{"id":7748,"date":"2015-01-05T17:53:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T17:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7748"},"modified":"2015-01-05T17:53:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T17:53:50","slug":"ex-judge-committed-egregious-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=7748","title":{"rendered":"Ex-judge committed egregious act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

This story got past me when it happened, so I’m a bit late commenting on it, but it does give the Texas legal community something to ponder — such as how severe a sanction should a judge face if he or she commits an egregious act of judicial misconduct.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Coker used to preside over the 258th District Court in rural East Texas. She resigned her judgeship a little more than a\u00a0year ago after it was revealed that she sent text messages from the bench<\/em> to a prosecutor — prompting\u00a0her with questions to ask that would secure the conviction of a defendant.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/poorrichardsnews.com\/post\/65069957264\/texas-judge-resigns-after-being-caught-texting<\/p>\n

The text messages were sent during a child abuse trial in August 2012 to Assistant Polk County District Attorney Kaycee Jones, who was in the middle of a criminal case in Coker’s court.<\/p>\n

I don’t know where to begin with this.<\/p>\n

The State Commission Judicial Conduct worked out a deal with Coker for her to quit her judgeship. All she had to do was resign from the bench and there would be no additional sanction.<\/p>\n

I’ve always understood that judges often have expelled people from their courtrooms for using text devices while court is in session. A former Texas Supreme Court chief justice, Tom Phillips, once told me that in Texas judges can rule their courtrooms like tyrants if they choose to do so.<\/p>\n

I suppose that Phillips also implied that judges can run courtrooms with amazing leniency if they so choose.<\/p>\n

One of the many astonishing aspects of this case is that Coker then ran for Polk County district attorney after quitting the bench. She didn’t get the job.<\/p>\n

This blows my mind. A judge sends a text message with instructions to a prosecutor on how to ask questions that would result in a conviction and all she had to do was quit?<\/p>\n

She got off way too easy on this deal.<\/p>\n

The Tale of the Texting Judge<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n