EDITORIAL LIGHT SENTENCE JUDGES FACE NO PENALTY FOR PARTYING WITH SLUSH-FUND MONEY.

PITY the poor judges of Los Angeles County. From now on, they'll have to pay for their own dinner cruises, trips to the theater and baseball games.

Life is tough for the men and women in black.

For the past 40 years, they've grown accustomed to getting such perks for free, in addition to their steadily rising, six-figure incomes. Throughout that time, they've maintained a bogus slush fund financed through fees they charge for conducting child custody training seminars and ``walk-through'' programs for new attorneys.

In 2000, the fund took in $101,907, and over the course of its four-decade life span, it could have easily grossed millions. Much of that money should have gone into the courts' general fund, but since it didn't, taxpayers had to make up the difference.

For the judges, it was a sweet deal while it lasted, but the party's over.

An audit of the Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Association fund has found that the judges have to turn over to the courts the remaining $60,000 in their account balance. From now on, if the association wants to throw parties for its members or buy them 14-karat gold cuff links, it has to do it on its own dime.

Considering the extent of their legal and ethical failings, the judges are getting off pretty easy.

For public officials charged with upholding and interpreting the law, their organization wasn't much concerned with obeying it. Before the association incorporated in 1997, the judges operated the fund using the county's tax identification number and without filing tax returns. All the while, the judges collected the cash from lawyers who serve in their own courts, creating an obvious risk for conflicts of interest.

The appearance of impropriety is what initially brought the slush fund to public attention. Parents who claimed they were mistreated by the family court system charged that the judges were ruling against them to pay off opposing lawyers who had contributed to their fund.

Not surprisingly, auditors concluded that the fund had no effect on any legal decisions so no one will ever know for sure.

But the judges still should have known better than to participate in a system that could so easily undermine public confidence in their integrity.

And there's no excuse for their bilking the taxpayers to subsidize their entertainment.

In a more just world, the judges' association wouldn't just end its slush fund, but also pay restitution for its past excesses. Instead, the judges are getting off with a slap on the wrist.

The defendants in their courtrooms should be so lucky.