Alex Kozinski, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who was caught with raunchy photos on his personal Web site, while he was presiding over an obscenity case, removed himself from the trial yesterday.  

In a statement, the high-ranking federal judge stated, "In light of public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is manifest necessity to declare a mistrial." He stated that he would ask that the case be assigned to another judge.  

Kozinski said, "I recuse myself from further participation in the case and will ask the chief judge of the district court to reassign it to another judge.”

Appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1985, Kozinski admitted that there was questionable material on his website, but he said that some of the photos, including one shot that depicted two women flashing their private parts under a campaign sign for President Bush, were "funny". He defended his actions saying the material was on a private computer in his Los Angeles-area home, and he didn't know that it was accessible by the public over the Internet.

Accused of selling criminally obscene sexual fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation, the Bronx-born "shock artist" on trial said that he was disappointed that his case aroused interest in Kozinski's personal life. Isaacs said, "Because of my trial, he has to deal with this crap. I feel terrible. I wasn't bargaining for anybody else to get hurt.”