Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino has lost his bid to have an adjudicator thrown off a messy disciplinary case. (CBC)

Ontario's top cop, Julian Fantino, has lost his bid to have an adjudicator thrown off a messy disciplinary case.

A three-member Divisional Court panel found the provincial police commissioner's claim that the adjudicator is biased against him did not hold water.

The court says the adjudicator is a professional who understands his responsibility to be fair and impartial.

It was Fantino's second failed attempt to get the courts to force Leonard Montgomery to step aside from the hearing.

The long-running disciplinary case involves Supt. Ken MacDonald and Insp. Allison Jevons, two senior members of the provincial police force whom Fantino charged with neglect of duty and deceit under the Police Services Act.

Their lawyer maintains Fantino was being petty and vindictive in initiating the charges against them — accusations the commissioner has dismissed.

The charges relate to an investigation MacDonald, who used to head the unit that probes internal police corruption, and Jevons, who was a senior investigator in the unit, did into how officers responded to a domestic violence complaint involving an officer and his estranged wife more than four years ago.