Panel Urges San Diego Judge’s Ouster : Courts: Jurist, accused of accepting gifts from lawyers appearing before him, vows to fight watchdog agency’s recommendation. He says action is politically motivated.

A judge vowed Tuesday to fight a watchdog agency’s recommendation to remove him from office for accepting gifts from attorneys and others appearing in his courtroom.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance, in a rare action, recommended to the state Supreme Court that Superior Court Judge G. Dennis Adams, 53, be removed from office for inappropriate conduct.

Adams has 30 days to petition the Supreme Court to reject the recommendation. He said Tuesday that is exactly what he intends to do to save the seat he has held since 1979.

In a statement, the judge acknowledged that he had “used poor judgment in (his) relationships with some lawyers and a litigant who had received a favorable decision.”

But he said a special panel of the watchdog agency previously found that he did not act with “evil motive, and certainly not for financial gain,” and that gifts had not influenced his decisions.

“While I truly regret some of my past actions, my conduct does not warrant my removal,” the judge said.

Instead, he suggested, the watchdog agency is motivated by political concerns.

“It appears I am being sacrificed by the commission so it can justify its existence to a very critical Legislature,” Adams contended.

Adams is the first judge recommended for removal by the commission since 1990.

That record, and the secrecy under which the commission operates, were cited by critics who have placed a measure on the November ballot. It would replace the current nine-member commission, which includes five judges, with an 11-member commission that would include six representatives of the public.

The measure also would require all proceedings to be open after formal accusations are filed against a judge.

And it would give the commission power to adopt ethical standards for judges and to remove judges on its own.

The state Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in the Adams case after the judge files his appeal. He is suspended from his job with pay for now, forcing him to declare a mistrial in a civil case he had been hearing.

The judicial commission’s chief attorney, Victoria B. Henley, had no further comment on the Adams case Tuesday except to say the commission had recommended his removal because of “willful misconduct in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute.”

The commission charges that Adams:

* Accepted gifts from a car dealer and his attorney three years after awarding the dealer $5 million in a non-jury civil trial.

* Gave the attorney legal advice on cases being heard by other judges.

* Failed to disclose gifts he had accepted from other attorneys who had appeared in his courtroom.

* Gave misleading or inaccurate answers to questions from the commission.

The case began in late 1991, when the commission began investigating six San Diego judges for allegedly failing to disclose gifts from attorneys who later appeared in their courtrooms.

In Adams’ case, a three-judge special panel heard 17 days of testimony in closed-door hearings in San Diego in October and November. Its report to the entire commission found that Adams was not guilty of willful misconduct, but was guilty of conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

In the other five judges’ cases, four were given minor disciplines. The fifth, Judge Michael Greer, resigned from office last year with misconduct charges pending against him.