Judge denies ex-judge’s bid to change name to ‘Judge’
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Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro this week denied a request from retired Anoka County Judge John Dehen to change his first name to “Judge.”
Dehen retired from the bench Oct. 10 after the Minnesota Supreme Court suspended him for multiple instances of misconduct, which included holding a confidential hearing from a moving vehicle.
In August, Dehen filed a name change petition to change his legal name from “John Peter Dehen” to “Judge John Peter Dehen.”
Because of Dehen’s long tenure in Anoka County, Castro, who is based in St. Paul, was assigned to Dehen’s name change case.
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In denying the petition, Castro writes that Dehen made his application “in bad faith and with intent to mislead.”
“To permit a former district court judge, who has been suspended for abusing his position of authority, to regain the title he was stripped of, would make the administration of justice a practical mockery,” Castro writes.
“The Applicant is not replacing his first name of John with Judge but is requesting that Judge be added before John so he can be addressed as ‘Judge John Dehen,’” Castro adds in his order. “By using the name ‘Judge,’ the Applicant would be holding himself out as a judge, a position he held for 15 years, but no longer holds.”
Castro also denied Dehen’s motion to keep his name change petition confidential, but ordered that Dehen’s home address be redacted in public court records per state law.
MPR News attempted to reach Dehen at two listed telephone numbers, both of which were no longer in service, and left a message at a third.
Calling his actions on the bench “flagrant and egregious,” the state’s highest court suspended Dehen for nine months without pay in a decision issued Sept. 22. Anticipating that he’d retire, the justices also suspended Dehen from practicing law.
The Minnesota Supreme Court found that Dehen wrongly held a hearing involving confidential juvenile matters from a moving vehicle while riding to a family member’s swim meet. The justices also found that he improperly ordered an administrator to give his court reporter a raise despite a clear conflict of interest.
At the same time, the justices disagreed with a Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards finding that Dehen violated bias standards by considering juveniles' immigration status in several guardianship cases.
