An Orange County Superior Court judge has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 65-year-old wife with a firearm last year in their Anaheim Hills home, leading to the scheduling of a pretrial hearing on Sept. 20.
Attorneys for Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 73, entered the not guilty plea last month in Los Angeles, where the case is being heard due to Ferguson’s connections with the Orange County court. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has charged him with the murder of his wife, Sheryl, last August after a reported argument.
Ferguson was charged with one felony count of murder along with two felony enhancements involving the personal use and discharge of a firearm. He faces a maximum punishment of 40 years to life imprisonment, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The judge is currently free on a $1 million bond. The District Attorney’s Office reported last year that 47 weapons, as well as 26,000 rounds of ammunition, were recovered from Ferguson’s home. A .22 caliber rifle registered to the judge remains unaccounted for.
The Fergusons’ adult son called 911 to report that a shooting had occurred.
Gregory Dresser, director-chief counsel of the California Commission on Judicial Performance, said he could not comment on whether the commission is currently investigating Ferguson due to the panel’s confidentiality rules. But he pointed to a section of the California Constitution that guides commission actions.
“The Commission on Judicial Performance shall suspend a judge from office without salary when in the United States the judge pleads guilty or no contest or is found guilty of a crime punishable as a felony under California or federal law or of any other crime that involves moral turpitude under that law,” Article VI of the constitution states. “… If the judge is suspended and the conviction becomes final, the Commission on Judicial Performance shall remove the judge from office.”
To impose discipline on a judge, the panel has to prove misconduct by clear and convincing evidence, Dresser told the Southern California Record in an email.
“If there are (or might be) criminal charges pending, the commission has to take into account a judge’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” he said.
In 2017, the commission publicly admonished Ferguson for posting a comment about a judicial candidate’s alleged sexual activities “with knowing or reckless disregard for the truth” on Facebook.
Ferguson began serving as a Superior Court judge in Orange County in 2015. Before his election to that post, he worked as a prosecutor in the county beginning in 1983, according to the District Attorney’s Office. His current judicial term concludes on Jan. 4, 2027.
The Orange County Narcotics Officers Association designated Ferguson “prosecutor of the year” four times during his work in the District Attorney’s Office.
The California Attorney General’s Office last year made a determination that the Orange County District Attorney’s Office could prosecute the Ferguson case because no conflict of interest exists.
Ferguson’s attorneys have told media outlets that the shooting was a tragic “accident.” Sheryl Ferguson was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting on Aug. 3, 2023.