{"id":141612,"date":"2026-01-12T15:35:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/12\/judge-finds-himself-on-the-other-end-of-gavel-after-felony-charge\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:35:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:35:29","slug":"judge-finds-himself-on-the-other-end-of-gavel-after-felony-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/12\/judge-finds-himself-on-the-other-end-of-gavel-after-felony-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Finds Himself On The Other End Of Gavel After Felony Charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve studied for the MPRE, you\u2019ve likely gone over the code of judicial conduct. Some things require a bit of nuance, but committing fraud is generally understood to be one of those things that judges shouldn\u2019t be associated with. Even if the offending actions happened before they donned the robes. AOL<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

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The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Central District of California announced Wednesday that 50-year-old Israel Claustro was charged with one count of mail fraud. Officials said Claustro signed a plea agreement to the felony charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Claustro violated the law for his personal financial benefit,\u201d First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. \u201cWe will not hesitate to prosecute anyone \u2013 judges included \u2013 who defraud public benefits intended to help those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Claustro was accused of defrauding the state\u2019s worker\u2019s compensation program. Turns out operating a medical corporation without holding a medical license has consequences. He raked in about $38,670 from the scheme. Not a mind-blowing amount by any means, but at least he cleared the goofball threshold of $5,000<\/a>. Fraud is never to be encouraged but whatever you do<\/em> do, you should do right \u2014 even if it\u2019s wrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claustro has since resigned from the bench. <\/p>\n

California Judge Pleads Guilty In Fraud Scheme Involving Convicted Doctor<\/a> [AOL.com]<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Finds Himself On The Other End Of Gavel After Felony Charge<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve studied for the MPRE, you\u2019ve likely gone over the code of judicial conduct. Some things require a bit of nuance, but committing fraud is generally understood to be one of those things that judges shouldn\u2019t be associated with. Even if the offending actions happened before they donned the robes. AOL<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Central District of California announced Wednesday that 50-year-old Israel Claustro was charged with one count of mail fraud. Officials said Claustro signed a plea agreement to the felony charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Claustro violated the law for his personal financial benefit,\u201d First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. \u201cWe will not hesitate to prosecute anyone \u2013 judges included \u2013 who defraud public benefits intended to help those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Claustro was accused of defrauding the state\u2019s worker\u2019s compensation program. Turns out operating a medical corporation without holding a medical license has consequences. He raked in about $38,670 from the scheme. Not a mind-blowing amount by any means, but at least he cleared the goofball threshold of $5,000<\/a>. Fraud is never to be encouraged but whatever you do<\/em> do, you should do right \u2014 even if it\u2019s wrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claustro has since resigned from the bench. <\/p>\n

California Judge Pleads Guilty In Fraud Scheme Involving Convicted Doctor<\/a> [AOL.com]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Finds Himself On The Other End Of Gavel After Felony Charge<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve studied for the MPRE, you\u2019ve likely gone over the code of judicial conduct. Some things require a bit of nuance, but committing fraud is generally understood to be one of those things that judges shouldn\u2019t be associated with. Even if the offending actions happened before they donned the robes. AOL has coverage: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chris-Williams-2025-u9f2Ab.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}