(LifeSiteNews) — The first openly LGBT judge in Texas has agreed to a lifetime ban from the bench after she had a defense attorney handcuffed in her courtroom.
Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez agreed to resign and accept a lifetime ban from serving as a judge in order to avoid felony criminal unlawful restraint and misdemeanor oppression charges, according to KSAT Reports.
The indictment against the lesbian judge, a Democrat, came two weeks after she had defense attorney Elizabeth Russell handcuffed during a December 17, 2024, court proceeding in which the pair argued over whether Russell had coached her client to change a plea.
A formal agreement filed in April states that Speedlin Gonzalez “has officially and formally resigned her judicial duties effective immediately” and “shall be forever disqualified from judicial service in the State of Texas,” in lieu of further disciplinary proceedings.
The Christian Post (CP) reports:
According to a transcript of the Dec. 17, 2024, hearing, the argument escalated when Speedlin-Gonzalez accused Russell of coaching her client. When Russell objected, the judge replied, “It’s on the record. You can object all you want, Ms. Russell.”
Speedlin-Gonzalez then instructed a bailiff: “Take her into custody and put her in the (jury) box. We are not having this hearing this way.”
Speedlin Gonzalez faced other complaints, including allegations of unprofessional demeanor, delays in handling habeas corpus petitions, and directing court staff to have no contact with former employees, according to CP.
In 2020, the lesbian judge was forced to remove a rainbow “LGBT pride” flag she had displayed in her courtroom, as well as a pen, eyeglasses, and a mouse pad with rainbow designs.
Attorney Flavio Hernandez, who filed the complaint against Speedlin Gonzalez over the “divisive” flag, said he was “grieved” when “confronted by a rainbow flag prominently displayed” in her courtroom and could not “in good conscience” submit himself or his clients “to the implied authority of this unofficial flag symbolizing the Judge’s personal bias,” according to an NBC News report at the time.
“I may not be able to turn the dark tide of legalized immorality infecting our nation like a virus, but in my small way, I voiced my support of traditional American family values,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez’s motion against the judge called her courtroom conduct “extremely repugnant” and said the lesbian judge’s rainbow flag violates the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.
“By prominently displaying the flag of her private bias on the bench of the courtroom,” the motion stated, Speedlin Gonzalez “abuses her power and office in causing all citizens under her influence, including our citizens who do not share her views, to submit themselves to the symbol of her preferred sexual orientation.”