Accused judge says she did job with integrity
Oklahoma County District Judge Kendra Coleman admitted at her ouster trial that her personality may not be "warm and fuzzy and cuddly" but she denied ever berating anyone in her courtroom.
"I don't bully people. I'm not dismissive of people," she told the Court on the Judiciary.
She is accused of gross neglect of duty, oppression in office, judicial misconduct and other wrongdoing. For more than nine hours over two days, she gave her version of the events that led to the accusations.
The judge was elected in November 2018 and has been on paid suspension since June. She told the court Thursday she did her job with integrity and good character. She asked to be allowed to return to her responsibilities.
"I love my job. I mean outside of the politics of it. I enjoy it," she said. "I did see a need. I believed that I could feel that need. I believe that I am fulfilling the need. ... It means a lot to me to be able to set the example. ... Children, especially, are led by example and that's what I try to be."
The Court on the Judiciary will hear closing arguments Friday morning and then deliberate on a removal request.
Coleman became emotional once, in the first minutes of her testimony Wednesday. She stopped talking, became teary eyed and put her hands in front of her face.
"Hang in there," her attorney, Joe White, said.
Her testimony came as her supporters increasingly complain that she is a victim of the the same injustice Blacks have experienced across the country. Some openly blame District Attorney David Prater for the ouster effort, saying he has railroaded her.
Dozens of supporters gathered Thursday evening at the state Capitol for a prayer rally for her.
"We believe it is because she is Black, African American," her aunt, Mamie Wandick, said Wednesday of the accusations. "We do not believe she has been allowed to do her job."
Two pastors told the court Tuesday she still has the backing of her community.
"It makes no difference what anybody say, anybody think," said John A. Reed Jr., the longtime pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. "Kendra is a blessing to the community which elected her for the position, right now. ... And that remains even after the newspaper articles and all of that type stuff that we're seeing that seemingly is trying to make her look like a monster or something.
"She's not a criminal. And our community knows she's not a criminal."
Derrick Scobey, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, testified the community adores the judge and holds her in the highest regard.
"Some cultures, they do not understand us. So then it causes, sometimes, cultures to put their knee on our neck until we can't breathe anymore," Scobey said. "There's a problem going on in our country, in our community, and we want to have someone represent us as well. ... And we expect to continue to have that person without a shadow of a doubt."
The final witness testifying on Coleman's behalf was Oklahoma County District Judge Aletia Timmons.
She gave a harsh account of her own experience as a Black judge.
Timmons said her fellow judges were hostile to her from the start, with the exception of Bryan Dixon, who is now retired.
"The women were the worst. It was like you were in high school again," she said. "They made hateful comments. They were snippy, nasty, not helpful. The men, for the most part, just ignored your existence."
She said she also dealt with a lot of disrespect from attorneys in her first two years presiding over civil cases.
"I didn't realize where the hostility was coming from. And some of it was they weren't just familiar with someone who looked like me on a major civil docket," Timmons said. "A lot of those lawyers come from firms where they have nobody that looks like me in the firm."
She said she has little respect for a number of her fellow judges.
"Some of them are so low that they can sit on a Kleenex and swing their feet," she said. "They don't tell the truth."
Timmons said Coleman has been picked on in ways that are "petty, ignorant, racist and completely outrageous."
"It has been tough to watch," Timmons testified.
More than 950 viewers got online Thursday afternoon to watch Timmon's testimony, the most so far in the 12 days of trial. Testimony has been livestreamed because the Oklahoma Judicial Center is closed to the public.
Coleman, 44, faces another trial, before a jury, in November on a felony tax charge.
She is accused in the charge of intentionally evading payment of her 2017 state taxes. She has called the charge frivolous.
The Court on the Judiciary has heard during the trial that Coleman fell years behind on paying her taxes. Her accountant told the court that she owes the IRS, as of Monday, $100,683 in federal taxes, penalties and interest.
She is currently making payments on a $ 17,616 state tax debt and gave $1,299.97 to the Oklahoma County treasurer in August to pay off her delinquent personal business tax bills.
Coleman offered no explanation during her testimony for her tax problems. She told The Oklahoman last year that she is a "regular person with regular issues the same as everyone else in the world."
"It's life. These things happen," she said last year.