A Petition was filed Tuesday, Oct. 10, by Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice M. John Kane and was reviewed by District Attorney Adam Panter to remove Judicial District 23 Judge Traci Soderstrom.
Soderstrom took the position of Lincoln County District Judge on Jan. 9 of this year, according to a Facebook post on the Soderstrom and Associates page.
Allegations listed in a statement from Panter included texting lewd comments to her female bailiff about the appearance of attorneys, the D.A. and his assistants. She also made inappropriate comments about witnesses during a child murder trial and was scrolling through her phone instead of paying attention to testimony for much of the trial.
Panter said Soderstrom also prevented the testimony of a child abuse expert for the trial and the appeal of the ruling.
“It is now well publicized that Judge Soderstrom spent many hours of a murder trial involving the brutal beating death of a child, glued to her cell phone on social media rather than pay attention to the evidence,” stated Panter.
But what is now known, and in my opinion even more obscene, is that now we are aware from the allegations, that Judge Soderstrom actively attempted to undermine the State’s ability to successfully prosecute a child killer. She impeded the State’s ability to appeal an incorrect ruling, resulting in the jury being unable to hear the testimony of a child abuse expert.
When the State informed Judge Soderstrom that it would appeal her ruling if she prevented the expert’s testimony, she then timed her ruling in a manner that prevented the State from then appealing her decision to keep out the testimony. Now, the State of Oklahoma, and the family of the child murder victim, are denied the opportunity for a just verdict due to her actions, rather than a fully informed jury.”
Soderstrom is temporarily suspended from her duties. An attempt to reach her attorney Tracy Schumacher was not returned by press time.
