A Denver magistrate was steaming Tuesday after being publicly censured for calling a woman with a case before his court four times on her cell phone.

"I can't believe those b-------," Robert E. Gilbert said Tuesday, of the ruling issued this week by a three-judge panel of the state Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which monitors misconduct. "Yeah, I'm p----- off," he said, lashing out at the censure. "I didn't do a damn thing wrong."

And this was after the disciplinary panel, citing insufficient evidence, cleared Gilbert of allegations that he used a Post-it note to ask the woman in court for a date.

The decision means that the incident will be reflected in Gilbert's disciplinary record as long as he is an attorney.

Gilbert, 64, was presiding over a small-claims lawsuit Sept. 26, 2005, when defendant Rena Rodriguez alleged that he passed her a Post-it that read: "Will you see me?" and underneath it, "Yes or No."

She said that when she wrote back a question mark he replied, "Question mark? What kind of answer is that? Answer the question."

Rodriguez, 36, then wrote her cell phone number.

She testified at his January disciplinary hearing that she was "confused and worried because I thought I was going to have to date him."

In the complaint she filed with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, she said that Gilbert called her four times the same day, which was verified by phone records.

But Gilbert said his phone dropped the first three calls, and it wasn't until the fourth call that he left the following voicemail: "My name is Bob, I'm trying to reach Rena. If this is the right phone number, please call me at . . . " He left his home office number.

Gilbert maintains that he was trying to give Rodriguez the number of a mediation group, but the disciplinary panel wrote that the language and tone he used was "less than appropriate and dignified" and that he failed to clearly indicate why he was calling.

They said that Gilbert violated the code of judicial conduct in making four ex parte phone calls but that there wasn't enough evidence that he handed Rodriguez a note.

Rodriguez said that if there were cameras in the court, they would show he propositioned her when she approached the bench to present evidence in her defense.

The panel also said criticized Gilbert for the way he handled Rodriguez's request at a subsequent hearing that he recuse himself from her case.

He said, "No, we are going to trial," then ruled in favor of Infinite Flooring, who had sued Rodriguez after a dispute over the remodeling of her kitchen.