SAN FRANCISCO—A Riverside Superior Court judge was removed from the bench after a judicial watchdog agency ruled he improperly interfered with a murder case, along with a host of other official misdeeds.

The Commission on Judicial Performance said Tuesday that Judge Robert Spitzer pressured the mother of a teen killed by a drunken driver to pursue a manslaughter charge against the killer rather than a more serious second-degree murder charge.

The jury deadlocked in the first trial. Spitzer was blocked from hearing a retrial, in which the driver was convicted of murder.

The commission also found Spitzer similarly interfered in two other cases, failing to rule on legal matters promptly and then lying about it.

"Judge Spitzer has engaged in a course of conduct which seriously undermines public confidence in the fair and competent administration of justice and demonstrates a lack of ability and temperament to perform judicial functions," the nine voting members of the commission unanimously held. "We are left with no confidence in his ability to refrain from future misconduct."

Spitzer can appeal the commission's ruling to the California Supreme Court. Spitzer's attorney didn't immediately return a telephone call. Former California Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Spitzer to the municipal court in 1990. Spitzer was elevated to the Superior Court in 1998.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge once considered for a prominent federal appointment has resigned amid investigations of possible judicial and sexual improprieties, including allegations that he spanked male inmates in a private courthouse room.

The resignation of Circuit Judge Herman Thomas ends what was once viewed as one of Alabama's most promising legal careers, although his legal problems continue.

"We do have a criminal investigation going on," Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson said after Thomas' resignation Monday.

Thomas had been suspended with pay since March when a state judicial panel filed the first of a series of charges accusing him of unduly helping relatives and friends with their legal troubles and taking cases away from other judges — without permission — to change the defendants' legal status or reduce sentences.

Thomas resigned shortly before 5 p.m. Monday, which was the deadline for judicial prosecutors to file any additional charges before his Oct. 29 trial.

His resignation probably means there will be no trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary because the harshest punishment it can hand down is removal from office — an action that last happened in 2003 when Alabama's Ten Commandments judge, Chief Justice Roy Moore, got kicked out of office.

"While I do not believe that I ever intentionally violated any canon of judicial ethics, I recognize that the controversy surrounding me has been disruptive and unproductive for the life of this community," Thomas said in a resignation statement.

After the ethics charges were filed against Thomas, allegations arose that he had removed several male inmates from the Mobile jail and taken them to a private room in the courthouse, where he spanked them.

The president of the local NAACP chapter accused investigators of coercing inmates to make allegations against Thomas, who is black.

Also, a six-year-old lawsuit surfaced in which an inmate accused the judge of offering to provide help with inmates' cases in return for sexual favors.

"Judge Thomas categorically denies all of that," defense attorney Dave Boyd said.

Judicial prosecutors did not file any additional charges Monday involving the allegations of spankings or the inmate's lawsuit, which was dismissed by one of Thomas' fellow judges shortly after it was filed.

Tyson, the district attorney in Mobile, said his investigation is separate from the judicial ethics probe, and he had been unaware of the inmate's suit until recently. "That lawsuit is now part of our investigation," Tyson said.

Thomas, 46, grew up in Mobile and returned home after law school at Florida State University to become an assistant district attorney. He became a district judge in 1990, with the pledge, "I will be a judge the judges of the 13th Judicial Circuit, my family and friends, and all citizens will be proud of."

Thomas' distinctive bow ties helped him stand out in the county courthouse, and in 1999, he became a circuit judge.

Two years before that, some of Alabama's top Democrats recommended President Clinton appoint Thomas as the first black federal judge in south Alabama. The background check on Thomas dragged on for months and Clinton never made a formal nomination.

One of Thomas' earliest advocates was Joe Reed, chairman of the black wing of the Alabama Democratic Party. Reed said Thomas ran into opposition from some leaders within the American Bar Association, but there were no allegations of improprieties back then. Reed said he hated to see what had happened to Thomas' career.

"It's so unfortunate for him," he said Tuesday.

California's Commission on Judicial Performance on Tuesday ordered an incorrigible clutter bug removed from the Riverside County bench.

Superior Court Judge Robert Spitzer's "inexcusable delays, failure to act and gross neglect of court orders demonstrates an unwillingness or inability to perform judicial functions," commission Chairman Frederick Horn wrote in the unanimous order.

Spitzer, a 17-year veteran of the Riverside courts, was charged with eight counts of judicial misconduct stemming from accusations that he backdated court orders, failed to dispose of cases promptly, filed "at least" 70 false salary affidavits and conducted improper ex parte conversations.

The judge's courtroom and chambers were routinely "in shambles," and because files were "strewn about without any discernible organization," they were often lost or misplaced, the commission found.

In hearings before a panel of special masters and the commission earlier this year, Spitzer conceded that he had trouble organizing his work but insisted that he was undergoing therapy and changing courtroom procedures to fix the problems.

But commissioners noted that, after they had threatened him in 2003 with a public admonishment for similar troubles, Spitzer had assured them that he would change his ways.

"We have no confidence in his ability to conform to standards of judicial conduct," the commission said.

Spitzer's attorney, Reginald Vitek of Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek in San Diego, did not return a phone call Tuesday.

Presiding Judge Richard Fields of the Riverside County Superior Court said Spitzer left his courtroom Tuesday morning after learning of the commission's order.

"He is absolutely one of the hardest-working judges I've ever met," Fields said. "The loss of such an experienced judicial officer at this very critical point in this court's history is going to be felt by many people."

Fueled by Riverside County's enormous population growth, the courts have a backlog of civil cases and officials have struggled to keep up with the criminal calendars. Chief Justice Ronald George recently dispatched two dozen judges from around the state to Riverside to help process felony cases.

Fields said he's asked the Administrative Office of the Courts for an assigned judge to take on Spitzer's courtroom.

Spitzer, 58, cited the county's crushing caseload as one of the reasons he fell behind in his work. But commissioners said it was more than the judge's "chronic state of disorganization" that led to his troubles.

Investigators said Spitzer appeared to backdate his signature on numerous orders before giving them to his clerk for processing. The commission found that in one case, City of Moreno Valley v. Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Spitzer received a proposed judgment on May 6, 2003 but didn't act until June 9, 2004, when he signed the judgment, backdated the document July 3, 2003 and file-stamped it July 7, 2003.

An appellate court tossed out SCAG's appeal in August 2004 on the grounds that agency leaders had waited too long -- 13 months according to Spitzer's signature -- to file. SCAG has not resubmitted their appeal.

In another case, Spitzer forgot to file a decision entirely. The judge heard a small claims case in 1996 and, despite numerous complaints from the parties involved, never issued a ruling. It was only after the plaintiff's mother, a potential juror in an unrelated case, complained to Spitzer in 2002 that Spitzer conducted a new trial and finally issued a ruling.

Commissioners said Spitzer's delays in closing cases led him to file false affidavits saying that he had no cases outstanding for more than 90 days, something judges must do regularly to receive their paychecks.

The commission also criticized Spitzer for improper behind-the-scenes meddling in cases. In 2004, the judge lobbied prosecutors to charge a defendant with manslaughter and not murder in a DUI case. The district attorney declined and after a jury deadlocked, Spitzer brought the victim's mother into his office and, according to investigators, encouraged her to persuade the DA to pursue manslaughter charges.

Spitzer told the special masters that he was only trying to comfort and to educate the mother and that he never meant to suggest that she lobby the prosecutor for reduced charges.

"Attempting to convince a mother whose child was killed by a drunk driver that her child's death was unintentional by reference to Penal Codes, legal terminology, and sentence calculations reflects an alarming lack of sensitivity in addition to being extraordinarily inappropriate and unjudicial," Horn wrote on behalf of the commission.

Spitzer is the third judge the commission has ordered removed from office in the last 10 months. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Diana Hall was ousted in December 2006 after the commission found that she had violated campaign finance laws, received two misdemeanor convictions for DUI and improperly questioned a prosecutor's motives. And commissioners removed Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jose Velasquez in April for denying defendants due process, making inappropriate comments in court and improperly issuing bench warrants.