A Texas judge faces criminal charges following a courtroom clash that saw a lawyer restrained for asking to speak with her client.
When defense attorney Elizabeth Russell requested a moment to confer with her client during a 2024 probation hearing, she probably didn’t expect to end up in handcuffs. But that’s exactly what happened when Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez ordered deputies to “take her into custody and put her in the box.”
Russell’s offense? Asking for time to advise her client after he entered a plea. The judge called it “coaching.”
Now Speedlin Gonzalez finds herself on the other side of the bench, indicted on charges of unlawful restraint by a judicial officer and misdemeanor official oppression.
The indictment follows a damning investigative report documenting a pattern of volatile behavior from the judge—particularly troubling given she presides over Reflejo Court, a trauma-informed treatment program.
Former court facilitator Cynthia Garcia described watching the judge’s demeanor shift dramatically, including allegedly telling a female defendant who’d had a pregnancy scare to “invest in batteries” and calling a homeless 18-year-old participant a “f—ing poser” in open court.
“The behavior she gave was aggressive, when it did not need to be,” said Crystal Ochoa, a former care manager who worked with the court.
Speedlin Gonzalez turned herself in Thursday and appeared for an initial hearing where bond was set at $20,000.
The case raises uncomfortable questions about judicial oversight—and what happens when trauma-informed courts become sources of trauma themselves.
