia fantastica,'' said Couwenberg has not decided whether to challenge the decision. 

``This removal has nothing to do with his on-the-bench conduct,'' attorney Edward P. George Jr. said. 

Couwenberg, 56, was the 16th judge removed in the commission's 40-year history, commission director Victoria B. Henley said. 

Couwenberg's lies included misrepresenting his educational background, and telling the judge who introduced him during his swearing-in that he was a corporal in the Army and received a Purple Heart. 

Couwenberg also falsely told a group of attorneys that he went to college on the G.I. Bill, had a master's degree in psychology and had shrapnel in his groin. 

Couwenberg was appointed by former Gov. Pete Wilson in 1997. The commission said that when Couwenberg asked other judges for advice on getting a judicial appointment they told him it was important that Wilson know of his war record ``because both (Wilson) and his judicial appointments secretary, Mr. John Davies, were ex-Marines.'' 

Davies told commission investigators he remembered interviewing Couwenberg partly because of his ``unusual war experiences.'' 

AP-NY-08-15-01 2149EDT 

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. 

 Friday, July 7, 2000 

Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 7, 2000
San Francisco Chronicle

To hear Judge Patrick Couwenberg tell it, his life before donning the black robes was a collage of combat heroism and secret CIA  missions, but now the state's judicial watchdog agency says Couwenberg lied  about being a Vietnam war veteran and about many other events in his  background.

In a seven-page ``notice of formal proceedings,'' the state Commission on Judicial Performance charged the Los Angeles Superior Court judge with  ``providing false information regarding his background and qualifications''  when he applied to be a judge.

Couwenberg, 55, faces a hearing before three special masters appointed by the state Supreme Court. After receiving the special masters' report, the  commission can remove Couwenberg from the bench or ``censure, publicly  admonish, or privately discipline'' him.

Yesterday, it was clear that the judicial watchdogs are not happy with Couwenberg's alleged flights of fancy.

For example, Couwenberg said he was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries received while he was an Army corporal in Vietnam and that he still has  shrapnel buried in his body.

``You were never in the Army, in Vietnam or otherwise,'' the commission's chairman, Court of Appeal Justice Daniel Hanlon wrote in the commission's  complaint on Wednesday. ``You were in the Navy reserves.''

The commission's investigation of Couwenberg began nearly two years ago. In January, while the probe was still in its informal stage, Couwenberg gave  a sworn statement to the commission.

In that statement, the charges say, Couwenberg ``testified falsely that (he) had participated in a covert CIA operation in Southeast Asia between  June 1968 and December 1969,'' and that in 1984 he ``made a delivery of  funds or documents for the CIA'' to someone in Africa.

Hanlon also charged that Couwenberg lied about the year he received his law degree from the University of La Verne Law School. Hanlon mentioned that  Couwenberg was admitted to the state bar in 1976, after he ``failed the  California bar examination five times'' between 1973 and 1976. Couwenberg  also falsely claimed that he worked for the prestigious Los Angeles law firm  Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

Couwenberg referred calls to his attorney, Edward George, who said, ``What we have here is a series of nonintentional misrepresentations. Some  of these things he made some mistakes on, sure, but we think we can explain  them.''

He said Couwenberg is a former Los Angeles County prosecutor who was appointed to the bench in April 1997 by former Gov. Pete Wilson. George said  he could not go into specifics about Couwenberg's claims.

Many of those specifics dealt with Couwenberg's penchant for exaggerating his military career and were parenthetically rebutted by Hanlon in the  charge sheet.

Couwenberg, for example, told some colleagues that he went to Vietnam when he turned 18, that he had a master's degree in psychology and that he  had been late to court one day ``because of a medical appointment for  shrapnel in (the) groin.'' Hanlon said Couwenberg had never been anywhere  near Vietnam and had never been injured in combat and had no master's  degrees in anything.

Asked about the shrapnel wound, Couwenberg testified that he got it in Laos, not Vietnam.

Couwenberg isn't the only judge to make claims of combat heroism. In Illinois, Circuit Judge Michael F. O'Brien told colleagues that he had not  one but two Medals of Honor for valorous Navy service off the coast of  Lebanon in 1958.

In 1995, faced with the choice of prosecution or resigning from the bench, O'Brien chose to quit his judgeship and go into private practice.

E-mail Michael Taylor at miket@sfgate.com.