DENVER-
A magistrate court judge has been publicly censured for making phone calls to a woman who had a case before his court, but he was cleared of an allegation that he sent her a note asking for a date.
A three-judge panel of the state Office of Attorney Regulation ruled this week that Denver magistrate Robert E. Gilbert violated the code of judicial conduct when he called Rena Rodriguez four times in one day.
The panel said Gilbert left a voice message that was “less than appropriate and dignified” and failed to clearly indicate why he was calling.
The censure goes into his disciplinary record.
The decision angered Gilbert, who said he had called Rodriguez only to give her the number of a mediation service. He said his first three attempts to call her were cut off.
“I didn’t do a damn thing wrong,” he told the Rocky Mountain News in Wednesday’s editions.
Rodriguez, 36, had filed a formal complaint against Gilbert, 64. In addition to reporting the phone calls, Rodriguez said Gilbert sent her a note in court saying “Will you see me? Yes or No.”
Gilbert denied sending the note. The attorney regulation panel ruled there was insufficient evidence to support that allegation.
Rodriguez had appeared in Gilbert’s courtroom on Sept. 26, 2005, for a lawsuit against her by Infinite Flooring, a company she had hired to remodel her kitchen. Gilbert ruled in favor of Infinite Flooring.
