Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson was arrested on suspicion of murder in the fatal shooting of his wife at their Anaheim Hills home, authorities said Friday.
Anaheim Police Department officers arrested Ferguson, 72, after they were called to his home just after 8 p.m. Thursday in the 8500 block of East Canyon Vista Drive regarding reports of a shooting. Inside the home, officers found 65-year-old Sheryl Ferguson, the judge’s wife, suffering from at least one gunshot wound, said Anaheim police Sgt. Jonathan McClintock.
Sheryl Ferguson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Judge Ferguson was booked into the Anaheim Police Department’s Detention Facility on suspicion of murder and was held on $1 million bail, McClintock said.
Other details were not released by police. The investigation was ongoing.
“Our thoughts go to the family,” Orange County Superior Court Presiding Judge Maria Hernandez said in a statement Friday morning.
“We all pray for their comfort during this trying time,” Hernandez said. “Although no case has been filed with our court, when appropriate, we will take all necessary steps to ensure full compliance with our legal and ethical obligations. As this is a pending matter still under investigation, the court is unable to provide any further information at this time.”
Orange County Superior Court leaders were advised of the arrest on Thursday night by Anaheim police, Hernandez said.
Law enforcement sources told the Los Angeles Times that a son of the judge and his wife was at the home. Ferguson and his wife had two sons, Kevin and Phillip, both adults.
Ferguson, a native of Oakland, earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and social ecology from UC Irvine in 1973. He earned his law degree in 1982 from Western State College of Law, beginning his legal career the following year in the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, where he later became a senior prosecutor assigned to the Major Narcotics Enforcement Team. He was president of the North Orange County Bar Association from 2012-14. The Orange County Narcotics Officers Association named him prosecutor of the year four times.
He became a judge in 2015.
In 2017, he was admonished by the state Commission on Judicial Performance for comments he made on Facebook about a prosecutor who was campaigning to be a jurist and for maintaining “friends” status with three defense attorneys who had cases before him.
Sheryl Ferguson previously worked for the Santa Barbara and Orange County probation departments and later for the American Funds Service Company for almost 20 years prior to becoming a full-time mother.