When a temporary San Francisco prosecutor wrote on his personal blog about a misdemeanor case he was handling last December, he probably didn't think the judge would read it.
But Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow heard about it. And he didn't like what he read.
Karnow didn't find the postings prejudicial enough to throw out the entire case, as the defense wanted. But in turning down that motion to dismiss this week, the judge still came down hard on ex-prosecutor Jay Kuo, calling his conduct "juvenile, obnoxious and unprofessional." Karnow also stated his intention to send his written ruling to the State Bar.
The contents of the blog posts were not available online Wednesday, but according to Karnow's ruling, Kuo at various points called his opposing counsel "chicken" when she asked for a continuance, directly alluded to her with some posting titles obscene enough that the judge did not repeat them and mentioned a prior conviction that had not yet been deemed admissible at trial.
For Kuo, the incident had already meant an early end to his service in the prosecutors office. While an associate at the well-known litigation boutique Keker & Van Nest, he became a prosecutor through a loan program that gives firms a chance to send their people to district attorney's offices so they can get trial experience while the firm picks up the tab
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