Judge admonished for posting sexy items

LOS ANGELES, July 3 (UPI) -- The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chief judge was admonished for showing poor judgment by posting sexually explicit material on the Internet.

A panel of federal judges said while Alex Kozinski's actions "created a public controversy," they did not rise to the level of judicial misconduct, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The disciplinary proceedings should end with the public admonishment, the panel wrote, noting that during the closed-door hearing, Kozinski said he "caused embarrassment to the federal judiciary," apologized and "committed to changing his conduct to avoid any recurrence of the error."

The opinion quoted Kozinski as acknowledging that some of the photos and videos he maintained on his server, which was accessible by the public, were "highly offensive," "gross," and "demeaning."

The proceedings grew from a 2008 Los Angeles Times article published when Kozinski was presiding over a high-profile obscenity trial in Los Angeles. The Times article reported Kozinski "maintained a publicly accessible Web site featuring sexually explicit photos and videos" but had intended it to be private.