The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct has sanctioned Bexar County Court-at-Law No. 13 Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez for using Facebook to congratulate attorneys who won jury verdicts in her courtroom.
Speedlin Gonzalez — who in 2018 became the first openly gay judge to be elected in Bexar County — plans to file an appeal, her lawyer, Deanna Whitley, told Texas Lawyer.
At issue are eight posts Speedlin Gonzalez published on her judicial Facebook page, which the commission said offered congratulations to a dozen attorneys for their verdicts and praised their professional backgrounds.
In its filing, the commission said the judge should be “publicly admonished and ordered to obtain additional education” for the posts.
However, Speedlin Gonzalez’s attorney told Texas Attorney the commission should have handled the posts differently. State rules are unclear about what’s permitted in judges’ social media posts, she added.
Speedlin Gonzalez, a Democrat elected during the “Blue Wave” that followed President Donald Trump’s election, made recent headlines for raising funds to create a pilot drug court designed to curb domestic violence.
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This article appears in Apr 8-21, 2020.
