Todd Spitzer, Chairman of the OC Board of Supervisors and longtime victims’ rights advocate will hold a rally and press conference Thursday at 1:00 PM to denounce Judge Marc Kelly’s inexplicable and indefensible grant of leniency to 3-year-old baby rapist Kevin Jonas Rojano. Nor will Spitzer stand alone: he will be joined by OC Board of Supervisors members Shawn Nelson and Lisa Bartlett.
The rally will be held at the Plaza of Flags, adjacent to the Central Courthouse at 700 Civic Center Drive West, in Santa Ana. Judge Kelly will be able to walk out of his courtroom and gaze down on the assembled protest if he chooses.
Expect Supervisor Spitzer to call for Kelly’s removal through the recall process, which will allow others to run for his seat in a special election. This is significant because Judge Kelly was appointed by failed Dem Governor Gray Davis. If Kelly were to be removed by any other means other than recall, Governor Jerry Brown would be able to appoint another democrat sycophant into the slot.
Judge Kelly himself has remained silent and elusive even as social media erupted in volcanic scale in reaction to his illegal sentencing scheme. Well known in OC legal circles for his arrogance and dismissive attitude towards lawyers in his courtroom, he may be thinking he can just hunker down and wait out the storm.
But with several members of the OC Board of Supervisors on board, and reports of as many as 20,000 people signing ad hoc petitions since Monday, Judge Kelly may soon find himself strapped to the cow-catcher of a runaway train that catapults him out of office. He has been badly battered by several talk radio hosts on KFI radio. Rumors are circulating that notorious KFI “shock jocks” John and Ken may host their own “throw the bum out” radio show on the courthouse steps, or even on Judge Kelly’s lawn.
Several judges and lawyers told me today they cannot remember a single sitting judge in California who was removed by the recall process. Judge Marc Kelly may make history and earn a footnote in California’s future textbooks as the first and only judge to be recalled from office.
But keep it on the QT
Editor’s Note: The campaign to recall Judge Kelly now has a Facebook page, at this link.
Kelley had already been elected by OC voters at the time Gov. Davis appointed him. The appointment was made only to enable him to take office immediately in replacing his predecessor, who had retired, rather than having to wait another six months.He’s not a Democrat.
By your own admission he was appointed by Davis so yes the Democrats own this mess.
This is very poor reporting. Seems KTLA decided to dig deeper.The sentence imposed by Judge Kelly was done after careful consideration and review of a letter from the little girls parents expressing THEIR wishes for the sentencing (they are related to the defendant). They testified for the evidence of the remorse and the character of the defendant and requested that he be allowed to have treatment. There was also expert psychological evaluations that showed there would be a very low change of recidivism. Judge Kelly took this into consideration when he imposed the 10 year sentence. He also wrote the parents of the victim regarding their wishes.
This just shows that we need to examine the FACTS and the CIRCUMSTANCES…before making a knee jerk decisions or an evaluation of a person. Judge Marc Kelly is a good judge and a good person. This whole thing stinks of political positioning to have the Judge removed to be replaced with a more conservative hardliner.
This poor girl will be haunted for life by what this sick creep did to her. He should have gotten life, and the enabling judge should get the boot.
been raped lately?
Gray Davis is a convienent whipping boy here. In reality, he was rather “tough on crime”. He rarely approved parole that came across his desk. He merely expedited Kelley’s tenure because there was a judicial crisis (lack of judges) at the time. Kelly had already been elected.
This doesn’t mean Kelly is not a Sh!t bag or that Greg Diamonds buddy “Truck Drivin’ Mike isn’t a sick F%ck for joking about the rape of a little girl. It just means that politics in a political world sometimes turnout bad.
Don’t take the easy way out. like so many other commenters, collumnists and bloggers. Judge Kelly’s actions belong to Marc Kelly (who spells MARK with a C anyway!)
As if Democrat politicians don’t nominate judges who are soft on crime every day.
This mock outrage is pathetic. Todd Spitzer is and has been gunning for a radio hosting job at KABC/AM and everyone knows it. That is why he is taking this on as his platform, and stirring the pot. Getting his big head in front of the cameras. We do NOT know all the circumstances of this case. There was a 9 page judgment and we are reading a few salacious lines these mob mentality morons are pulling out. Judge Kelly can not comment as that is the protocol of the courts. HIs hands are tied until he is allow to speak. Until then I will leave you with this…remember the McMartin trial??? Wait and see what the facts are.
Here are the facts – the Judge had a chance to sentence the molester to 25 years to life but he felt sorry for the perp and reduced the sentence to 10 years!
Kudos to Spitzer for doing the right thing. This Judge must resign or he will be recalled!
This is wrong. Kelly is a longtime Republican and a prosecutor who was supported in his first campaign by DA Tony Rauckaukas. He was also asked to consider running against Loretta Sanchez for Congress right after she defeated Bob Dornan. He is a longtime conservative Republican. As someone else noted, he was elected by the voters in Orange County (and supported by every major Republican elected official in the county) and was simply appointed tot he seat by Governor Davis, because anyone else appointed would have only been able to serve for a few weeks. As for the sentence itself, he may have screwed up. Rauckaukas himself says that he was wrong and will order an appeal of the decision which is how the system is supposed to work. But under the rules, Kelley can’t comment on the case, so no one knows exactly what he was thinking. Several legal experts have suggested that the law as written combined with the fact that the mother of the child asked for leniency for the defendant, (she was also the stepmother to the assailant) may have influenced his decision unduly). I don’t know. But the thing is, Kelley has a history on the bench going back a long way and no one has accused him of being too easy on criminals. Even if this decision was wrong, it clearly was his own honest opinion and should we politicize the jury like this by recalling a judge over one decision where if it is wrong, it will be overturned on appeal? I could see it if there was a long record of abuse, but not a one time thing.
Kelly also let former CHP officer get parole instead of jail time after he was caught in a kiddie porn arrest. Clearly he must go! There is no excuse for what he did. The voters want Judges to protect the victims not the molesters!