October 16, 2023

"While a prosecutor was interviewing potential jurors, [Judge Traci] Soderstrom apparently observed that he was 'sweating through his coat' and called him 'an arrogant asshole.'"

"Later, as the prosecutor questioned a witness, the judge [texted the bailiff], 'this is dumb' and 'he looks constipated.' During opening statements, Soderstrom opined that the defense attorney was 'awesome' and 'so smart,” asking the bailiff, 'Can I clap for her?'...  At another point, she appeared to have made up her mind about the case prematurely, musing that the 'state just couldn’t accept that a mom could kill their kid so they went after the next person available'... [A]fter the bailiff made a 'crass and demeaning reference to the prosecuting attorneys’ genitalia,' the judge reportedly responded with a laughing emoji.... As a witness watched a video from the stand, the judge reportedly texted: 'This shit is boring.'"


The judge has been suspended and may be removed. Her 500+ texts to the bailiff became public after this video went up on YouTube, revealing the judge using her phone to check social media and text. In the old days, the judge's mind would wander and maybe there would be sleeping or reading, but texting shows.

(You might be thinking sleeping shows, but I think, legally, that's always called "resting my eyes.")

12 comments:

Marcus Bressler said...

When I was about 11 or 12, my mother would notice I was asleep while the TV show Bonanza was on --- and would tell me to go to bed. I would use that very excuse, "I'm only resting my eyes." It didn't work then and it shouldn't work now.

MarcusB THEOLDMAN

Tom T. said...

No litigant is going to respect her now.

CJinPA said...

Google "It's Always Sunny small hands" to see what a fictional lawyer will do to hide his "baby hands."

CJinPA said...

BYW she had been on the job all of 6 months before she got bored by it all. Sworn in January 2023.

Geoff Matthews said...

Lazy girl job?

Quaestor said...

Traci. With an I.

An open-and-shut case of genetic idiocy.

Leland said...

she had been on the job all of 6 months before she got bored by it all.

Thanks, I was wondering. If the job is too boring to handle, go get a respectable one.

tommyesq said...

I had a judge once who appeared to sleep through the entire (admittedly dull) trial. I know he was paying attention because when opposing counsel asked an improper question, his eyes would open wide and his head would snap around to stare intently at me, waiting for an objection (which would always be sustained, without needing to even state the grounds thereof).

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

This is interesting. The idea that trials should be as fair as possible still lives. Apparently. Maybe there’s a vendetta between this judge and the sheriff? Who knows.

And another maybe to end all maybes, there’s a chance Trump might get a fair trial?

I had to choose, off the top of my head, which is the word I believe I use the most? It would have to be “maybe.”

This #TrumpChallenge was brought to us by the letter E for Easy and M for Maybe.

Then again, maybe it won’t be easy for Trump to scathe prison, let alone win back the White House.

It will take several miracles.

donald said...

She is grotesquely fat and unattractive. Just sayin.

Chris said...

My younger brother was a cop and during a vehicular assault trial that he had to testify at, while on the witness stand, he said that the judge was doing the crossword puzzle from the Post. This was around twenty years ago. I’ve been excused from jury duty twice in the last fifteen years and knew it was because I sounded like I had a modicum of intelligence. During the interviews when I mentioned that I graduated from Fordham University, that usually elicited a nasty expression from defense counsel.

Freeman Hunt said...

Was it true? Was it a stupid trial?