An upstate New York judge has been censured for improperly issuing a warrant of eviction against a tenant, whom he called a "deadbeat" during a hearing last year, a state disciplinary commission said Wednesday.

The state's Commission on Judicial Conduct said that Michael Knopf, a justice of the Rathbone Town Court in Steuben County, had agreed to the censure after a formal complaint was lodged against him in August.

Knopf, who is not an attorney, has served as a justice in the town court since 2008, and his current term is set to expire at the end of 2023.