A Gwinnett judge has stepped down from a high-profile sexual assault case after a defense attorney complained about the judge swearing during a conference call.

Superior Court Judge Tom Davis voluntarily recused himself earlier this month after a defense attorney said he used profanity and excoriated her when she asked him to postpone a June 26 bond hearing for Brookwood High School student John Luke Walker.

Walker, 17, is accused of taking a 14-year-old girl he met at a party to a location where he was house sitting Feb. 17 and sexually assaulting her.

He has been at the Gwinnett jail without bond since his March arrest on charges of aggravated child molestation and making false statements.

The judge had taken extra care to wedge the bond hearing for Walker into his tightly packed schedule – which included suspending an ongoing murder trial in his courtroom that week – only to be told that the defense wanted a delay, court records show.

Noting that several media outlets had requested access to the courtroom to cover the proceedings, defense attorney B.J. Bernstein suggested that the judge could explain the postponement by saying his trial scheduling would not accommodate the hearing.

The judge joined a conference call with Bernstein and Assistant District Attorney David Fife. In that call he asked Bernstein what she was doing, inserting profanity into the question. He used profanity several more times in the phone call, according to an affidavit filed by Bernstein.

In the order announcing a decision to step down from the case, Davis said "the court sincerely regrets the language it chose in expressing its frustration," calling his salty remarks "both intemperate and ill-advised."

Bernstein declined to comment on the judge's recusal. Davis also declined to discuss his decision.

Davis is a former judge advocate general in the Navy who retired from the reserve JAG Corps as a captain. He served as a prosecutor in Gwinnett County for almost 20 years before he was nominated to a Superior Court judgeship in 2006.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said Tuesday that Davis handled some of the most complex and sensitive cases during his tenure as a prosecutor.

Porter said he was surprised that such measures were being taken to remove the judge from the case.

"It wasn't on the record, it wasn't in front of a jury," Porter said. "There is not always profanity involved, but there are certainly things said in conferences and chambers that would never be said in an open courtroom."