Courtesy of the Fort Bend County District Lawyer’s Workplace
The State Fee on Judicial Conduct admonished a Fort Bend District Courtroom Decide who used profanity throughout a listening to and stated a defendant couldn’t put on her jail uniform at trial.
The fee ordered 268th District Courtroom Decide Stephen Rodgers to finish 4 hours of instruction for violating the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct and the state structure in his interactions with two protection attorneys.
Rogers was elected to the bench in November of 2022, the Fort Bend Herald reported.
In accordance with the fee’s findings, the choose stated he solely had about two months of expertise in legal regulation earlier than becoming a member of the bench and relied on attorneys to conduct authorized analysis, as an alternative of doing the analysis himself.
Throughout a heated courtroom listening to in July 2023, the choose ordered protection attorneys Annie Scott and Michael Elliott to purchase civilian garments from Walmart for his or her consumer. The choose stated the defendant couldn’t put on her jail uniform throughout trial and ended the listening to by saying “Don’t f—okay with me in my courtroom,” in accordance with the admonishment.
The next week, Scott filed a movement to recuse Rogers from the consumer’s legal instances.
In accordance with the admonishment, Rogers transferred the instances to a different choose and referred the recusal movement to the presiding choose three days previous the deadline to take action. The presiding choose discovered that the recusal movement was moot as a result of Rogers had transferred the case.
Since Rogers transferred the case, he was nonetheless accountable for signing the 2 protection attorneys’ pay vouchers. Moreover, their consumer’s case might nonetheless be moved again to his courtroom.
The next month, Elliott appeared within the choose’s courtroom on behalf of different shoppers. The choose’s bailiff eliminated Elliott from the courtroom, telling the protection lawyer he was “banned” from the choose’s courtroom.
Rogers informed the fee that the bailiff was not appearing beneath the choose’s directions. Nevertheless, the choose did say he had requested that Elliott not enter the courtroom that day due to the lawyer’s earlier interactions with the courtroom reporter. Rogers stated he transferred Elliott’s instances to different judges for about six months following the incident.
In accordance with the admonishment, the choose stated he “might and will have used a much less crude time period in [his] closing assertion to Mr. Elliott” when he used profanity throughout the July 2023 listening to.
Rogers additionally wrote “destructive statements” concerning the two protection attorneys in his response to the fee and “blamed Scott and Elliott for his ignorance within the regulation,” the admonishment states.
The fee requested if Rogers had reached out to Elliott and Scott to apologize and the choose stated “I’ve not and I’m unsure exactly for what I’d be apologizing,” the admonishment stated.
Nevertheless, in a press release posted later on-line and shared with Houston Public Media, the choose expressed regrets for the language he used within the courtroom and prolonged his apologies for utilizing profanity.
“Whereas defending the constitutional rights of everybody who steps foot in my courtroom, I, regrettably, used the “F” phrase throughout a sidebar trade. I apologize to the individuals I serve for that lapse,” Rogers stated within the assertion. “The state of Texas, and I, rightly maintain judges to excessive requirements of professionalism, and I pledge to proceed to abide by them. The State Fee on Judicial Conduct issued its choice on this matter. Whereas there are quite a few inaccuracies within the particulars of the report that we’re working to appropriate, I settle for the fee’s choice.”
“I ran for choose on the bedrock that judges are there to observe the Structure of the USA, the Structure of Texas, and uphold the legal guidelines because the legislature creates. Since taking the bench, my courtroom has labored exhausting day by day getting the justice system again to work for victims of great crime, dealing with 22 sexual assault instances and over 10 homicide trials, together with different vital instances on our docket. I would really like everybody to know I’ll proceed to defend the Structure and your rights, and proceed to do the necessary work of this courtroom.”
The fee has ordered Rogers to finish two hours of coaching associated to demeanor and two hours of coaching about legal defendants’ rights and recusal motions.
Editor’s word: This text was up to date to incorporate a press release from Rogers.
