Texas Judge Disciplined After Claiming God Told Him Defendant Was Innocent

By Fares Sabawi

A Comal County district court judge received a public warning after he told the jury to keep deliberating over a defendant they convicted because God told him she was innocent.

Judge Jack Robison reported himself to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct after the outburst on Jan. 12, 2018, according to the committee's disciplinary document.

Robison presided over the trial of Gloria Romero Perez, who was charged with continuous sex trafficking and the sale or purchase of a child.

When Robison was informed the jury reached a guilty verdict, he told them her conviction would be a miscarriage of justice and asked them to keep deliberating.

"The judge later apologized to the jury, and said something to the effect of, 'When God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it,'" officials wrote in the report.

The judge received 18 other complaints against him about the outburst, according to the report.

The jury was not swayed by the judge's intervention and found Romero Perez guilty. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

However, the conviction was declared a mistrial in October after a judge found that Robison's rulings were not in accordance with the law and that he made partial comments throughout the trial. She is still awaiting a retrial, court records show.

In his self-report, Robison told the committee he was experiencing memory lapses at the time and was under extreme stress due to treatment for a medical condition and the death of a close friend.

Robison provided letters from two medical professionals that Robison's outburst was caused by a "temporary, episodic medical condition referred to as a 'delirum.'" The professionals said that the issue appears to be resolved and that Robison is not currently experiencing the same impairment.

The public warning is a more severe form of punishment than being privately warned, according to the commission's website, but the action falls short of suspension, which is the most serious disciplinary action the committee can vote on.

Robison denied he ever exhibited prejudice, but did recognize that his involvement with the jury was grounds for misconduct. –Chron