A liberal Los Angeles judge’s leftist Facebook posts have surfaced in a remarkable court filing from a judicial colleague who is asking for him to be removed from the resentencing of a convicted cop killer.
Judge Patrick Connolly has taken the unusual step of asking a court to disqualify fellow Judge Daniel Lowenthal from presiding over the case, alleging he is “biased” in favor of the criminal in a 186-page court document.
Lowenthal is the son of former U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., and the same judge who last year declared a mistrial for a robbery suspect who argued he couldn’t properly take notes in the courtroom because he wasn’t getting enough sleep in jail. That led to a public spat with then-Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Now he is handling a request for a resentencing request from Justin Flint, who was convicted in 2007 of felony murder for the death of Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Maria Rosa for his role in a robbery in her Long Beach driveway. Connolly, a deputy district attorney at the time, prosecuted the case before becoming a judge.
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“The Application is made on the grounds that Judge Lowenthal is biased in favor of Petitioner Justin Flint and against the People and Judge Connolly, based on a purported Brady violation during Petitioner’s trial more than 15 years ago,” Connolly’s lawyer wrote. “Judge Connolly was lead trial counsel for the People.”
During the robbery, Flint and his co-defendant noticed the 30-year-old Rosa’s gun and badge and opened fire, fatally shooting her, according to court records. Although the accomplice had pulled the trigger, while in custody after his arrest, Flint sang Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff.”
Connolly’s petition includes alleged screenshots of Lowenthal’s personal Facebook to illustrate the alleged bias through his criticism of “policing culture” and the American criminal justice system.
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