BOSTON -- A misconduct hearing has begun for a Superior Court judge who was caught on tape berating an assistant district attorney.

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Watch Amalia Barreda's Report

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Judge Maria Lopez has been charged with exhibiting bias in the discharge of her duties, improperly using the court system and failing to be courteous, patient and dignified.

The charges stem from a September 2000 case in which Lopez sentenced an admitted child molester to probation. In his opening statement, special prosecutor Paul Ware said that Lopez failed to uphold the court's cannon of ethics.

"The evidence will be that she was discourteous, that she was abusive, that she exhibited bias and, contrary to her obligation under the cannons of judicial ethics and conduct, she did not promote confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary," Ware said.

In the September 2000 case, Ebony Horton pleaded guilty to kidnapping and assault and battery on a child. As seen on tape, Lopez repeatedly ordered the prosecutor in the case to sit down as he was asking for a harsher sentence.

Ware said that after a public furor erupted over Lopez's probation sentence, Lopez allegedly improperly tried to lobby support for herself and made an anonymous phone call to a witness involved in the investigation.

"Fortuitously, this woman had caller ID and went downstairs from her bedroom and looked at the caller ID, which said M. Lopez," Ware said.

Lopez said that the court situation was created by the District Attorney's Office, which alerted the media to the case.

"For the DA's Office to call the press is not ethical," Lopez said. "For the DA's Office to inform the press of matters that would subject a criminal defendant to public ridicule would be unethical, in my opinion."

Defene attorney Richard Egbert said that Lopez was lied to by prosecutors and that prosecutors were not interested in a medical report on Horton that stated that he had a lifelong sexual identity disorder and mental illness. The report also said that Horton was not a pedophile and not likely to offend again.