Texting-gate jurist convicted by panel after plea bargain
Ronit Pozansky-Katz found guilty of conduct unbecoming a judge • Punishment to be announced
A special judicial disciplinary panel late Sunday convicted Judge Ronit Pozansky-Katz, “the texting-gate judge,” of conduct unbecoming a judge as part of a plea bargain.
There was no agreement regarding the sentence, including whether she will be fired as a judge.
In February, Representative for Judicial Complaints Eliezer Rivlin decided that the judge involved in texting with a government lawyer regarding the “Bezeq-media” pretrial hearings did not commit any crimes but should be referred for disciplinary action.
He also said the judicial branch must look deeper into the general issue of problematic contacts between judges and government lawyers in the context of detention hearings.
Earlier in February, Pozansky-Katz stepped down from the “Bezeq-media case” after she was caught exchanging text messages with Israel Securities Authority attorney Eran Shaham-Shavit about detention proceedings.
Photographs of the texting between Pozansky-Katz and Shaham-Shavit appeared to show them planning how many days of detention various suspects in Case 4000 would get.
Coordination, in which defense lawyers get to weigh in on arguments by the state outside the public process, can be grounds for overturning an extended detention order.
The “Bezeq case” is an investigation into allegations that Netanyahu ordered his top aide, Shlomo Filber, whom he installed as director-general of the Communications Ministry, to make policy rulings in favor of the telecommunications giant. In exchange, the news site Walla! is alleged to have agreed to give positive news coverage to Netanyahu as dictated by his aide, Nir Hefetz, and possibly by his wife, Sara.
The go-between in the alleged exchange was said to be Shaul Elovitch, who owns both Walla! and Bezeq.