Censured San Diego judge who skipped Friday work retires

A year after the state judicial discipline agency nearly removed him from the bench for not working Fridays for nearly 18 months, San Diego Superior Court Judge Howard Shore won’t be working this Friday, either.

He’s retiring, he announced Tuesday. And his last day is today. 

After 35 years on the bench, Shore is stepping down from what he wrote in a farewell email was the “best bench in the state.” He did not give a specific reason, but was complimentary of his colleagues and court staff and wished them well.

His decision came after a difficult time for Shore, who was appointed to the bench in 1990 and primarily worked in the downtown central courthouse.

The Commission on Judicial Performance announced in December 2023 a “severe public censure” that chastised him for missing at least 155 days of work over the previous two years.

The sanction was the second most severe that the commission can hand down, just one step short of removing him from the bench. 

The CJP noted that Shore did not work every Friday between May 2021 and November 2022, without approval or authorization from the presiding judge and while still collecting pay, calling his absences a “dereliction of duty.”

When he was asked about the absences Shore initially denied skipping work on Fridays and taking unauthorized absences. He subsequently amended that and instead cited family medical issues that required him to be in Los Angeles, coupled with his Orthodox Jewish faith that prohibits driving Friday nights or Saturdays.

Shore agreed to the discipline and apologized for his absences. And while the censure was strong punishment, defense lawyers were angered that Shore did not have to pay back the portion of his salary he collected when not working. 

One defense lawyer calculated it amounted to between $82,000 and $146,000 and argued in court papers that “It was hard to imagine a world where this is not theft as defined by the Penal Code.”

The discipline was not the only controversy Shore had last year. Lawyers with the Public Defender’s Office had sought to remove him from hearing motions involving the state Racial Justice Act, a state law allowing people charged with crimes to challenge the prosecution as racially biased.

Lawyers cited the censure, remarks Shore made in several hearings he held on Racial Justice Act motions and comments he made in a meeting with two top administrators of the office. 

In the spring, a judge in Orange County Superior Court disqualified Shore from hearing a number of those cases, citing his “insensitive language and comments” in prior cases. Judge Cheri Pham wrote that the comments could lead someone to conclude that Shore “believes certain racial or ethnic groups commit more crimes than others and that he will not give weight to statistical evidence that indicates there is an implicit bias against certain racial or ethnic groups.” She said the censure and the comments Shore made in private did not factor into her decision.

Shortly thereafter Shore was reassigned from hearing criminal cases to presiding over civil law cases. 

Shore did not respond Wednesday to email requests for comment.