Revelations this week that Los Angeles state appellate Justice Jeffrey W. Johnson has been accused of harassing more than a dozen women, including colleagues on the Second District bench, have raised fresh questions about how California’s judicial branch handles sexual misconduct complaints against judges.

The allegations revealed by the Commission on Judicial Performance are not, by themselves, rare. Judges have been accused of harassment, making crude remarks and drunken behavior throughout the history of the commission’s 59-year history of disciplining jurists.