9th Circuit orders judge off 'drug dealer' doctor's case for defying mandate

A California doctor indicted on 34 criminal charges in July 2017 will return to court before a new judge under a recent appellate decision.

An appellate panel has ordered a California federal judge removed from a seven-year-old criminal case that he twice dismissed while upset with his colleagues for not allowing jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney “improperly defied” an appellate order when he dismissed drug charges against a doctor for a second ti…