Texas Judge Reprimanded After Political Speech

Hey, maybe judges shouldn't compare defendants in front of them to Hannibal Lecter.

Hey folks, protip: when describing the defendants that appear in your court, do not compare them to Hannibal Lecter. Yes, that is true even when your audience is the Texas Patriot PAC. This may all seem like pretty standard information I am providing you, but Texas Judge Michael Thomas Seiler learned the lesson the hard way.

Listen, I have a modicum of sympathy for Judge Seiler; his job seems uniquely trying. He is the judge in the 435th District Court in Montgomery County, Texas which was created in 2007 to hear cases under a state law that provides for involuntary civil commitment procedures for repeat sexual offenders.

That seems like a s**tty beat to me. Beyond the monotony of just one type of trial filling up your days, these particular cases seem like they’d really wear a person down. That being said, Judge Seiler’s comments really go beyond simple venting.

In the April 2013 speech referenced above, in which he compared the defendants in his court to Hannibal Lecter by showing the audience a picture of the fictional serial killer, he also regaled the audience with tales of the “psychopaths” and “pedophile killers” and the “nuclear radiation of defendants” he sits in judgment of, and, due to the specifics of the commitment procedure, these are defendants that Judge Seiler has continuing jurisdiction over. He even described an incident where he claims to have conducted a trial with a gun on his lap because the defendant was so “out there.”

In the last nine months, Judge Seiler has been subject to 16 recusal motions, eight of which were granted.

So it really doesn’t come as much of a shock that the State Commission on Judicial Conduct chose to reprimand Judge Seiler — and mandate that he complete four hours of additional training. The order at page 55 (dated April 27, but The Texas Lawyer is reporting that it was released May 1) holds in part:

The Commission further concludes that Judge Seiler’s presentation before the Texas Patriots PAC could cause a reasonable person to perceive that Judge Seiler would not be fair and impartial while presiding over civil commitment proceedings… Moreover, Judge Seiler’s public comments about specific offenders whose cases were subject to his court’s continuing jurisdiction, did suggest to a reasonable person how he would rule when those individuals come before the court in future proceedings… Because Judge Seiler was recused from several civil commitment cases as a direct result of his presentation before the Texas Patriots PAC, the Commission concludes that his extrajudicial conduct interfered with the proper performance of his duties.

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And lest anyone think Judge Seiler’s speech was a one-off that he just can’t live down, The ABA Journal summarized some of the other egregious claims against Judge Seiler.

–He told a lawyer for indigent offenders, in front of jurors, that she was “wasting” everyone’s time and she was trying to “sneak stuff past” him. Outside the presence of jurors, he told the lawyer her “ability to practice law is very frustrating to me.” He also threatened to throw the lawyer out of the courtroom when she didn’t follow his instruction to file objections in writing.

–He told another defense lawyer: “You don’t have to like me, you don’t have to respect me, but you’ve got to follow my orders. And if you’re not going to do that, I’m going to have you thrown out of my courtroom.”

–He ordered one lawyer to stop asking prospective jurors about their views on homosexuality, stating, “Nobody here is going to admit to liking homosexuals.”

Well, no wonder the official reprimand calls Judge Seiler “impatient, discourteous and undignified.”

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