A justice for the village of Lake Placid in the Adirondacks region resigned while defending  himself in a probe about whether he was biased on a local code enforcement case, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct said Monday.

David Coursen was testifying before the commission last week in its investigation of a complaint that he was conflicted in favor of a defendant with whom he engaged in unauthorized ex parte communications, and against the local code enforcement officer, whom the judge was said to have berated in court.