A top federal judge who is presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles has been caught posting explicit photos and videos to his web site. The judge told the Los Angeles Times that he didn't think the site was publicy accessible.

Alex Kozinski (at right), a conservative appointee of former president Ronald Reagan who is chief of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, posted a photo of naked women standing on all fours and painted to look like cows as well as a video of a half-naked man with a farm animal. A step-by-step pictorial depicted a woman shaving her public hair and other images showed masturbation and what the Times called "contortionist sex."

The images were posted to a subdomain of his web site that could only be accessed by directly typing in the correct URL. In addition to the pornographic images, the subdomain contained legal writings, music files and the judge's personal photos.

The judge told the Times that he accidentally loaded the images to his server and would not have intentionally posted them. He said he thought some of the photos were "funny" but acknowledged that the photo of the women painted as cows was "degrading" and "gross." He said, however, that he didn't think the images were obscene.

Kosinski is presiding over a case involving filmmaker Ira Isaacs who allegedly distributed sexual-fetish videos depicting bestiality and other images that are deemed potentially "criminally obscene."

A New York University professor has called for Kosinski to recuse himself from the Isaacs case saying the images could call into question his objectivity.

"The phrase 'sober as a judge' resonates with the American public," Gillers said. "We don't want them to reveal their private selves publicly. This is going to upset a lot of people."

Photo: Paul Sakuma/AP