The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has issued a public warning regarding a district judge who told a jury last year that God had told him the defendant was not guilty.
Judge Jack Robison of the 207th Judicial District practices in Comal and Hays counties. He appeared before the commission on Feb. 6 to give testimony and had submitted written responses to commissioners’ questions before that.
At issue is his behavior during the trial in New Braunfels of Gloria Romero Perez in January 2018 for continuous sex trafficking of a child. During jury deliberation of guilt or innocence, the commission said, citing numerous witnesses, Robison twice entered the jury room and told jurors a conviction would be a “miscarriage of justice.”
“The judge indicated to the jury that God told him Defendant was innocent, and urged them to reconsider their verdict. 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,’” the commission wrote.
Days after that occurred, Robinson filed a self-report with the commission, which also received 18 complaints about his behavior from sources including the Comal County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and two jurors.
In the self-report, Robison said he was “under extreme personal stressors” at the time, “including undergoing treatment for a severe medical condition and the death of a close friend days before the trial began.” He also acknowledge his behavior was “entirely out of character for him and an aberration in his long judicial career,” adding that he was “consulting medical professionals.”
Jurors went on to find Perez guilty but Judge Gary Steele, who took over the sentencing phase of Perez’s trial after Robison recused himself, declared a mistrial last October, holding that “the manifest injustice to all parties demanded that a mistrial be declared in the interest of justice.”
According to letters from medical professionals that Robison presented to the commission, he had been experiencing “a temporary, episodic medical condition referred to as a ‘delirium,’ brought on by a combination of personal stressors, the Judge’s medical condition and the drugs he was taking at the time to treat his condition.”
In their conclusion, the commission said Robison’s behavior had violated articles of the Texas Constitution and canons of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.
“The commission has taken this action with the intent of assisting Judge Robison in his continued judicial service, as well as in a continuing effort to protect the public confidence in the judicial system and to assist the state’s judiciary in its efforts to embody the principles and values set forth in the Texas Constitution and Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.”
The public warning was issued on Feb. 20.
