California's judicial discipline agency on Thursday issued a severe public censure of San Diego Superior Court Judge Gary Kreep, handing down the worst punishment possible short of removing him from the bench.

In a 67-page ruling, the Commission on Judicial Performance concluded that the judge committed 57 acts of misconduct or improper action between 2012 and 2015, many of them linked to insensitive courtroom comments that “demonstrated a lack of judicial temperament.”

Commissioners wrote that Kreep's lengthy list of wrongdoing and his “failure to fully and honestly acknowledge the extent of misconduct” might have warranted his removal. But six of the 10 voting commission members favored censure instead, noting that many of his misdeeds occurred shortly after he was elected or within his first year in office. [The remaining four commissioners would have ousted Kreep.]