Former Oklahoma judge caught texting during murder trial speaks out: 'That was inappropriate'
ABC News
An Oklahoma judge caught sending hundreds of texts and scrolling social media during a murder trial apologized for her "inappropriate" behavior while resigning.
An Oklahoma judge caught sending hundreds of texts and scrolling social media during a murder trial last year apologized for her "inappropriate" behavior while resigning.
Soderstrom resigned on Friday, three days before she had been scheduled to go on trial in a special court.
Security footage showed Traci Soderstrom, a now-former judge for Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties, extensively on her phone during the June 2023 trial. The defendant, Khristian Tyler Martzall, was on trial over the 2018 killing of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son.
A subsequent investigation by the Oklahoma Supreme Court determined that Soderstrom texted more than 500 times with her bailiff during the trial "in which they mocked the physical appearance of attorneys, jurors, and witnesses and used offensive language to deride the State's attorneys," according to a petition filed in October 2023 by Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice M. John Kane IV.
"There were some things that I did inappropriately," Soderstrom said during a press event on Friday. "I texted during a trial. 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 the trial and that was inappropriate."
