Federal judge admonished for explicit files on his Web site

By Bill Mears
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A judicial council on Thursday admonished the chief judge of the nation's largest federal appeals court for having "sexually explicit photos and videos" on his personal Web site, but decided against any further punishment.

Judge Alex Kozinski, 58, of the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit U-S Court of Appeals previously apologized and had recommended an investigation due to the public controversy over the material.

A panel of judges assigned to investigate concluded Kozinski's "possession of sexually explicit offensive material combined with his carelessness in failing to safeguard his sphere of privacy was judicially imprudent." His actions, the panel wrote, "can reasonably be seen as having resulted in embarrassment to the institution of the federal judiciary."

But Kozinski was not disciplined because he had removed himself from an ongoing obscenity trial when news broke of the visual material on alex.kozinski.com, which the judge had launched in 2002, according to the 41-page opinion issued by the judicial council.

Kozinski testified to a judicial conduct panel that much of the explicit material was "like odd things that I've thrown into a room without looking at them." He claimed some of the files were e-mailed by friends, much of which he did not bother to view. He admitted storing some of the sexually explicit photos, but said, "I don't know why I kept them."

The judge also said he never considered his site as public, and thought he had blocked access to the subcategory file in question, which was labeled "stuff."

There was no immediate reaction from Kozinski or his lawyer to the panel's admonishment.

Kozinski had earlier apologized to the investigative panel for his "unfortunate carelessness."

"I have caused embarrassment to the federal judiciary," he said. "And thus whatever shame was cast on me personally, it reflected on my colleagues and our system of justice as well."