US judge in Oklahoma resigns after exchanging 500 texts with bailiff during murder trial
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Ms Traci Soderstrom was presiding over a murder trial when she put her personal cellphone in her lap and texted continuously with the bailiff.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM THE OKLAHOMAN/YOUTUBE
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OKLAHOMA - A judge in Oklahoma who exchanged 500 text messages with her bailiff while presiding over the murder trial of a man accused of beating a toddler to death resigned on Feb 9.
Ms Traci Soderstrom stepped down from her position as a district judge in Lincoln County before a special court trial that was scheduled to begin Feb 12, according to a resignation letter distributed to local news outlets.
Ms Soderstrom faced removal from the bench for gross neglect of duty, gross partiality in office and other judicial conduct prohibited by the state’s Constitution.
“I texted during a trial,” she said after submitting her resignation, KOCO News reported. “It doesn’t matter whether it was a traffic case or whether it was a divorce case or whether it was a first-degree murder case. I texted during a trial and that was inappropriate.”
Ms Soderstrom was presiding over a murder trial that began in June 2023 when she put her personal cellphone in her lap, out of the view of others in the courtroom, and texted continuously with the bailiff, according to a court petition filed in October.
Ms Soderstrom and the bailiff “called murder trial witnesses liars, admired the looks of a police officer who was testifying, disparaged the local defence bar, expressed bias in favour of the defendant and displayed gross partiality against the state”, Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice M. John Kane IV wrote in the petition.
While the judge and the bailiff texted, a man from Oklahoma, Khristian Martzall, was on trial.
He was charged with first-degree murder in the fatal beating of his girlfriend’s two-year-old son.
On June 15, 2023, a jury found Martzall guilty of a lesser charge, second-degree manslaughter.
He was sentenced to time served, which was about five years.
The child’s mother Judith Danker pleaded guilty in 2019 to enabling child abuse and was sentenced to 25 years.
She testified as a witness in Martzall’s trial.
The judge’s cellphone use came to public attention in July after The Oklahoman daily published more than 50 minutes of courtroom security footage and reported that it showed the judge texting and scrolling Facebook during Martzall’s trial.
Ms Soderstrom took office as a district judge in January 2023 after winning an election. She said in a text message on Feb 10 that she had no comment. NYTIMES
