INQUIRY URGED OF JUDGES FUND STATE AUDIT WOULD DETERMINE PROPRIETY OF 'COFFEE AND FLOWERS' ACCOUNT.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer State Sen. Sheila Kuehl Sheila James Kuehl (born February 9, 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American politician, and a former child actress. She is currently a Democratic member of the California State Senate, representing the highly urbanized 23rd district in Los Angeles County and parts of southern called Wednesday for an official state inquiry into whether Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County judges operated a special account partly supported by child custody The care, control, and maintenance of a child, which a court may award to one of the parents following a Divorce or separation proceeding. Under most circumstances, state laws provide that biological parents make all decisions that are involved in rearing their and support cases as a slush fund Slush Fund A fund (or something similar) that does not have a designated purpose. These types of funds are often illegal. Notes: A good example would be a politician siphoning off money for side investments or to help friends. See also: Mutual Fund for their own benefit. The Daily News disclosed abuses by judges in the so-called ``coffee and flowers fund'' last Feb. 28, including harbor cruises, retirement dinners and gifts and flowers for deceased judges' families. The National Organization for Women recently wrote to Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, asking for an investigation because of concern that funds from attorneys and clients involved in child custody and child support cases were being abused. ``There are copies of checks that have been written to a jewelry store and to a country club,'' Kuehl said. ``I don't personally know of any uses that relate to cruises or any other improprieties but that is precisely why there needs to be an audit.'' The fund, which started in 1962 and has had balances running as high as $121,423, was operated under the county's tax number without filing tax returns until the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Association incorporated as a tax-exempt organization in 1997. Details of the fund, supported by lawyer contributions, court monitors and legal seminar fees, emerged out of a legal battle between the judges association and a group of parents who claim they were victimized by the family court system because of the financial interests of the judges. Superior Court spokesman Kyle Christopherson said judges pay a fee for events such as Marina del Rey Del Rey may refer to:
``That doesn't happen with the golfing tournaments, but with the cruises when they come up short, then money may be taken out of the fund to make up for whatever small difference there may be,'' he said. Kuehl said a ``number of troubling issues'' have been raised and asked the auditor to review records since 1990 for possible misconduct. La Crescenta resident Marvin Brier brier or briar, name sometimes given any thorny plant, more specifically the sweetbrier, and the greenbrier. French brier, or brierroot, is a name for the root of the European white heath so widely used in the manufacture of smoking pipes. , a retired computer analyst who spent several years and more than $100,000 investigating the fund while helping his daughter with a child-custody issue, said the investigation is long overdue and could help clean up the child custody system. ``Parents have had no remedies when their children are taken away,'' Brier said. ``When you find out the other side is wooing the judge with corporate money, it totally destroys the integrity of the whole process.'' Christopherson said Presiding Judge presiding judge n. 1) in both state and federal appeals court, the judge who chairs the panel of three or more judges during hearings and supervises the business of the court. James A. Basque Basque Spanish Vasco Member of a people of unknown origin living in Spain and France along the Bay of Biscay and in the western Pyrenees mountains in the region of the Basque Country. About 850,000 true Basques live in Spain and another 130,000 in France. has ordered his own audit of the fund, which is expected to be released in September. In the letter to Kuehl, NOW Executive Director Helen Grieco wrote that the judges association put on seminars and events with the County Bar Association and fees went into the judges' miscellaneous fund. ``The appearance ... is that a group of judges within the Los Angeles Superior Court are operating a checking account and a business that is essentially 'off the books' with no oversight from any regulatory agency regulatory agency Independent government commission charged by the legislature with setting and enforcing standards for specific industries in the private sector. The concept was invented by the U.S. , and receiving money from attorneys who are practicing in their courtrooms,'' Grieco wrote. ``To those of us on the outside, this appears highly improper, if not illegal.'' |
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