Judge Christopher Warner (CA): Today’s “Avarice” Award Winner

The state of California presented Christopher Jan Warner with a law license in 1977 after he graduated from California Southern Law School in Riverside, California.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson was duped into appointing Chris as a San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge in 1996. Chris didn’t receive the appointment because he was the most qualifed attorney in the San Bernardino area. He received it because he had proven to be a reliable lackey for the local political hacks.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel found Walt guilty of the following misconduct.

After pigging out at the public trough for 15 years (ca. 1996 to 2010), Mike retired from the bench with a disability pension of $9,684 a month ($116,000 a year). Not satisfied with his disability pension, Greedy Mike then claimed he was also entitled to a judicial pension at the same time. This time-honored judicial fleecing of the public is affectionately referred to in the Judicial Industry as “double dipping.”

When his application for a judicial pension was denied, Greedy Chris then filed a sham lawsuit claiming he was entitled to collect both a disability and retirement pension from the state at the same time.

Unfortunately for Chris the Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled in August 2015 that Californiajudges are not entitled to both disability and regular retirement benefits. In it’s ruling, the Court stated in part:

“Under Warner’s interpretation, judges who are eligible for disability are entitled to two retirement benefits, even though they have funded through their contributions only a portion of one.”

“We find it unreasonable to single out a subset of judges for such preferential treatment, at least in the absence of any unambiguous indication in the statutory language or the legislative history that such a result was intended.”

While receiving his $116,000 disability pension, Chris has been employed as a private mediator with Judicate West. (See: http://www.judicatewest.com/neutral/319) It would appear that Chris charges somewhere around $500 an hour for his mediation services and/or $6,000 for a full day.

Chris’s disability claim appears to be a total sham. On the Judicate West website under HOBBIES & INTERESTS, Chris states in his “spare time he enjoys playing golf and traveling, particularly to the Caribbean.”

There can be no dispute that Chris is a greedy loser that believes he’s entitled to well over $200,000 a year in disability and pension benefits for working a mere 15 years for the State of California.

And lastly, Chris gives Avarice a bad name!