Federal judge is reviewed again

A federal judge in Los Angeles who was reprimanded for official misconduct last year could face a harsher punishment -- or be cleared of the charges altogether -- after a ruling this week by a panel of fellow judges.

The ruling by the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability in Washington, D.C., came in the case of U.S. District Court Judge Manuel L. Real.

Real was given a private reprimand last year, after the judicial council of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco determined that he had “engaged in a pattern and practice of not providing reasons for his decisions when required to do so.”

Embattled civil rights attorney Stephen Yagman, who filed the complaint against Real, asked the Judicial Conference Committee to review the case, arguing that the reprimand was insufficient.

On Monday, the five-judge panel granted Yagman’s request and ordered the 9th Circuit judicial council to reconsider the case. The judges on the council were told to determine whether Real’s misconduct had been “willful,” a distinction in determining if he should be punished.

If his conduct is found to be willful, the 9th Circuit panel should “consider a more severe sanction, such as a public censure or reprimand and an order that no further cases be assigned to the judge for a particular period of time,” the judicial committee ruled.

In a related matter, the committee let stand a public reprimand of Real for improperly seizing control of a bankruptcy case to protect a female probationer he was supervising.

Yagman, a pugnacious lawyer who made a career of suing the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, was convicted in June 2007 of tax evasion, money laundering and bankruptcy fraud, and faces three years in federal prison.

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scott.glover@latimes.com