Here’s Why You Don't Speak Out in Judge Walther's Courtroom

UPDATED 5/10/2018 11:45 a.m.

The unidentified woman was only detained in the courthouse.  After speaking with Judge Walther, the woman was released.  

SAN ANGELO, TX — An unidentified woman found herself in the Tom Green County Jail Wednesday charged with contempt of court.

44-year-old Eric John Pedroza was in 51st District Court requesting a new attorney.  Pedroza is charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child.  

The 51st Judge Walther had appointed John Sutton to represent Pedroza.  Sutton was explaining to Judge Walther that Pedroza didn’t want to take a plea deal and the relationship between attorney and client had deteriorated to the point that Sutton filed a motion to withdraw as Pedroza’s attorney.  

Sutton was explaining that Pedroza was consulting with someone else and no longer wanted to take a plea deal when the woman who was in court with him began speaking from the gallery which is not allowed in court.  

Judge Walther told the woman that she was not allowed to speak from the gallery and if the judge needed her input she would ask for it.  Judge Walther then asked Pedroza what address to use to send him notice of his new attorney. Pedroza turned and looked at the woman in the gallery as if to ask what address to use.  

The woman then spoke again telling him the address she preferred.  Judge Walther then adonished the woman again to be silent. The woman became agitated and said something like, “I have a lot to say, but I’m leaving!” She stood up and walked out.  At that point, Judge Walther told her bailiff to detain the woman.

The bailiff stopped the woman at the door and placed her in handcuffs.  The woman was shouting in the hallway, “You better get me a f***ing attorney!” among other obscenities.  Courthouse security assisted the bailiff in taking the irate woman into custody. She was placed in a room down the hall from the courtroom.  

Judge Walther then instructed the bailiff to tell courthouse security not to take the woman across the street to jail just yet.  Judge Walther said she wanted to speak to the woman first.

When order was restored to the courtroom, Judge Walther told Pedroza she would appoint local attorney Jimmy Stewart to represent him and would set another court date some time in June.  She then proceeded outside the courtroom to see the woman who was disrupting her courtroom.

Criminal contempt of court in Texas is punishable by a fine of up to $500 and up to six months in jail.