Judge Jack Robison, a state district judge in Comal County, Texas, interrupted jury deliberations to announce that God had informed him that a woman accused of trafficking a teen girl for sex should be be found not guilty. Robisonapologized to jurors for the interruption, but explained “when God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it.” To their credit, the jury found Gloria Romero-Perez guilty of trafficking anyway.
Mysteriously, 12 perfect pillars of salt were later discovered outside the courthouse.
Kidding!
Judge Robison recused himself before the trial’s sentencing phase, for which he deserves some credit. Says a local news source, “Robison’s actions could trigger an investigation from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.” COULD trigger? COULD TRIGGER??????
This, following the unethical sentencing performance by the judge in the Larry Nasser trial, is the tipping point for me. Although I have an excellent and constantly updated judicial ethics seminar that I will customize for different jurisdictions (I will soon be adding, “Don’t take messages from God mid-trial to the Texas version, for example), I almost never have the opportunity to teach it. Judges, unlike lawyers, don’t have ethics requirements other that the local Codes of Judicial Conduct. They don’t have to take regular classes in judicial ethics either, and many of them—like,oh, just to pull a name out of the air, ROY MOORE–couldn’t tell a tenet of judicial ethics from a cross-eyed echidna. Most judicial organizations don’t budget for ethics training.
Thus I am announcing, here and now, that henceforth my ethics training and consulting company ProEthics, LTD., will provide me, my judicial ethics course and the extensive materials it includes for any judicial group of any size anywhere in the country at no cost, save for my travel and, if necessary, lodging.
This will be offered as a public service throughout 2018, and we will evaluate the policy at the end of the year.
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UPDATE: This, from the ABA…
Few federal judges face consequences as a result of misconduct complaints, and few of the complaints become public, according to a CNN analysis.
CNN reviewed nearly 5,000 judicial orders related to misconduct complaints and found that the documents “are remarkably short on details.” Since 2006, fewer than 10 cases a year were referred to a special committee for a closer investigation, and in six of the past 11 years no judges were sanctioned for misconduct. In some high-profile cases, judges facing misconduct complaints retire, putting an end to the investigation and preserving access to their pensions, the CNN investigation found…
Ethics Alarms 
Ethics seminars? Ethics seminars? We don’t need no stinking seminars! CLE is for those idiot lawyers. And we’ll yank their licenses in a New York minute if they don’t attend every damned on every year. You bet.
Well Done Jack!!!
I hope people start lining up for this training!
We shall see.
Based on past experience, I am not optimistic.
I officially offer you the use of my guest suite if you’re in my area training a judicial group.
You should forward this offer directly to the governor of every state.
This is unfortunate, but I hope it’s taken by more. In particular in states where the judges are elected.
I will selfishly see if anyone will take you on your offer around here so I can at least buy you a cup of coffee as thanks for the education on ethics you have provided me.
Where do you find a nice camel hair shirt these days?
At least test out a diet of locusts and wild honey before committing to this life…
I just forwarded this offer to the Governor of my state.
I think I would enjoy listening to you talk about ethics while Rapsody in Blue plays in the background. Seems like fun. Let me know if you’re ever in Flordia.
Florida
Darn. Flordia sounded like fun.
I thought federal judges get flown to resorts fairly regularly to be lectured to by various experts. At not insignificant taxpayer expense. I had presumed this included some instruction on ethics.
Hi Jack, I notice that on your ProEthics website in the top left column under “Legal Ethics and Technology” some of the words on the right of the column have been clipped off and need fixing.
Hmmm…just checked it, and that doesn’t happen on my browser. What are you using? (Thanks, by the way. I wish I could see what you’re seeing…)
I’m using Google Chrome. The part of the column concerning “Legal Ethics and Technology” is about 10 mm from the left hand line while all the other information concerning the other ethics topics in that column and the other two columns are about 5 mm from the left hand line.
I’m seeing it in Internet Explorer also, just how Errol describes. It’s like the left margin is slightly wider for that portion of the column.
Click on the link in the seminar title.
Sent an email regarding search warrants and forced masturbation courtesy of Cato.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/teen-sexting-case-revealed-how-judges-let-police-invade-childrens-privacy?utm_content=buffer389c2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I am flabbergasted….
A significant ethics problem is the failure of many federal judges to retire when appropriate. The Constitution should be amended to get rid of life tenure.
Absolutely. They get paid for life anyway.
This story never made much sense to me.
It is my understanding that if a jury acquits, that is that. Double jeopardy would then apply, unless you were to prosecute for a different crime. However, if a jury finds someone guilty, and the judge disagrees, they can overrule the jury. Am I wrong about that? Why would the judge not just do this, if the judge was so sure a miscarriage of justice was underway?
(Because that judge is nuts, that’s why.)
You are correct. And good question. Maybe god told him only to make this pronouncement to the jury but go no further.
I’m no judge, but I wonder if your company would be interested in coming to…hold on…being told that God says that it’s a bad idea.
Sorry about that.