Judge Jeffrey Ferguson: Deadly Lapse of Judgment

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0:31Right now at babbel.com slash wandery. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash wandery. Rules and restrictions may apply. You may have heard of the sex cult NXIVM and the famous actress who went to prison for her involvement, Alison Mack. But she's never told her side of the story, until now. People assume that I'm like this pervert. My name is Natalie Robamed, and in my new podcast, I talk to Alison to try to understand how she went from TV actor to cult member, and what she thinks of it all now. How do you feel about having been involved in bringing sexual trauma to other people? I mean, I don't even know how to answer that question.

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1:20So he was well-known, well-respected, and no one ever thought something like this could ever, I don't think anybody ever fathoms something like this could possibly happen involving him. The Southern California enclave of Anaheim Hills is tucked away from the hubbub of the city. Dotted with palm trees and blessed with spacious parks and a golf course, it's dripping with affluence. In fact, it's in the top 15 % of highest income neighborhoods in the U.S. As you can imagine, it's the kind of neighborhood that's full of highly educated, law-abiding citizens. Doctors, lawyers, even judges. On the morning of August 4th, 2023, one normally quiet street in Anaheim Hills was abuzz with frantic energy.

2:14The road was lined up with several news fans. Reporters were out knocking on doors, getting quotes from the neighbors. And everywhere they went, they were getting different versions of the same story. Usually, in these cases, people living nearby pick up signs that something is amiss. There are patterns, strange off-putting behavior, or loud fights. For lack of a better term, a bad vibe. But these Anaheim Hills residents were totally shocked by what had happened the night before. No one had seen it coming. This just was not the kind of neighborhood where there were violent, deadly domestic disputes.

3:00This just was not the kind of neighborhood where police were called. And the lone suspect just was not an ordinary suspect. He was a California Superior Court judge. And after pulling the trigger, ever the judge, Ferguson texted his bailiff and let him know that he would not make court in the morning.

3:28This is The Opportunist, an original podcast from Podcast One. You're listening to a story told in one episode called Jeffrey Ferguson, Deadly Lapse of Judgment. I'm Sarah James McLaughlin. In this episode, we dive into the story of Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who is known as a no-nonsense, law-and-order, lock-em-up judge, who snapped and shot his wife. Or did he just snap? Or is he a judge who saw an opportunity and believed he could get away with murder?

4:23The End

4:35Prior to the events of August 3, 2023, Jeffrey Ferguson had a long and respectable career, first as a prosecutor and then as a judge. After graduating from Western State College of Law in 1982, Ferguson quickly launched his legal career in the office of the Orange County District Attorney. and he would go on to spend the rest of his career in Orange County's judicial system. As far as his personal life, he married Cheryl Rosen, and they had two sons. Cheryl seemed to compliment Ferguson's civic engagement, as she was active in various community activities. We spoke to investigative reporter Scott Schwebke, who provided more context about the Ferguson family.

5:22Oh, yeah, a lot of people had a lot of great things to say about her. She was actively involved in the Boy Scouts where her son, who actually witnessed the shooting, he was an Eagle Scout. And so they talked about how her involvement with her son in his Eagle Scout projects and those kind of things were. And also, they also said she was very supportive of her husband. He was involved in different community activities, the neighborhood. but she was involved in the Neighborhood Watch program. So dad's a judge, son's an Eagle Scout, mom's a homemaker and volunteer. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like a picture-perfect suburban life.

6:09Ferguson lived in Anaheim Hills, which is an upscale subdivision of Anaheim proper. It's a quiet neighborhood, tree-lined palm trees, a lot of upscale homes and trails. It's very, very, very suburban, quite a bit different than the inner city of Anaheim. I mean, there's rolling hills behind him. There's a, behind his home, there's a huge open space. You can, you know, you can see for miles. Very little traffic on the street he lived on. Just a lot of, you know, multi-million dollar homes, tree-lined street, that kind of a thing. You know, nice lawns, really kept up well, well-manicured lawns. And for Orange County, it is probably one of the more expensive places to live.

7:11I always hate the term, like, this can never happen here, because murders happen, you know, everywhere. Ferguson started as a senior prosecutor, rising to lead a team focused on major narcotics enforcement. There, he made a name for himself as a strong, hard-nosed prosecutor. He was so effective and well-regarded that the Orange County Narcotics Officers Association awarded him Prosecutor of the Year, not once, not twice, but on four separate occasions. I know that he was well-respected within the judicial law enforcement community. I mean, he'd been a prosecutor for a number of years, working his way up from juvenile court all the way up to chief prosecutor, and then becoming a judge where he'd been on the bench for I think it's more than three decades.

8:10In 2014, Ferguson pivoted from prosecuting and ran in a nonpartisan election for Superior Court judge, part of a court that has jurisdiction over all criminal and civil trial cases in Orange County. News station KTLA reported on his platform at the time. And we've been digging into Judge Ferguson's past, and we found this from 2014 when he was running for Superior Court. It outlines Ferguson's political philosophy. The last line says, quote, public safety and crime victims' rights have been my top priority as a prosecutor, and it will remain my top priority as judge. Ferguson won the election by a substantial margin, 63 % of the vote, and joined the bench.

8:57Now, most of us intuitively know what a judge's job is. They have the last word in a courtroom. They're the ones both sides are trying to convince. They're the ones who have to decide what the best step forward is for all parties involved in a dispute. We look to them to be neutral, wise, unimpeachable. Basically, to have good judgment. That's kind of the whole point. But for the story we're about to tell, it's worth spelling out just a bit more what exactly a judge is expected to do and how they're expected to do it. The California Code of Judicial Ethics describes a judge's basic function as maintaining the utmost integrity in decision-making.

9:43This principle applies to everything that a judge does, and the principle applies to the ethics obligations of judges in the courthouse and in private life. Finally, it goes on to say that all of what a judge does must ensure the integrity of the process of decision-making and the decision itself. California's Center for Judicial Education and Research distributes handouts to judges that outline these expectations. The guidelines break things down on a personal level by describing eight pillars. The first is awareness of being a judge, which means always be mindful that you are a judge, whether on the bench, at a party, or on Facebook.

10:30Of course, that's easier said than done. And it's hard to always be mindful that you are a judge in a moment when emotions are running high, in a moment when you're out of control or at the end of your rope. The guidelines also state that, as a member of the judiciary, you bear the burden of expectations placed upon all judges, expectations on what one does or says, and how one behaves or reacts. As you go about your life, constantly running in the background, like an antivirus program, is the awareness that you are a judge. Judges must commit to upholding the integrity and independence of the judiciary, avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in both the public and non-public aspects of their lives, and respect and comply with the law.

11:23So basically, when you're a judge, you're a judge all day, every day. And you're expected to make good, upright decisions at all times. But of course, judges are human too. So sometimes that's easier said than done. That was certainly the case for Judge Ferguson on the evening of August 3rd, 2023.

11:50By all accounts, it should have been a festive occasion. Philip, one of the Ferguson's sons, was home from college for summer break, and the family went out to dinner together. But if there was a light mood to begin with, it didn't last. According to Philip, his parents got into a heated argument at the restaurant. The fight, apparently regarding financial issues, escalated to the point that Ferguson implied a threat of violence. And at one point, the judge allegedly pointed his finger at his wife in a manner mimicking a firearm. According to court documents, Ferguson raised his finger like a gun at his wife, but not in a joking or lighthearted manner.

12:36In any case, Cheryl didn't seem amused. She got up and walked out of the restaurant. Maybe to get away from her husband and get some air. Or maybe she already feared for her safety.

12:55After dinner, the family returned to their Anaheim Hills home, where Cheryl and Jeff seemingly put their differences aside for long enough to watch an episode of Breaking Bad. Apparently, the show was a family favorite, it, which is ironic considering that it hinges on an upstanding family man who transforms into a hardened criminal. Anyway, after the episode ended, Cheryl and Jeff picked up their fight right where they had left off. Philip was about to step outside to avoid listening to his parents bicker when he heard a chilling exchange. Later, he would recall that his mother had said something like, why don't you point a real gun at me?

13:38And the next thing Philip saw, his father was doing just that. The no-nonsense judge reached down to his ankle where he always kept a loaded.40 caliber Glock. He pointed it towards his wife, and he fired. Up next, the horrifying aftermath of a shocking homicide. This guy was as cold and calculated as they come. Maybe we weren't going to get it solved. It was like the epitome of innocence that had been preyed upon. This is a case that has no evidence. We didn't have DNA. We didn't have fingerprints. Step inside the court of law with the new true crime podcast, American Justice. We realize we have four men who answered the same ad for a job on a farm.

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15:29that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for your$1 a month trial at shopify.com slash listen. Shopify.com slash listen. Now, back to the story. Gunfire and a blood-curdling scream of don't shoot me. Shatter the quiet community of Anaheim Hills. It was a striking tableau, almost Shakespearean. Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, a father, enraged, pointing a gun at his wife, Cheryl, their son, Phillip, watching the whole thing unfold. He saw his father point a gun at his mother. He heard the gun go off. He saw the bloom of red on his mother's chest as she fell to the floor. Immediately, Phillip launched himself over a couch to grab the gun from his father's hands.

16:21A neighbor described what she overheard from nearby. I heard a man scream, don't shoot me. and then I heard a primal yell. And so my only assumption was a son screaming, don't shoot me. And it was a devastated yell. And that's when I knew something really crazy was happening outside. Meanwhile, in the house, Cheryl spoke her final words to her son. He shot me. After these horrifying events, both Philip and Jeffrey called 911. When Judge Ferguson explained to the dispatcher that they needed an ambulance, the dispatcher asked what had happened. Did he shoot his wife? But Ferguson said he didn't want to talk about it.

17:08Maybe he was still in a state of shock about the reality of what had happened. But very soon, Judge Ferguson would realize the weight of his actions. A few minutes after his 911 call, he sent a text to his bailiff and court clerk with a stark message. He wrote, I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won't be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I'm so sorry. The message was so out of character that his co-workers thought, it must be some kind of joke. Yeah, the first, I mean, it's odd. The first thing he thought about, I guess just to notify people that he wouldn't be there. And at first, the clerk and the bailiff didn't really take it seriously, because, I mean, that's out of the blue.

18:05I mean, that's probably really hard to believe that the judge you work for would be saying that. Anyone receiving a text like that would prefer it to be a sick joke. But this was no laughing matter. It was deadly serious. From the judge even refusing to acknowledge that he'd shot his wife to texting his colleagues that he had, that was a quick journey from denial to acceptance. And by the time police arrived on the scene, Ferguson seemed to have come to some sense of resignation about what was happening, maybe even a sense of despair.

18:48When responders arrived on the scene, Ferguson was sitting on a planter outside his home. Police described his demeanor with words like regret and shock and said there were tears in his eyes. Meanwhile, his 22-year-old son was in pajama bottoms, barefoot, with his mother's blood drying on his hands from his attempts to revive her. By this point, the judge made no effort to deny what had happened to himself or to the authorities. He was surprisingly candid, particularly for someone with an inside knowledge of the criminal justice system. He told the police straight out, I just killed my wife. And when they pointed a non-lethal gun at the judge, he told them, just shoot me.

19:38But they declined, and instead, they placed him in handcuffs. Meanwhile, authorities continued into the home where they found a grisly scene that suggested the horror that had just unfolded. There was a Glock discarded on the tile kitchen floor, a single cartridge casing was on the carpet of the family room, and a leather armchair knocked over with a bloody bullet hole in the back of it and Cheryl's body lying face up, bleeding from the abdomen. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Still standing outside, the judge continued to wallow in self-punishment. He let out a string of profanity. Then he asked, What did I do?

20:30My son will hate me forever. He even asked authorities, Can you have my son come over here and punch me in the face? I deserve it. I got everything I got coming. Allegedly, the judge also commented on how he was just like the criminals he used to prosecute. he spent most of his career sending criminals to jail and then presiding over criminal trials but now he's on the other side of the system i mean he basically uh basically confessed in the in the in the minutes just uh just after the shooting so uh that was really interesting and then again to the officers. So, you know, I mean, I don't think there's any question that he did this.

21:25I mean, I think that's pretty cut and dry. Part of the reason the judge appeared to be so willing to freely incriminate himself could have been the level of alcohol in his blood. Officers testified that Ferguson appeared to be intoxicated. He was slurring his words, and he even smelled like alcohol. When investigators got a blood sample from Ferguson, seven hours later, his blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, was 0.06. That's under the legal limit to drive, which is 0.08. But remember, this was now seven hours after the shooting. BAC decreases at a slow and steady rate. So if after seven hours his BAC was still that high, it was almost certainly much higher at the time of the killing.

22:19It could have been as high as 0.165, which is more than twice the legal driving limit. According to an Oregon rehab facility website, a person with a BAC that high could be described as sloppy drunk. At those levels, anxiety or restlessness would become stronger and coordination can be seriously compromised. Conversely, the loss of judgment occurs at much lower levels of BAC, as low as.04 to.06. So that was the judge's state as he spent the night in police custody. The next morning, his Anaheim Hills neighbors woke up to a startling new reality.

23:05it's always a that's kind of a cliche but when i got out there there were uh news vans lining the street there were reporters scrambling to interview neighbors who you know stood outside of their homes and were watching as police continued to search uh ferguson's house but yeah there was a there was a there was a throng of uh reporters out there and they were all uh trying to uh get interviews with people in close proximity to the house. The neighbors were still stunned. A lot of them had watched the previous night before as the police searched Ferguson's home, took him into custody. There were several eyewitnesses to that.

23:46So they were just trying to fathom how this could possibly happen to someone who they knew well and respected as an officer at the court. expected something like this could happen, especially with him. I mean, there'd been no signs of any kind of domestic issues or any kind of, you know, unruly behavior from that house. They just, overwhelmingly, they were just pretty stunned. First stunned that this could happen in the neighborhood and then stunned by the person who was arrested as a suspect. Neighbors were shocked that this had happened to the Fergussons, of all people. Those family members were considered pillars of the community.

24:34In fact, Cheryl was even part of the Neighborhood Watch. They just had a meeting probably like a week or so before the shooting. So that was kind of an ironic twist that they were actively involved in the Neighborhood Watch program. and yet they were involved in this horrific homicide. Family and community members spoke to the media about the sense of surprise and loss around Cheryl's killing. She was always very supportive of him, you know, throughout his career, always there for him. You know, he worked a lot and was very dedicated and committed to what he did. But she was just one of those wives that always stood behind him and supported him all the time.

25:15Meanwhile, Cheryl's brother appeared on camera, shaken, and had this to say. She was the glue that held the family together. Very well loved by many, many people. I would describe what's happening as a tragedy, an absolute tragedy. Throughout the neighborhood, people's reactions differed from the usual pattern. When talking to reporters after such a shocking crime, people who live near the accused often speak about warning signs they saw or a bad feeling they felt. But this time around, that wasn't the case.

26:16those doors, but everything they said about the judge and his wife were positive. Neighbors, friends, people close to the couple say news of the deadly shooting comes as a total shock. Several claim such violence is completely out of character for Jeffrey Ferguson. Social media postings show the couple in much happier times. Their home sits in an upscale, typically quiet neighborhood in Anaheim Hills. I mean, they were just trying to wrap their heads around that, how that could possibly happen. A lot of them were, you know, wanting to know why, as people usually do after these kind of crimes happen.

26:58And just trying to, trying to understand it and try to, trying to recall what they, what they've seen to kind of piece together what could possibly have happened.

27:12In the early days of the investigation, more information came out, painting a clearer picture of what was going on behind closed doors. For one thing, the gun in the judge's ankle holster wasn't the only firearm he owned. Far from it. Investigators obtained a search warrant and after daybreak removed firearms, including rifles, from the house. Homicide detectives pulled out boxes of ammo and stacks of guns from this Anaheim Hills home Friday. In the end, authorities seized 47 guns and over 26 ,000 rounds of ammo from the home. And there was also a.22 caliber rifle, which was registered to the judge, but couldn't be found.

27:59That is a lot of guns and ammunition for one household. Had the judge armed himself so heavily because of his line of work? Was he worried about potential retaliation? Maybe someone who didn't agree with a verdict or sentencing who might seek revenge on him or his family? I mean, you know, he's a judge. You know, you don't know who you're going to run into in public. I'm sure he sentenced a lot of people to prison for various, you know, nefarious kind of crimes. And he's probably concerned about his safety. So he did carry a weapon in his ankle holster, which, you know, it's not illegal, I guess, especially for a judge to have that kind of protection.

28:48If the judge stocked up on guns to protect his family, only to then pervert that protection and rip his family apart? Well, that's some tragic irony. Meanwhile, his neighbors reeled in the aftermath trying to process what had happened on their sunny, quiet street. They were so sure that the judge and his wife were a happy, peaceful couple. But how can you really know about what goes on behind closed doors?