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Santa Barbara Judge accused of misconduct

January 1, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

A Santa Barbara Superior Court judge is facing formal proceedings over allegations of misconduct related to him acting as an attorney for a love interest and for disparaging other judges and court staff.

The allegations primarily focus on actions he took on behalf of his former judicial secretary Sara Eklund, who he later married. In 2018, 2019, and 2020, Carrozzo allegedly engaged in the unauthorized practice of law while serving as either the assistant presiding judge or the presiding judge.

Carrozzo negotiated with Eklund’s car insurance company relating to a traffic accident, sent threatening letters under a misleading letterhead and threatened to sue a mattress company for nondelivery. He also assisted Eklund with a landlord dispute and her divorce.

Using the court email system, Carrozzo and Eklund exchanged emails disparaging other judges and court staff. He also exchanged “personal emails, unrelated to court business, that were unprofessional, overly casual, and sometimes flirtatious,” according to the Commission on Judicial Performance.

On Dec. 16, the Commission on Judicial Performance filed a notice accusing Judge Michael Carrozzo of willful misconduct in office, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute, and improper action under the California Constitution.

Carrozzo’s response to the commission’s allegations is due Jan. 2.

 


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Carrozzo is a corrupt and corpulent character.

He is also a racist child abuser.

He destroyed our lives.

I was a stay-at-home Turkish-American Dad to three (3) little children (1, 3, and 5 years old then), providing primary care as a former Adjunct Professor of Finance.

In 2019, I ended up in his court while I was trying to protect my children and myself against my paranoid schizophrenic then-wife’s violence and lies. She was the breadwinner as a Software Analyst. She called the police to kill me in prison and get my money after I wanted to separate. She stole my mother’s money, too.

The prosecution offered me a plea of one charge for probation with no jail/prison time. I declined.

Carrozzo had the jury convict me of four (4) felonies and three (3) misdemeanors out of a single incident/case with no visible injury by admitting my wife’s false hearsay statements as the sole evidence and excluding her inconsistent and recanting statements.

He denied me retrial, continuance, and the right to speak.

He sentenced me to the maximum term: nine (9) years in prison (@33% for felonies) and an unheard of consecutive three (3) years in jail (@50% for misdemeanors even without the presentence credit). This was despite the pre-sentence report recommending probation, the Prosecutor asking for only seven (7) years in prison (no jail), and my wife pleading for no time.

He didn’t even allow me to file a motion to correct the credit errors.

I lost everything for exercising my constitutional right to trial, including the contact with my children.

It’s inhumane to do that to three little children. They don’t have any family or relatives in the US.

When I begged him, he exhibited animal pleasure.

He cannot serve justice.

The convictions are under pending appeal in the U.S. Federal Court.


4

Sara must be pretty. Very pretty.


3

Unauthorized practice of law. Do laws really matter any more?


31

As much as I love to see accountability in government… Personal emails? Disparaging comments(ooooooh)? Don’t see why either of those are anyone else’s business. Guarantee he fell just short of anything criminal so, I don’t see this going anywhere significant.


-41

I don’t think the comments and emails are the issue here just a part of the inappropriate conduct. Under ethical code of conduct a judge should not practice law and should not serve as a family member’s lawyer in any forum. Apparently you don’t believe a judge needs to be ethical and impartial. We’ll see what the Commission on Judicial Performance decides.


38

I’d say it’s about time a elected official , LEO or other official is finally being held to the standard they should be, but far too many others get away with much more severe things.


24

If using his personal Email on his personal computer or phone, with no mandatory official record of it on government Email or computers—-which belong to “the people” and makes it OUR business—there would be no official repercussion related to them.


Add these, to the highly shady and “unauthorized” legal assistance in matters concerning his future wife, and now you have taxpayer money being illegally used.


Accountability is always tantamount.


11