SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Superior Court's downtown central division did away with its pretrial motions department last week in a change that appears linked to recent controversy surrounding a judge who was censured by a state judicial oversight body and disqualified from hearing certain racial bias cases.

The change was celebrated by defense attorneys who say their clients may now get fairer rulings than they received from Judge Howard Shore, who was previously assigned to hear most pretrial motions — such as those to dismiss cases or suppress evidence. Shore was also assigned motions made under the Racial Justice Act, a relatively new state law designed to ensure that race does not factor in the administration of justice.

Shore, who was assigned to the court's criminal division since 1998, has been reassigned to the civil division, court spokesperson Emily Cox said.

Shore received a "severe" public censure in December from California's Commission on Judicial Performance for skipping 155 days of work without permission. Earlier this year attorneys from the county Public Defender's Office filed at least 19 disqualification challenges seeking to remove Shore from their cases, citing his censure, comments he had previously made in court and comments he allegedly made in a private meeting with two public defender chiefs.

In March, Orange County Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham sided with the Public Defender's Office in some of those challenges, disqualifying Shore from hearing several motions under the Racial Justice Act. Pham ruled there were reasonable questions about whether Shore can remain impartial given his prior "insensitive language and comments" in the courtroom. Pham — who heard the issue to avoid a conflict of interest within the San Diego court — wrote that Shore's censure and the comments he made privately to the public defender chiefs did not factor into her ruling.

Cox, the court spokesperson, did not directly answer questions about whether last week's change to pretrial motion assignments was related to the recent controversies surrounding Shore. Instead, she said the court rotates assignments regularly and made last week's change to bring the downtown central division in line with the way pretrial motions are assigned at its branches in East County, North County and the South Bay.

But those in the Public Defender's Office celebrated and took credit for the change.

"This is great news and a direct result of the efforts of every lawyer in this office," Chief Deputy Public Defender Jo Super wrote in an email to her office announcing the court's decision last month.

Chief Public Defender Paul Rodriguez did not respond to a request for comment.

"It's a big change," said private defense attorney Danielle Iredale, who attributed the move by the court to the efforts of the Public Defender's Office to challenge Shore in recent months. "Those for-cause challenges being granted changed the landscape."

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