{"id":866050,"date":"2026-06-14T05:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/866050\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T05:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:22:45","slug":"l-a-county-judge-loses-reelection-bid-in-dramatic-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/866050\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. County judge loses reelection bid in dramatic race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Los Angeles County Judge Robert Draper, who faces misconduct allegations and health concerns, lost his bid for reelection in a rare defeat for an incumbent. <\/p>\n

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tal Khan Valbuena defeated Draper with more than 56% of the vote in the June 2 primary election. Draper, an 84-year-old judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, captured roughly 43% of the vote, according to the L.A. County election results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The California secretary of state still needs to certify the results. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply humbled by the trust that voters have placed in me,\u201d Khan Valbuena said in a statement on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to earning the public\u2019s trust every day through hard work, thoughtful preparation, and a steadfast commitment to equal justice for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan Valbuena, a gay Muslim and refugee from Pakistan who works in the Hollywood mental health court, added that he\u2019s \u201clived the American dream\u201d and hopes to \u201chonor that gift\u201d by serving on the bench. He\u2019s expected to start his new role in January. <\/p>\n

\"Deputy <\/p>\n

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tal Khan Valbuena at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Draper didn\u2019t immediately comment on the results.<\/p>\n

The race between Draper and Khan Valbuena was filled with high-stakes drama and an uphill battle for the sitting judge. In January, the state\u2019s Commission on Judicial Performance filed charges against Draper over misconduct allegations of sexual harassment and making improper and biased comments, among others. <\/p>\n

He was accused of stroking a female lawyer\u2019s hair after making irrelevant remarks to a Black attorney about \u201cBlack history, Black football players, the Civil Rights Act, and the Black Lives Matter movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draper contested the claims and denied all wrongdoing and criticized the Commission on Judicial Performance. \u201cThis is like the Russian mafia, it\u2019s like Germany,\u201d he previously told The Times. \u201cThere\u2019s no due process for any judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Draper\u2019s election results, he could still be removed from his seat before his term ends on Jan. 4 or be cleared of the charges. <\/p>\n

Ahead of the primary election, Draper also faced concerns about whether he was healthy enough to continue serving as a judge. Two judges previously told The Times that Draper spent the last three years relegated to a room at the Santa Monica Courthouse without a computer or caseload.<\/p>\n

Draper previously told The Times that he was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease but remained fit to serve on the bench.<\/p>\n

Draper, a longtime business litigator, became a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in 2012 after being appointed to the position by then California Gov. Jerry Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles County Judge Robert Draper, who faces misconduct allegations and health concerns, lost his bid for reelection…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":866051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,27167,352950,352948,20519,6616,352951,352952,2961,224,5337,177842,15855,326325,34963,290,352949,637,18575],"class_list":["post-866050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-commission","tag-dramatic-race","tag-draper","tag-january","tag-judge","tag-judicial-performance","tag-l-a-county-judge","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-misconduct-allegation","tag-primary-election","tag-reelection-bid","tag-result","tag-state","tag-tal-khan-valbuena","tag-times","tag-trust"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116746791970309892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}