Historic First Openly LGBT Judge In Bexar County Forever Disqualified After Handcuffing A Lawyer Who Argued With Her

I honestly do not care who she sleeps with

SAN ANTONIO — Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez, a Bexar (pronounced "Bear") County Court-at-Law No. 13 judge described in reporting as the first openly lesbian-identified judge elected in the county, agreed in April 2026 to resign immediately and accept a lifetime disqualification from judicial office in Texas. This marks what local observers called a rare moment in which a barrier-breaking career and a pair of handcuffs occupied the same résumé.

The deal followed a crazy December 2024 courtroom incident in which this judge ordered defense attorney Elizabeth Russell handcuffed and placed in the jury box during a heated argument over a plea in a domestic-violence probation case. 

Court records later confirmed that the argument had left the judicial process and the attorney's wrists in roughly the same condition. 

Speedlin-Gonzalez was later indicted on charges of official oppression and unlawful restraint. 

She was suspended without pay, lost her March 2026 Democratic primary, and then reached an agreement with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. 

Criminal charges were dismissed “in the interest of justice.” She did not admit guilt, fault, or liability, a formulation that allowed every party to leave the room without having to explain the jury box. Under the agreement she is “forever disqualified” from sitting as a judge, running for or accepting appointment to judicial office, or performing judicial duties in Texas. 

Officials did carve out one remaining public function: she may still officiate straight and gay weddings if she does not wear a robe or invoke judicial authority, a rule apparently designed to keep the phrase "by the power vested in me" from making a surprise comeback.

A viral image reduced the episode to “banned for life,” “LGBTQ judge,” and “do you stand with this?” The phrasing is partisan and simplified. 

Multiple news outlets, including the San Antonio Express-News, Texas Public Radio, KSAT, the ABA Journal, and others, reported the same sequence of events and the terms of the deal. The handcuffing order, the resignation, and the lifetime bar from the bench in Texas are accurate.At press time, Texas still permitted the former judge to join two people in matrimony, provided nobody in the room could tell she used to run a courtroom.

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