Two more Dakota County judges were publicly reprimanded on Thursday by the Minnesota Supreme Court for their handling of traffic tickets for a former clerk.

That brings to three the number of Dakota County judges who have been found to have violated judicial standards this year. In all three cases, the judges were accused of settling cases for people they knew without telling a prosecutor.

On Thursday, Judge Rex Stacey was reprimanded for giving preferential treatment to a court employee's husband who had received a traffic ticket. Judge Thomas Murphy, now retired, was reprimanded both for his handling of a traffic ticket and for trying to influence a witness who was going before the judicial standards board.

The cases prompted Dakota County to examine the handling of tickets, especially the practice of settling tickets outside of a court procedure.

Stacey said he suspects everyone in the district has changed the practice now. "I'm not going to dispose of tickets like this. I'd be surprised if anyone else did," he said Thursday.

The seven-member Supreme Court issued lengthy and separate opinions for the two judges. The opinions were unsigned, but in both cases a dissenting opinion was written by Justice Paul Anderson and endorsed by Justice Alan Page. In Stacey's case, the dissenting justices said it would be appropriate to "vigorously condemn" Dakota County District Court procedures and show "more understanding for the judge who, by following those procedures, committed an act that violated" the judicial code.

Similarly, Anderson and Page said Murphy should have been reprimanded for talking to a witness in a disciplinary proceeding, but not for settling the traffic ticket. Anderson said the county's procedures for handling the offenses were "flawed" and to correct that, matters should be "resolved in open court whenever possible.

Reached at home by telephone and asked if he wanted to comment, Murphy said, "Nothing."

Of the decision, Stacey said, "I have nothing to complain about. It's probably important for people to know that judges are accountable."

During the court's fact-finding, several people testified that it was not uncommon for some judges to settle tickets outside the courtroom. Two fact-finding panels decided the judges didn't violate judicial conduct codes, but the judicial standards board disagreed. The judges appealed.

Board lawyer Doug Kelley said the court obviously found fault with the system. "I think there will be a new day in Dakota County."

In Murphy's case, according to the ruling, the county clerk approached him in April 2005 in his West St. Paul chambers with her son's ticket and asked if he could do something so her son wouldn't have to lose a day of work, plead guilty and have the ticket on his record. Murphy said he wasn't told the ticket belonged to the clerk's son.

Murphy continued the ticket for dismissal and assessed $50 in court costs.

As the board began looking into the matter, Murphy contacted the clerk, who resigned rather than face termination, and "went so far as to openly contradict her version of events," the court's ruling said. The court found the handling and disposition of the ticket to be "not unusual" in Dakota County, but said Murphy failed to make a "meaningful inquiry" into whose ticket it was.

In May 2004, the same clerk who had approached Murphy approached Stacey about a petty misdemeanor citation issued to her husband for driving after a license suspension. A year later, an anonymous letter alerted county authorities that the clerk had contacted Murphy about her son. She was placed on administrative leave and eventually given the choice of resigning or termination.

Stacey called the board to ask about the clerk's situation and the board opened an investigation into him.

The clerk claimed she told Stacey the ticket belonged to her husband. Stacey said he had no recollection of the conversation. The court determined he knew or should have known it belonged to a family member.

In the previous case, Dakota County Judge William Thuet was reprimanded and fined $3,500 for twice stepping in on drunken-driving cases.