Oklahoma transgender attorney Rob Hopkins has shuttered his law firm after a spectacular courtroom meltdown that ended with him dragged out in handcuffs for contempt.
The drama detonated during an otherwise routine custody hearing in Pontotoc County last month. Hopkins, representing a client before District Judge Lori Jackson in Ada, kept interrupting until Jackson warned him repeatedly. When she finally held him in contempt, Hopkins played the discrimination card: “It’s because I’m a transgender attorney practicing all over the state.”
Jackson’s icy reply: “I don’t know what you are.”
Bailiffs moved in. What followed was pure chaos captured on surveillance and body-cam footage. Hopkins splayed himself across the judge’s bench, scattering paperwork, then hit the floor screaming “You’re HURTING ME!” and the now-infamous “I CAN’T BREATHE!” He demanded a female officer, yelled for 911, and repeatedly shrieked for officers to “PUT THEM ON MY FACE!” about his glasses. One spectator told the judge she felt “very threatened.”
Hopkins was hauled off to jail. Shortly afterward he closed his practice for good.
