After an outburst he said was in the name of God, a Texas judge could be facing discipline from the law.
During a trial in Comal County, Judge Jack Robison interrupted jury deliberations to say God told him the defendant—a woman accused of sex trafficking involving a teen girl—wasn’t guilty, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday.
Robison said God wanted him to convince jurors to return a not guilty verdict in the trial of Gloria Romero-Perez. He apologized for the interruption but defended his actions.
“When God tells me I gotta do something, I gotta do it,” Robison said in court, according to the Statesman.
The jury went ahead with a guilty verdict anyway, finding Gloria Romero-Perez guilty of continuous trafficking of a person. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Meanwhile, following his outburst, Robison recused himself and was replaced by another judge before the sentencing. Robison’s dramatic court interruption could trigger an investigation from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Statesman reported.
The commission previously issued Robison a reprimand for improperly jailing a grandfather who called him “a fool” for a ruling he made in a child custody case involving the man’s granddaughter.
An executive director for the commission said he could not confirm or deny to the Statesman if a complaint had been filed against Robison for his jury interruption.
