Judge James Latting of Riverside, CA: imbecilic loser

The state of California provided James J. Latting with a law license in 2002 after he graduated from the University of Oklahoma School of Law.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown was duped into appointing Jimmy as a Riverside County Superior Court Judge in 2014. Jimmy didn’t receive the appointment because he was the most qualified attorney in the greater Riverside area. He received it because he had proven to be a reliable lackey for the local political hacks.

In one matter, Jimmy was assigned to preside over a case wherein Roberta Dobbins and other plaintiffs sought damages from Las Colinas Senior Apartments based on its hiring of a thief, Jerod Keith Nielsen—a person who had been a drug addict and incurred a 2014 conviction for burglary—in a position where he had a master key to all of the apartment units. (MetNews Staff Writer)

During the pendency of the litigation, Jimmy ordered that the defendant Las Colinas Senior Apartments disclose the identities of the tenants known to have had possessions stolen from their unites. In issuing his moronic disclosure order, Jimmy ruled that Las Colinas “made no showing that a response would implicate, much less violate, a legally protected privacy right.” In his order, Jimmy awarded $5,740 in sanctions against the apartment complex and its lawyers for contesting his asinine disclosure ruling.

Subsequently, Las Colinas appealed Jimmy’s order to Division Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal. In reversing Jimmy’s order, the appellate court said in part:

• “There was a substantial justification for the defendants’ nondisclosure because they had a reasonable and well-grounded argument that the other tenants were entitled to notice and an opportunity to opt out before their contact information could be disclosed.”
• “Other residents who were victims of Nielsen’s burglaries had a legally protected privacy interest in their contact information. This information was even more sensitive than usual, because it would identify them as crime victims.”
• “The trial court [Jimmy] therefore erred by ruling that compelling a response to the interrogatory would not implicate any legally protected privacy interest.”

Of course, Jimmy doesn’t much give a damn how many times his ignorant rulings are reversed by the Court of Appeals because he knows that he cannot be removed from the bench for being a Certified Dumbo.

As we speak (ca. November 2019, Jimmy continues to sit as Riverside County Superior Court judge in Riverside, California