Downing remained on a roster of retired judges who can be reinstated to fill vacancies as recently as February, when he left the roster voluntarily, said Cathal Conneely, a spokesperson for the Judicial Council of California.ĭowning's statements have been a closely guarded secret in Riverside County courts ever since 2012 when the recordings were discovered and then immediately seized and sealed by the judge himself. He retired in 2013, but returned to the bench part-time in 2015. "We take very seriously our obligation to ensure that the rights of the defendants and the victims are protected and that above all justice is done."ĭowning worked as a prosecutor at the DA’s office for 25 years before becoming a judge in 2006.
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we are deeply troubled by and do not condone the improper comments made by the trial judge," Bentley said in an email statement. "Although the District Attorney’s Office is ethically restricted in the comments it can make on pending litigation. What they've heard so far, however, is not good.
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RELATED: After Warm Sands gay sex sting case, judge accused of secret homophobic commentĮlaine Bentley, an assistant district attorney, said Monday that prosecutors haven't decided how to respond to the appeals because they have yet to review all of the Downing recordings, some of which are still held by the court. PRIOR STORY: Judge's secretly recorded HIV insult could undo Palm Springs killers' convictions An appeals court sided with Niroula last year, flipping the legal burden onto the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, which must now decide whether or not to defend the conviction. This statement was first alleged in Niroula's appeal, which argued that Downing showed an unacceptable bias by ignorantly mocking his disease and perpetuating stereotypes about the promiscuity of gay men. God knows where his tongue has been," Downing said, according to the recording obtained by The Desert Sun. "Never mind. After Downing’s clerk said that Niroula “likes licking envelopes,” the judge responded by pointing out the defendant is HIV-positive.
The homophobic comment occurred when Downing said he did not want to touch an envelope that the court had received from Niroula, who was defending himself and submitting motions by mail. Judges swear to be impartial when they take the bench. Six men were ultimately convicted in the plot after one of the suspects confessed and re-enacted the murder for law enforcement.īut now four of those men – Niroula, Garcia, Miguel Bustamante and David Replogle – are appealing their convictions, arguing that Downing’s statements reveal a clear bias in favor of prosecutors. Prosecutors say Lambert was preyed upon by a group of Bay Area con men who wooed him with the promise of romance and money, then stabbed him to death in his kitchen, stole his identity, emptied his bank accounts and even tried to sell his house. This statement, which is being reported for the first time in this story, threatens to undo convictions for the murder of Clifford Lambert, a 74-year-old Palm Springs socialite who vanished in 2008.
The other one will take the stand and say it wasn’t me, it was him. “He’ll take the stand and say, it wasn’t me. “It’s every prosecutor’s dream,” Downing said, according to the new court documents. Downing, now retired, made these statements during the 2012 trial of Kaushal Niroula and Daniel Garcia, who were both later convicted and sentenced to life in prison, according to recently filed court records that confirm the judge’s comments for the first time. The Desert Sun also obtained a copy of some of the recordings, which match the new court documents, on Tuesday.ĭowning's statements were made while the trial was on a break and the courtroom microphones were off, but Garcia had left a laptop recording in the courtroom, capturing the judge’s private conversations with his staff.ĭuring one of those exchanges, Downing said he would deny a motion to sever the case into separate trials for each defendant, even though he knew this was “improper,” because a single trial would allow prosecutors to turn the suspects against each other. Riverside County Superior Court Judge David.
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