John F. Kelliher Jr. Reprimanded

John F. Kelliher Jr., a Cochise County Superior Court judge in Arizona, has been publicly reprimanded by the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct four times in less than three years for a recurring pattern of condescending and demeaning comments toward parties in juvenile and family-related hearings. In one case, after a mother denied being impaired during a juvenile dependency hearing, Kelliher told her, "Ma'am if you're not high, then I need to find a different job." His fourth reprimand, issued June 9, 2025, stemmed from a September 2024 family law hearing in which an investigator found his manner toward a mother "demeaning and unnecessary." Other cited incidents across the pattern include Kelliher making a mocking, puppet-like hand gesture while an attorney addressed the court by telephone during a juvenile hearing, and engaging in what the Commission called "insulting, demeaning, and unnecessary dialogue" with a young father appearing in a Department of Child Safety case. The Commission's own findings describe this as a continuing pattern of inappropriate and condescending conduct that has resulted in repeated public discipline, not an isolated lapse.