Topeka ? A municipal court judge who contends she lost her job because of her race and her rulings was fired because she violated policies against inappropriate use of the city’s e-mail system and continuing a private law practice while on the bench, her former supervisor says.

Former Judge Deborah Purce said those reasons are “totally without merit.”

Steve Ebberts, the city’s chief municipal judge, fired Purce on July 8, just before her six-month probation period ended. Before Thursday, he and other officials had declined to spell out the reasons, saying her case was a personnel matter and the city could be sued for violating her privacy.

Purce was the first black woman to serve as a judge, and her firing sparked ongoing protests and calls for an independent investigation by civil rights activists. Five of the City Council’s nine members called Thursday for appointment of a special committee to examine how minorities are treated in city employment and contracting.

But one of the five council members, John Alcala, said he is convinced Purce’s firing was justified and not racially motivated.

Ebberts spelled out his reasons for firing Purce in a letter to her Wednesday, which she released to The Topeka Capital-Journal the next day. She also provided 27 pages of documents that accompanied the letter, including copies of 25 e-mails.

Purce said Ebberts’ letter was an attempt to justify the firing nearly a month after it had occurred.

But Ebberts said Purce violated city rules by practicing law privately while on the bench and used her judicial title on e-mails relating to the repayment of money to her practice from a former employee.

“Presenting your title on such a communication can convey the perception that you are attempting to exert influence over a matter that, at the very least, benefits a current or former client or you personally,” Ebberts wrote in the letter.

Ebberts’ letter said that on at least four occasions, Purce acknowledged she had not withdrawn from cases she had been handling in her private law practice or the cases weren’t concluded until several months after she began sitting on the bench.

In his letter, Ebberts said Purce’s actions might violate canons of the state’s code of judicial ethics.

But Purce said if Ebberts knew she violated the ethics code, he would have reported it to a state commission that considers complaints against judges.

“Likewise, Steven Ebberts knows that I have violated no policies of the city of Topeka,” she said.