By Susan Bassi, Lexi Logan and Fred Johnson
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), the bipartisan political watchdog responsible for enforcing state law related to elected officials, political campaigns, and financial conflicts of interest in local and state government, recently experienced a power outage that rendered its website inaccessible for several days. The outage dealt a temporary setback to Vanguard’s ongoing investigation of a secret judge club, as it disrupted access to important financial disclosures of judges and public officials linked to the controversial group.
Earlier this year, the Vanguard exposed the Santa Clara County Bench, Bar, Media, Police Committee (BBMP) and its associated social and professional conflicts between judges, divorce attorneys, prosecutors, police and 
reporters. The online series, Tainted Trials, Tarnished Headlines, Stolen Justice, published exclusively online in the Vanguard, has exposed the intricate and troubling relationships between judges, lawyers, police, and reporters, illustrating how these connections may have influenced both local elections and court outcomes.
The Vanguard remains committed to scrutinizing the required financial disclosures (“Statements of Economic Interests – Form 700”) of government employee BBMP members, including judges. To that end, our research team is cross referencing BBMP records with financial disclosures contained on the state law mandated Form 700’s for each. This article is an interim update of our progress.
Pulling the Threads: Disclosure Irregularities and Conflicts of Interest
One reporting thread our Vanguard team is tugging on involves the husband-and-wife judge team of Socrates and Patricia Bamattre- Manoukian.
Santa Clara County Judge Socrates Manoukian presided over a massive, white collar criminal case involving divorce attorney and reunification therapist Valerie Houghton and her husband Terry, a former Intero real estate broker. The Houghtons were charged with running a limited partnership, Metaview, where they allegedly schemed to defraud local real estate investors. The victims of the alleged crimes were primarily elderly investors whom the Houghton’s allegedly duped out of millions of dollars.
During the criminal prosecution, Houghton continued to be appointed by family court judges as minors counsel in family law cases where controversial reunification camps related to Dr. Rebecca Baily were used. The criminal case against the Houghtons inexplicably stalled for four years, as district attorney Jeff Rosen and Houghton’s attorney, Chuck Smith, attended secret BBMP meetings. More than four years after the case was filed, Judge Manoukian approved the dismissal of the criminal case in late 2020.
A review of Judge Manoukian’s financial disclosures, and that of his wife, Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian, a judge in the court of appeal and active BBMP member since 1988, show a “Houghton” paid income to both judges as Judge Manoukian presided over the criminal white-collar case where two defendants carried the same last name.
The Manoukians’ disclosures fail to reveal full names of individuals who paid income to the judges as they presided over legal matters in the county, raising concerns about transparency and potential conflicts of interest as judges are precluded from presiding over matters where they have potential conflicts of interest.
This situation is an example of the research we do in the public interest, and how government officials cut corners and violate state law by making incomplete disclosures on financial disclosure forms. Is the “Houghton” listed on the Form 700 related to Valerie or Terry Houghton? Our team is working on answering that question.
When the Vanguard inquired as to the omissions of full names on the Manoukians’ Form 700s, a FPPC spokesperson noted it was the agency’s standard practice to advise public officials to use full names of persons paying them income on financial statement forms.
As a matter of law, judges are required to disclose their social, professional and financial conflicts of interests in cases they are assigned. According to California’s Code of Judicial Ethics, all judge disclosures are required to be made “on the record”. Oral and implied disclosures that are not made part of the record, do not meet the ethical standards for judges appointed, or elected, to the bench.
Conflicts Tied to Apple Security
Long time BBMP member, Judge Eric Geffon, presided over a public corruption case beginning in late 2020, after a grand jury indictment accused Apple’s head of security, employees of the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department, and attorney Christopher Schumb of conspiring to exchange bribes for concealed gun permits in connection with Sheriff Laurie Smith’s re-election campaign.
While presiding over the case, Geffon’s financial disclosures show he owned Apple stock, indicating a potential conflict of interest given one of the defendants was employed by Apple. Additionally, Geffon repeatedly denied requests to disqualify the district attorneys office from the case when defendants’ alleged Rosen’s office was conflicted. As these requests were denied, Judge Geffon was sitting in the secret judge club with members of the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department, and district attorney, Jeff Rosen.
Justice Patricia Bamattre- Manoukian sits in the Sixth District Court of Appeal. Justice Manoukian is also a long time BBMP member, dating back to 1989 when Jim Towery also attended as president of the local bar.
District Attorney Married to the Judge
Amber Rosen, a former attorney for the Department of Justice, “DOJ”, was appointed to the Santa Clara County bench in 2017 by former Governor Jerry Brown. Public records show Amber Rosen has been a long time BBMP member and is married to the Santa Clara District Attorney, Jeff Rosen.
Once appointed to the bench, Judge Amber Rosen began serving on the BBMP Steering Committee. According to public records, she was involved in the selection of BBMP members and speakers for “off record” meetings. As the Houghtons’ criminal case was pending, Judges James Towery and Lori Pegg acted as BBMP chairpersons.
Attorney and reunification therapist, Valerie Houghton, formerly worked for James Towery’s law firm, Morgan and Towery.
According to public records, Amber Rosen, and her husband, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, were active BBMP members for more than a decade. Amber Rosen was also appointed to local political boards, including the county’s Child Abuse Council, until she abruptly resigned in 2023.
According to the FPPC website, Judge Amber Rosen filed no financial disclosures under the name she uses as a superior court judge. However, there are Form 700s filed under the name “Ann- Marie Rosen”. It is unclear how members of the public could be expected to discern the financial interests of a judge not filing a financial conflict statement under the name in which they serve as a public official.
Santa Cruz link to the BBMP
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Connolly has also drawn attention for her financial disclosures in the wake of viral videos published by Maya and Sebastian, whose parents’ divorce case is before Connolly in the Watsonville courthouse.
At the center of Maya and Sebastian’s parents’ divorce case are court appointed attorneys who represented Maya and her little brother. Minors counsel, Brian Myers and parenting coordinator, Shawn McCall, are largely responsible for recommendations to Judge Connolly that resulted in court orders for the children to be taken by a private transportation company and sent to a reunification camp in an effort to “reunite” them with a mother the children alleged was abusive.
As attention to the case continued to mount, Myers sought to withdraw from the case, reportedly noting a conflict of interest related to Santa Cruz County Supervisor Manu Koenig. Repeated calls to Supervisor Manu Koenig’s office to confirm the conflict went unanswered.
After Judge Connolly permitted Myer’s to withdraw from the case, she appointed Santa Clara County divorce attorney Heather Allan to represent Maya and Morris Bisted to represent Sebastian.
Connolly’s Form 700 reports the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers purchased her a $175 ticket to attend a 2022 Judge Night. The event was organized by the Northern California bar association. Connolly attended the event the month before Maya and Sebastian were forcibly removed from their grandmother’s house and sent to the unregulated reunification camp.
Sealed court documents obtained by the Vanguard reveal Maya’s father was first represented by Yanna Sukhodrev of the Morgan, Tidalgo, Sukhodrev & Azzolino (MTSA) law firm. According to public records, MTSA members regularly attended BBMP meetings. Additionally, the firm reportedly obtains business referrals from controversial domestic violence nonprofit, WomenSV.
Travis Krepelka of the Hoover Krepelka law firm is now representing Maya and Sebastian’s father. Sukhodrev’s withdrawal reportedly came after she assisted in getting Shawn McCall and Brian Myer appointed in the case.
Judge Connolly’s FPPC filings and connection to the 2022 Judge Night may have played a role in her appointment of controversial minors counsel Morris Bisted and Heather Allan after Myer’s withdrawal and orders to seal the courtroom and court file. Heather Allan’s controversial role as minors counsel in Santa Clara County has been extensively reported on by the Vanguard.
Judge Connolly’s decision to close the courtroom and public court file in this case is deeply troubling based on the First Amendment right of the public to access court proceedings. The Vanguard will continue to follow this case as part of its ongoing coverage of California’s family courts.
If you have a family court story you would like to share with the Vanguard, please contact Susan Bassi, or the Davis Vanguard directly. Thank you to all the donors and subscribers who have made this Tainted Trials, Tarnished Headlines, Stolen Justice series possible. Without your help we would not be able to do this important reporting.
