A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing a murder trial has been disciplined for sending a text message to a former colleague in the district attorney's office to question the prosecutor's strategy in the trial.
The text messages resulted in Judge Emily J. Cole's public censure, the strongest sanction a judicial commission can impose on a judge short of dismissal from the court. Cole served as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County for 13 years until she was elected to the court in 2020 and began her first term the following year.
The Judicial Performance Commission reviewed Cole's conduct arising from an April 28, 2023, court hearing during a murder trial, according to a commission report released May 28.
“Judge Cole's misconduct is serious and undermined the integrity and respect of the judiciary,” Commission Chairman Michael Moodian said in the report. “Judge Cole's conduct in texting her former colleague during a murder trial was antithetical to her role as a judge. She attempted to put her thumb on the scales of justice, crossed the line from being an impartial judicial officer to an advocate and showed neither neutrality nor wisdom.”
Cole presided over the murder trial of Travis Rockhill. It was the second trial on the same charges because during the first trial Rockhill made an allegedly incriminating comment in front of the court bailiff, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Randy Smalls, according to the commission report.
During the second trial, Smalls was assigned to a separate courtroom but was available as a witness for either the prosecution or Rockhill's defense.
During the April 28 hearing, Rockhill testified in his own defense. After the jury was excused for the day, Cole spoke with attorneys, who said off the record that they did not plan to call any additional witnesses.
Deputy District Attorney Yujin Yi was prosecuting the case and Peter Garner of the Deputy Public Defender's office represented Rockhill. While the parties said they did not plan to call any additional witnesses, the evidentiary portion of the trial was ongoing. Yi had not rested in the prosecution's rebuttal phase, according to the commission report.
The proceedings before Cole that day concluded at 3:53 p.m., and less than a minute later the judge sent a message to her former colleague, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Sexton, who had observed Rockhill's testimony earlier that day from the interior of the courtroom, according to the commission.
Cole wrote: “She won't call Smalls after that??? Because??”
Sexton replied: “No idea.”
Cole responded: “Maybe people should talk to her about it?”
The commission concluded that Cole implied that Yi should have called Smalls to testify and that someone in the district attorney's office should convey that message to Yi. Ultimately, Yi did not call Smalls to testify during the rebuttal phase, according to the commission report.
After both sides rested their cases, the jury deliberated for about six days and returned a guilty verdict against Rockhill, according to the commission report. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, according to court records.
After the verdict was pronounced, Sexton notified Yi about Cole's text messages. The next day, the district attorney's office notified Rockhill's defense attorney in the deputy public defender's office and supervising judge Denise McLaughlin-Bennett.
McLaughlin-Bennett contacted Cole on May 12, 2023 about the text messages and asked him to “disclose the communication in the record and recuse himself.” [from the case]on his first day back in court on May 15, 2023,” according to the commission report.
Cole disclosed in the record text messages sent to attorneys for both sides during a court hearing. He indicated that the messages were sent “after each side rested, after hours,” according to court records. He said the messages were “inexcusable.”
McLaughlin-Bennett criticized Cole's framing of the situation and ordered him to “objectively state what happened in chronological order without attempting to minimize, explain away or distort the facts.”
The commission said attorneys in the case had not rested in their arguments when Cole sent the text message and messaged Sexton during business hours. Cole amended his statement in the May 26, 2023, court filing to clarify that “both sides had dropped their main case,” but that was also misleading, the commission found, because it appeared Cole was trying to downplay his actions and timing were inaccurate.
His “false and misleading statements” in the court minutes and in a letter to the commission violated multiple canons of the California Code of Judicial Ethics, the commission concluded.
The commission also noted that this was Cole's first disciplinary matter and she acted to disclose the messages to all parties involved and accepted responsibility in person before a supervising judge and in writing to the commission. Cole also admitted that her initial attempts to disclose the text messages were inaccurate and she agreed to the commission's stipulation in that regard. Nine members of the commission approved the disciplinary stipulation on May 15 of this year.
Cole’s attorney, Paul Meyer, said in a statement that she “deeply regrets her inappropriate communication and has learned from it. She has earned a reputation as an impartial jurist and is embarrassed by this momentary and isolated lapse. “She took immediate responsibility and emphasizes that this will not happen again.”
Cole's term as judge ends in January 2027.
