An Oklahoma Judge Was Accused Of Sending Hundreds Of Inappropriate Text Messages To Her Bailiff During A Murder Trial
How would you feel if you were involved or watching a murder trial and found out that the judge assigned to the case had been texting someone in the courtroom the entire time?
This actually happened recently in Oklahoma, where a judge was accused of sending hundreds of inappropriate text messages to her bailiff during a tragic murder trial.
In Lincoln County, Oklahoma, 50-year-old district Judge Traci Soderstrom had been presiding over a tragic trial that involved the murder of a two-year-old boy.
In July, a local news outlet published security footage of Traci in court, scrolling through and writing text messages on her cell phone during the murder trial while people were testifying at the stand.
In a recent petition written by Oklahoma Chief Justice John Kane, Traci has been accused of sending 500 text messages back and forth with her bailiff during court, and some of the messages were very inappropriate.
Not only was Traci behaving inappropriately by sending the text messages in the courtroom, but the texts were also inappropriate in nature, as many of them involved her commenting on the appearance of a police officer witness, a district attorney, and a juror.
Traci reportedly sent a message reading, “He’s pretty. I could look at him all day,” as a police officer took the stand during the trial.
There were also reports of texts sent about a juror where Traci thought they were “definitely wearing a wig.”
The bailiff then responded, “OMG, LOL.”
Gorodenkoff – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
In other texts, Traci and the bailiff were conspiring as to whether or not one of the jurors had teeth.
Texts about the district attorney included the judge writing, “Why does he have baby hands?” and “They are so weird looking.”
Along with the texts about other people’s appearances, Traci also shared her opinions on the case with the bailiff, at one point misspelling the defendant’s name.
In his petition, Chief Justice John Kane asked that Traci be removed from her position and cited her actions as a “gross neglect of duty.”
As of right now, Traci has been suspended without pay, and a hearing on the petition to remove her from her post is scheduled for mid-November in the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
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