Topeka ? A fired municipal judge says personal e-mails and questions about whether she still had a private law practice played a role in her firing last month.

Deborah Purce contends the city’s chief judge, Steve Ebberts, was looking for reasons to justify dismissing her. Ebberts fired her last month, just before the end of a six-month probation period.

City spokeswoman Ruth Maus told The Topeka Capital-Journal that she and Ebberts couldn’t discuss Purce’s firing because it was a personnel matter.

Purce was the first black woman to serve as a municipal judge, and her firing has prompted ongoing protests by some local civil rights activists.

She also has said she was treated unfairly because of her race and because police were frustrated with her rulings. Acting City Manager Neil Dobler has said neither was a factor.

Last week, Purce allowed the city to release her personnel records to the newspaper. Those records do not include any documents from Ebberts or the city spelling out why Purce was fired. However, they included a letter Purce wrote to the city’s human resources director three days later.

The letter said Ebberts asked for Purce’s resignation after alleging she violated city policy but refused to identify the policy.

The letter and accompanying documents suggested that less than two weeks before firing Purce, Ebberts claimed that Purce continued to operate a private law practice after accepting the judicial position.

Purce said she simply checked the wrong box on her attorney registration form submitted to the Kansas Supreme Court. She told Ebberts in a letter that she was no longer practicing law.

Purce’s letter also said Ebberts told her he had found e-mails in the city’s system from a former employee of Purce’s law office, which he said violated city policy against personal use of computers.

The letter said the former employee was repaying money to Purce and was telling her where she could pick up the money.

The city’s policy defining acceptable computer use says: “Representatives of the city of Topeka can review, read, access or otherwise monitor all activities on city of Topeka systems or any other system accessed by use of a city of Topeka system.”