In re the Disciplinary Proceeding Against Michels

Part-time municipal court Judge Steven Michels challenges a recommendation of the Commission on Judicial Conduct (Commission) ordering censure and suspension without pay for 120 days. The Commission found Judge Michels to have violated the Code of Judicial Conduct (CJC) Canons 1, 2(A), 3(A)(1), and 3(D)(1) by acting as both judge and lawyer in the same case, by failing to act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, by failing to disqualify himself as a judge in cases in which he had previously served as a lawyer, by failing to enforce…