Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor J Hunter didn’t buy it when her fellow jurist, Republican Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, claimed on Tuesday that it was anti-itch cream, not alcohol detected by the ankle monitor he’s been forced to wear while awaiting trial for the fatal 2023 shooting of wife Sheryl during a drunken argument at their home, Fox 11 reports.
It’s not clear if Ferguson, described by People Magazine as “active in local Republican politics,” tried to claim that, per his lawyer, Ferguson had applied the anti-itch cream and gel “on his skin under the ankle monitor to help ease the blistering, redness and swelling, which is what caused the ankle monitor to spike” and then added hand santizer to ward off potential infection from all the chafing, because he bought that excuse from a similarly situated defendant in his own courtroom and thought it would work on Hunter. It didn’t, and Hunter ordered him taken to the clink and resetting his bail from $1 million to $2 million ahead of his next court date on November 1st.
It’s not clear if Ferguson posted or was able to post a new bond. He faces trial on one felony count of murder and one felony enhancement of personal use of a firearm and one felony enhancement of discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death for shooting Sheryl in the chest during a drunken argument on August 3, 2023. The couple’s 23 year-old son Phil said he witnessed them first arguing over dinner at a Mexican place where Jeff made a gun-like hand gesture at her chest. Then at home, the argument flared up again in the living room when Sheryl screamed “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?” Jeff did, pulling a .40 Glock he kept strapped to his ankle and promptly shooting her in the chest. Jeff then dialed 911 and when the dispatcher asked if he shot his wife the judge said he wasn’t ready to discuss it at the time. Before the cops came he then texted his clerk and said “I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry.”