An Oklahoma judge caught playing with her phone as a mother sobbed about the murder of her child faces a formal push to remove her from the bench after it emerged she sent 500 texts to her bailiff — including some ridiculing the prosecutors and calling the dead toddler’s mom “liar, liar.”
The chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court recommended the removal of Lincoln County District Judge Traci Soderstrom in a court filing Tuesday following an investigation by the state’s Council on Judicial Complaints.
Soderstrom — who had only been sworn in as a judge in January — had been caught on surveillance footage in June constantly playing with her phone during Khristian Martzall’s trial for the murder of beaten 2-year-old Braxton Danker.
When the toddler’s mom, Judith Danker, took the stand as a key prosecution witness against Martzall, her boyfriend, Soderstrom texted: “Can I please scream ‘liar, liar?”
“State just couldn’t accept that a mom could kill their kid, so they went after the next person available,” one text said, according to the complaint board’s findings.
Soderstrom’s messages also questioned whether a juror was wearing a wig, if a witness has teeth — and inappropriately admiring a police officer who testified as “pretty.”
“I could look at him all day,” the judge texted about the unidentified officer.
The judge also repeatedly referred to District Attorney Adam Panter, saying he was “sweating through his coat” while questioning potential jurors — and asking, “Why does he have baby hands?”
Soderstrom also texted a laughing emoji to the bailiff, who “made a crass and demeaning reference to the prosecuting attorney’s genitals,” the filing states.
Other texts described the defense attorney as “awesome” and asked, “Can I clap for her?”
At one point, she also allegedly discussed sentencing with the bailiff, saying a second-degree manslaughter charge would only get Martzall two to four years behind bars.
“Ahhh. And he’s already served that,” the bailiff responded, to which Soderstrom simply replied, “Yes.”
In the end, Martzall was convicted of second-degree manslaughter for Danker’s 2018 death — and was sentenced to four years with credit for time served.
Danker, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to enabling child abuse and was sentenced to 25 years behind bars.
When questioned by the Council on Judicial Complaints, Soderstrom said her texting “probably could have waited” — saying she thought, “oh, that’s funny. Move on,” according to the filing.
However, Chief Justice John Kane IV wrote in the filing to remove her that her “pattern of conduct demonstrates [Soderstrom’s] gross neglect of duty, gross partiality” and “lack of temperament to serve as a judge.”
“The totality of the text messages give the appearance Respondent believed the defendant was innocent and that she wanted a particular outcome in the case,” Kane wrote.
Soderstrom has been temporarily suspended from her position since she was exposed for being on her phone during the trial.
Her attorney told The Oklahoman that she “takes these allegations very seriously” and is requesting “the entire record from the Council on Judicial Complaints so that she can respond appropriately.”
But in a statement to the local newspaper, District Attorney Adam Panter said, “It is now well-publicized that Judge Soderstrom spent many hours of a murder trial involving the brutal beating death of a child glued to her cellphone on social media, rather than pay attention to the evidence.
“But what is … in my opinion even more obscene is that now we are aware from the allegations that Judge Soderstrom actively attempted to undermine the State’s ability to successfully prosecute a child killer.”
With Post wires