Thomas R. Adams Admonished

Thomas R. Adams, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge since 1983, was publicly admonished by the California Commission on Judicial Performance after becoming angry with defense counsel during a hearing, raising his voice, rising from the bench, throwing off his glasses, pointing at the attorney, and flinging moving papers so they landed in front of the podium where she stood. The attorney had been admitted to practice law for only three months at the time.

This was not Adams's first discipline. The Commission had privately admonished him in June 2023 for speech that could reasonably be perceived as biased or harassing based on sex or gender, and for an improper ex parte communication with a jury foreperson. The 2024 public admonishment also found Adams had made misleading statements to the Commission during that earlier investigation, telling it he intended to retire — then not retiring, and returning to the bench before the Commission had even issued its findings.