A panel of federal judges admonished Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on Thursday for being "judicially imprudent" and "exhibiting poor judgment" by placing sexually explicit photos and videos on an Internet server that could be accessed by the public.
Kozinski's conduct had "created a public controversy that can reasonably be seen as having resulted in embarrassment to the institution of the federal judiciary," according to the panel's opinion, written by Anthony J. Scirica, chief judge of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The judges ruled, however, that Kozinski's actions did not constitute judicial misconduct. The disciplinary proceedings should end with the public admonishment, they wrote, noting that in testimony in a closed-door hearing, Kozinski had stated that he had "caused embarrassment to the federal judiciary," had apologized and had "committed to changing his conduct to avoid any recurrence of the error."
The opinion quoted Kozinski as acknowledging that some of the material he maintained on his server was "highly offensive," "gross," and "demeaning."
According to the opinion, Kozinski testified "that some members of the public, upon learning he possessed the material, may have the misimpression that he has demeaning or disdainful attitudes toward women, creating in the minds of some people what he called 'a highly distorted picture' of him," the opinion said.
The opinion said that Kozinski was "credible and thoroughly responsive" to the panel's questions and had fully cooperated with the judicial inquiry.
In a statement issued after the release of the panel's decision, Kozinski said the judges' opinion had affirmed that the materials in question were intended to be private.
"Our 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has much important work to do, and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to accomplish our goals," he said.
The proceedings stemmed from a Los Angeles Times article published in June 2008 when Kozinski was presiding over a high-profile obscenity trial in Los Angeles. The Times article reported that Kozinski had "maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos" but had intended it to be private.
The Times story described several of the files, including a photo of two nude women posed on all fours and painted to look like cows.
