America at Large/George Kimball:  In a memorable scene late in the classic film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy calls the by-now exposed Wizard a "very bad man". "Oh, no, my dear," he pleads. "I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad wizard."

I cited that exchange a year ago when the New Jersey state advisory committee on judicial conduct first slapped around Steve Smoger, and it seems worth reviving now that, in its ever-vigilant process of self-examination, the boxing world seems to be turning up the heat on the embattled jurist.

On one hand, Smoger is widely acclaimed as one of the better referees in the sport. Over the past two decades he has been the third man in the ring for over 50 world championship contests, and his work in the ring has been beyond reproach. Over the years he has been named "Referee of the Year" by several institutions and publications, and in a 1995 Boxing Illustrated poll he placed second to the now-retired Mills Lane as the world's best.

In his day job, Smoger was a municipal court judge in Atlantic City. "Was" is the operative word, because last year he was, while not formally disbarred, effectively disrobed, and ordered to relinquish his gavel. The state's advisory committee on judicial conduct branded him a "dishonest person" who was "unfit to serve as a judge".

The committee report suggested, in fact, that Smoger be barred for life from serving as a judge, charging that he had demonstrated "an egregious and persistent pattern of total disregard for judicial ethical obligations", further labelling him "a dishonest person totally indifferent to the standards governing judicial behaviour".

The New Jersey findings have now given way to a groundswell of opinion, the thrust of which is that a demonstrably corrupt judge shouldn't be working in a nice, clean sport like boxing. And while there is no evidence to suggest Smoger has behaved improperly in the ring, his presence there in high-profile fights could, the argument goes, create the appearance of impropriety.

In its finding, the New Jersey board determined that Smoger had been reckless in his wanton issuance of bench warrants to defendants who arrived late for court appearances. The state wound up paying a $142,000 settlement to one man who had been arrested on a criminal warrant when he showed up five minutes late, and another plaintiff settled a lawsuit for $50,000 after Smoger wrongfully ordered him imprisoned for 94 days, having inaccurately filed a guilty plea after the unfortunate fellow accidentally hit a policeman with his bicycle.

Only one of the charges against Smoger was boxing-related, but it is a fairly important one. In 1992, the state supreme court had issued a directive that he cease working as a referee on the grounds that his avocation "degraded the integrity and impartiality of the bench".

This is a dubious proposition in itself. Lane, the man who beat out Smoger for the "world's best referee" title in 1995, managed to referee fights all over the world while simultaneously serving as, first, a district attorney, and later, as a district court judge in Nevada. But whether the New Jersey order was fair or not, there is no question that Smoger was ordered to stop refereeing, and there is no question that he continued to do so.

The first time it came to light, the administrative director of the judicial board fired off a letter telling Smoger that he had been seen working a match on television and demanding that he explain himself. Smoger responded by claiming that the telecast must have been a rebroadcast of an earlier fight, though of course it was not.

The next time he was called on the carpet for continuing to referee he pleaded that he had believed the prohibition to apply only to fights taking place in Atlantic City casinos. Of course, the directive said no such thing, and, moreover, even after being ordered to cease and desist, Smoger had refereed 32 fights in New Jersey, nine of them in Atlantic City.

When confronted with irrefutable evidence (most of the fights were televised), Smoger acknowledged having violated the directive.

"It was all with complete knowledge," he said in a remarkable mea culpa last year. "In the pit of your stomach, you're doing something that's not quite according to Hoyle. But you do it and you hope that nobody knows. I thought I could slip through. I wanted to ply my trade. I love boxing and saw the situation through my own rose-coloured glasses. My desire to referee clouded my judgment."

As boxing author and attorney Thomas Hauser recently noted on the website seconds.out.com, boxing may well have been Smoger's passion, but he wasn't doing it for free. He was paid as much as $7,650 for a single fight, meaning that there was also a financial incentive for him to ignore the state regulations - however wrong-headed those may have been.

Last December, the state supreme court disciplinary review board upheld the earlier findings and issued a reprimand, which was upheld by the state supreme court this month. Smoger has since been appointed city solicitor for Atlantic City, and he continues to work fights, albeit in an ever-shrinking world. His New Jersey licence was not renewed, and he relinquished his New York referee's licence rather than face an inquiry there. He remains licenced in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

In light of the recent supreme court action, there is a growing army of voices who feel that he shouldn't be working in those jurisdictions, either. Should a position which demands respect and integrity be filled by a man with Smoger's history? Or, more to the point, is it reasonable to expect a crooked judge to be an honest referee? Or a very bad judge to be a very good man?