Don’t be fooled by the stately black robes judges wear; underneath them can be unprofessional lightweights, just like there are in every other industry and job. Case in point is what The Oklahoman newspaper uncovered from monitoring security footage of a murder trial that had a brand new judge named Traci Soderstrom overseeing.
On trial was 32-year-old Khristian Tyler Martzall, accused of beating his then-girlfriend’s 2-year-old son to death. It is a heinous crime committed by a human piece of scum that requires a judge to be locked in at all times. Soderstrom was too busy scrolling Facebook and looking for GIFs to pay full attention to the proceedings. The newspaper reported that the judge “spent hours of the trial on her cellphone. She was caught texting, scrolling through social media, and doing all kinds of things banned from a trial.
District Attorney Adam Panter saw the footage of the bored judge and was appalled.
“It is both shocking and disappointing. Jurors are banned from using cellphones in the courtroom during trials because we expect them to give their full time and attention to the evidence being presented. I would expect and hope the Court would hold itself to the same standard required of the jurors, regardless of the type of case.”
Security footage from a camera pointed above the judge’s bench showed how bad it was, with the judge repeatedly checking her phone and using it throughout jury selection, opening statements, and witness testimony.
It gets worse. The footage shows her checking her phone when the victim’s mother, Judith Danker, was crying during her testimony. The footage shows the judge had her phone in her lap throughout most of the trial, and when it wasn’t, she had it in a drawer in her desk.
Martzall was convicted of second-degree manslaughter, though prosecutors had thrown the book at the creep, looking for a first-degree murder conviction, and he is already out of jail since his sentence was time served since his arrest in 2018.
If you’re wondering if the judge took responsibility for her clown show behavior, no, she did not. Instead of addressing the issue, she had the security camera pointed at her moved.
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