Judge Thomas M. Yeager, who was appointed by the state Supreme Court to decide whether Mauffray should be taken off the case, found there was an appearance of impropriety.
"The right to a fair and impartial judge is of particular importance in the present cases," Yeager wrote.
Six black teens were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with a December 4, 2006, attack on fellow Jena High School student Justin Barker, who is white. The charges were later reduced.
Jesse Ray Beard, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw now face aggravated second-degree battery charges.
Beard is charged as a juvenile.
Mychal Bell is the only member of the group that has been tried.
He was originally charged as an adult with attempted murder. The charge was reduced before a jury convicted him last June of aggravated second-degree battery.
In September, an appeals court overturned the verdict and ordered Bell tried as a juvenile. He pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery. He now lives in Monroe, La., with a foster family and is attending school.
Bell's attorney Louis Scott said he would also ask to have Mauffray removed from Bell's case. Although Bell's plea will remain unchanged, Scott said he did not want Mauffray to oversee the teen's probation.
The case aggravated racial tensions in the tiny, central Louisiana town, and led to a massive civil rights demonstration last September.
Mauffray was out of town, court officials said, and would not comment on the ruling.
District Attorney Reed Walters said he may appeal the decision.
"Whatever ultimately happens concerning the judge, this does not mean these cases go away," he said. "It will just take longer to get them to trial. However, I may seek to have the decision overturned."
An attorney for Beard said he hoped it the Louisiana Supreme Court would quickly appoint a new judge to hear the remaining cases.
"Everyone is entitled to a fair judge, not the judge they want," attorney David Utter said. "It mystifies me why the district attorney would fight this."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-08-01-08 1640EDT
