The Honorable Chinhayi Cadet

March 28, 2024

by Andrew G. Watters, Esq.

"Judge Cadet makes unjust, horrible decisions based solely on her antipathy and hatred[.]"
"The number of people's lives she is ruining is not acceptable."
"My client is a professional Black man and had the same exact experience with Judge Cadet."
"The family law section needs to do something about this trainwreck."
"Heard through the grapevine you shared a similar experience with Dept. 5. My client filed a judicial complaint. If there is anything you need from me to help make a change, please let me know."
"I can only think of 1 or 2 judges over the past 35 years that have been as horrendous."
"I was there all morning listening to the cases before my client's, which was last. She was totally unnecessarily combative with each and every attorney, made legally wrong decisions, and was also completely lacking in normal judicial temperament, and judgment."
"She comes absolutely unprepared and lacks basic knowledge in Civil Law and Family Law, and her decisions are driven by racial hatred and gender bias instead of the rule of law."

"Her pattern and practice is to drain people's resolve by steamrolling them with multiple hearings and trials on the same day just because they are in pro per. She makes up her own rules, ignores the law, and fits the evidence into her own narrative to help the party that she likes. Why does she protect domestic abusers?"
"She hates all women that are educated, successful professionals who stand up for their legal rights, and the rights of their children."
"Judge Cadet’s focus on issuing a $41,602 sanction, rather than evaluating the substance of my motions, demonstrates a deeply biased approach that prioritizes punitive actions over fair adjudication."

Note: rather than embarrassing Judge Cadet, the purpose of this page is to protect the public, as there is no other writeup on the internet about this vindictive, malicious, and extremely dangerous judge who does not belong on the bench. I will prove each and every one of my opinions here while being as even-handed as possible.

Here is her LinkedIn. Hard to believe a Stanford and Georgetown grad who spent 20 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney is this lost as a person. I honestly tried to keep an open mind over the last three months, however, the transcripts of my appearances speak for themselves, which show a course of conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. sec. 1983 prohibiting violations of civil rights under color of law. Just wait for the March 26, 2024 transcript, and you'll see that I've now had three separate hearings with Judge Cadet over three months where she destroyed my client for no apparent reason other than prejudice, made numerous legally wrong decisions, and abused her power. I've had enough of this. My client has no remedies except in the court of public opinion, so here you go as a start:

January 2, 2024 - Cole/Little

January 22, 2024 - Cole/Little

March 26, 2024 - Cole/Little - insane!

Transcripts are not normally publishable, however, the entirety of these transcripts are essential to understand my commentary and are relevant to showing that Judge Cadet is a horrible person whom everyone should peremptorily challenge under CCP sec. 170.6. I'm claiming fair use and freedom of speech, consistent with Rule 8.2(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct and Civil Code sec. 47 concerning true reporting of proceedings.

Background

I have four cases with Judge Cadet at the moment. The worst and longest-running of these is the above-indicated Cole/Little matter. One other one I settled due to the risk of going to trial with an erratic, malicious judge; another one resulted in a temporary order in my client's favor, principally because Judge Cadet believed the other party was crazy, and the remaining one is just starting and I didn't manage to get my peremptory challenge in on time.

Brittiny Little

I am posting this writeup with my client's permission, though we may have slightly different opinions. In summary, my client is a successful professional woman, who until recently was a Nursing Supervisor at a major, prestigious hospital chain (she resigned due to the unbearable stress of this litigation). My client, who is Black, did nothing to prompt Judge Cadet's malicious treatment of her. I think the result is partly because Judge Cadet (who is also Black) wants to appear extra fair when dealing with Black litigants. It saddens me to even bring race into this, but based on all that I have seen-- and also heard from other attorneys-- that appears to be the truth. Another sad truth is that Judge Cadet has an extremely high opinion of herself and, as an elite Black person, looks down on my client, who is merely a professional Black woman. Regardless of the reasons for her bizarre decisions, Judge Cadet has driven my client to a state of near-suicide over the last several months. Part of this is the denial of visitation with her now one year-old son, whom my client has not seen since December 2023 despite the parties agreeing (denied by Judge Cadet!) that my client could have up to three days per week of visitation. Additionally, Judge Cadet ordered the civil forfeiture of my client's property, specifically the baby-related furniture that my client purchased without the other party's involvement or contribution, and that my client wants to keep because these are the last things she has that remind her of her son. To order that the other party takes furniture he does not own that reminds my client of her son is a civil forfeiture or penalty that is against the law.

This matter began in August 2023 when I was hired to file a Domestic Violence petition against my client's ex, who is unemployed and lives with his parents following the end of the parties' relationship. And when the other party managed to beat us to court and filed his own DV petition, I was hired to defend that one. The issue is that Mr. Cole managed to file his DV petition first, thereby gaining the advantage of a T.R.O., although it was never served on my client. My client splits her time between her home state of Washington and California, and she was in Washington at the time of the DV petition filed by Mr. Cole, and therefore beyond the California court's jurisdiction. She had planned to stay in Washington, but ultimately the California court issued orders under UCCJEA for the minor child's return to California, which occurred in December 2023. This side issue is the subject of a ridiculous claim by the District Attorney that my client is guilty of felony child custody deprivation, which was ultimately granted misdemeanor diversion by agreement, and will be dismissed upon the conditions agreed on by my client. That is a separate issue; the main problems with Judge Cadet are that she (1) makes illegal orders that exceed her jurisdiction, (2) demonstrates severe prejudice against my client, (3) acts either intentionally or extremely recklessly in exhibiting malice against litigants. Please read the transcripts and court papers, and judge this judge for yourself. I am calling upon the attorney community to peremptorily challenge Judge Cadet under 170.6 in all cases until the local court gets the message and she is removed from family law.

Latest updates

The "under construction" page that preceded this writeup received more views than the rest of the Hall of Shame combined. I get occasional calls and emails from other attorneys about Judge Cadet, most of whom are shocked that this person is a judge. I have more to say, but this is a start.

Update June 14, 2024: A lot has occurred in the last ten days since I published this. A number of attorneys and litigants have contacted me with their own horror stories, and I'm putting together a comprehensive update here that will incorporate their comments and stories.

Update August 7, 2024: I've got a big update coming with an additional group of attorneys that reached out to me and that plans to make a coordinated effort directed at removing Judge Cadet from the bench.

Update September 30, 2024: By now, I've gotten at least twenty calls and emails from area attorneys, as well as some litigants. The above quotes are directly from other attorneys, some of whom have called me a hero for doing this. The web page is going to be a centralized repository of information reflecting many people's opinions that Judge Cadet should be doing something else. I've been working on a large update, but I've been distracted by my day job and professional commitments. This is the best I can do here.

Update October 11, 2024: I decided to start putting quotes from litigants on here due to the large number of people who are calling. Wow, they have a lot to say.

Update November 17, 2024: By chance, I ran into Ms. Hartman in court. She had called me a while back, and now she's provided some written materials that show a similar scenario, but primarily financial. Wow, take a look at Ms. Hartman's complaint to the presiding judge! No joke, that is horrible, just like the civil forfeiture ordered in my client's case.

Hall of Shame

Home page