New allegations against Judge Alex Kozinski -- denied by his attorney

Earlier this year The Times' Scott Glover reported that jurist Alex Kozinski had posted sexually explicit material on a publicly accessible personal website. Now there is another twist in the case of the judge, with new allegations. From Bloomberg's Cynthia Cotts:

A retired federal court executive alleged Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, broke into a judicial computer security system to restore access to pornographic Web sites, according to a filed complaint.

Ralph Mecham, who headed the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington for 21 years until retiring in 2006, made the allegations in a complaint [Nov. 24] to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. That court is already considering a separate complaint against the chief judge over sexually explicit images on his Web site.

Mecham said U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist became "enraged" because a committee of federal judges disobeyed his recommendation to discipline Kozinski after he disabled computer filter software meant to block sexually explicit Web sites in 2001, according to the complaint.

Bloomberg notes that Mecham provided no transcript or audio proving the late chief justice's comments. Kozinski's attorney blasted the claims as untrue.

"Mecham's allegations were reviewed several years ago and found to be baseless," the attorney, Mark Holscher, told Bloomberg. "It is unfortunate that he would raise them now with purported quotes from Chief Justice Rehnquist after he passed away."

Analysis on this latest development on the Wall Street Journal's law blog.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[So...]

Doesn't someone find this a little ridiculous? Why should highly educated and presumably responsible adults, be subjected to a "porn" filter restricting their access to the Internet?! ----- And this is separate from the fact, that such filters are inaccurate and can block perfectly legitimate websites as well. ------- I guess you can call this "Puritans Gone Wild."

[Bonnie]

The court administrator describes the action as the worst he'd seen in in nearly two decade career; itself suspect.

Try reading about the actions of the entire Florida JQC - the body that assigns and punishes judicial misconduct, at www.USAJudges.com. Read the report from Lucy Morgan writing for St. Pete's Times, (Her reporting is so stellar the Press Gallery in the Senate is named after her). Simply put, the actions of the Florida JQC continue to defy description.