CA Broker refusing to "cancel" listing on MLS - need help

[Pari Thiagasundaram]

Hi,

I had one of my investment property listed by a local INTERO broker (In Rivermark, Santa Clara, CA) for 3 weeks with no offers. Stopped by the property to see whats going on and found out that the house was not even cleaned properly before listing. Few other things were on this deal: As he couldnt sell, he was asking me to convert a den into a bedroom without permit and then sell it. This really ticked me off with this guy. Requested him to cancel the contract. He said he would do it only after receiving the payments for all the docs and the "cleaning", staging that he had paid for. Paid that in full. He took 5 days to send me a "cancel" agreement after lot of frustrated emails back and forth. 

When I contacted another agent to list my property, they said the previous listing is "withdrawn" and not "cancelled". 

Question:

- Is there any reason or obligation for the previous broker not to honor my request to cancel this ?

- Do i have a case to present this with CA BRE?

Anyone from the INTERO management here in this list ? Please advice on how i can tackle this shady behavior of the Broker. (He is not a sales person, rather a broker).

Thanks !