First-ever LGBT judge in Texas county suspended after ordering attorney to be handcuffed, placed in jury box

A Texas county’s first LGBT-identified judge has been suspended for allegedly ordering a defense attorney to be handcuffed in a jury box during a courtroom incident. 

Bexar County Court at Law Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez surrendered to authorities on Jan. 29 on charges of unlawful restraint and official oppression, according to KSAT-TV, a San Antonio ABC affiliate.

Gonzalez, whose term expires at the end of this year, was booked and released on her own recognizance, KSAT-TV reported. 

She continued presiding over cases in Bexar County for about a week after her arrest until the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC) issued a Feb. 5 order suspending Gonzalez without pay pending further action on the case and concluded the judge is “charged with one count of Unlawful Restraint: Peace Officer/Judge, a Second-Degree Felony, and one count of Official Oppression, a Class A Misdemeanor …”

The order also stated the “suspension shall remain in effect until the charges set forth in the Indictment are dismissed, [the judge] is acquitted of all charges in the Indictment, or upon further order(s) of the Commission.”

Prosecutors say the charges stem from a reported incident in December 2024, when Gonzalez is said to have ordered defense attorney Elizabeth Russell to be handcuffed and seated in a jury box following an apparent procedural dispute.

According to a transcript cited by CBS affiliate KENS-5, Gonzalez told Russell that "attorneys are not allowed to coach answers for their clients,” prompting an objection from Russell.

"Stop. It's on the record,” the judge told Russell. “Your argumentative ways are not going to work today. Stop. Stop, or I'll hold you in contempt, Ms. Russell. I will hold you in contempt." 

"Your Honor, I'm allowed to speak," replied Russell.

"You are allowed to speak, but you're not allowed to be argumentative and argue just for the sake of argument," Gonzalez said.

The judge then ordered a bailiff to “put her in the box," adding, “We are not having this hearing this way." 

The Christian Post reached out to both Gonzalez and Russell for comment, but neither returned a response as of Wednesday.

In 2019, Gonzalez became the first openly LGBT-identified judge in Bexar County, where she oversees Reflejo Court, which offers first-time domestic violence offenders treatment in exchange for expunging the charge from their records.

The following year, she made national headlines after she claimed she was forced to remove a rainbow pride flag from her courtroom. In a 2020 complaint filed with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, Gonzalez said she was required to remove a pride flag along with a “mouse pad with rainbow patterns” and other items, according to NBC News.

In 2023, Gonzalez won an appeal to continue displaying the flag in court, but later said she would discontinue the practice to avoid further complaints.

Historically a biblical symbol of God’s forgiveness and mercy at the end of Noah’s Flood, the rainbow has in the last half-century become a symbol of the LGBT community and is a ubiquitous sight at pride events around the country. 

One of a record 52 LGBT-identified candidates who ran for public office in Texas’ 2018 election, Gonzalez told NBC she received the rainbow flag as a gift from advocacy group League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).