Posted on 05/18/2005 2:30:19 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SANTA PAULA, Calif. (AP) - Former Superior Court Judge Robert Bradley, whose highly publicized battle with alcoholism and drunken driving arrests led to his downfall, choked to death on food at his home. He was 64.
The ex-Ventura County judge was taken from his Santa Paula residence Monday night to the emergency room at Ventura County Medical Center after a housekeeper found him collapsed in the kitchen, authorities said. He was declared dead at 9:30 p.m.
Senior Deputy Medical Examiner Craig Stevens said an autopsy Tuesday showed Bradley died from asphyxiation.
After his drunken driving arrest in Ojai in 1997, the same year he was named an outstanding jurist by the Ventura County Bar Association, Bradley spent most of his remaining years in out-of-treatment centers and jail in his fight with alcoholism.
A second DUI arrest a month later in Santa Paula eventually led to divorce and loss of his judgeship.
"He was a very good man with a bad disease," former District Attorney Mike Bradbury said.
"It was an absolute tragedy to see his fall," said Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge George Eskin, who gave Bradbury a job when Eskin was in charge of recruiting for the Ventura County district attorney's office in the 1960s.
Bradley is survived by his sons, Brett and Scott; daughters, Amanda, Cate and Libby; sisters, Elizabeth Lacy of Hawaii and Kay Bradley of San Francisco; and brother, James Bradley of San Diego.
Funeral plans weren't disclosed.
Bah ! I was hoping it was the Judge who ordered Terri to be murdered !
The poor man ... how sad for his family.
Don't fret. Terri's judge was just awarded something like 'Jurist of the year' so we can be sure he's likely just the opposite and due for his own fall.
Sad sad example of self-inflicted destruction. May he finally RIP.
There ought to be a law that requires people to chew their food before attempting to swallow it ... it's just common sense! Think of all the lives this reasonable, modest, common-sense, responsible legislation would save.
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