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AP) - California's adult prisons chief resigned days after reports surfaced that he improperly altered disciplinary reports, according to a memo made public Thursday.

John Dovey, director of the Division of Adult Institutions, made no mention of the accusations in a resignation memo to Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees.

His resignation came after a subordinate who has since retired, Cheryl Pliler, testified in a personnel case that Dovey altered her recommended punishments for nine guards at Salinas Valley State Prison in November 2004.

The nine were accused in the beating of an inmate. Pliler told the State Personnel Board in August that she decided four or five of the guards should be fired and the rest suspended.

She learned a week later that Dovey fired all nine guards but left her signature on the disciplinary documents. One guard has since been reinstated, and the rest are using her testimony in an appeal to get their jobs back.

Dovey held his post since July 2005, when the department was reorganized. He can return to his civil service position as an associate warden.

Dovey's deputy, Scott Kernan, was named acting director Thursday. Department officials otherwise declined comment.

Chuck Alexander, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, called for legislative hearings into Dovey's resignation and a report this week that top parole officials broke state law.

The parole administrators shuffled high-risk sex offenders among Los Angeles hotels earlier this year to avoid reporting requirements, then lied to their superiors, lawmakers and investigators, the state inspector general said in a report.