An Oklahoma judge is being accused of sending over 500 inappropriate texts during a murder trial, including a wild one about a 'pretty' police officer

• An Oklahoma district judge was accused in a petition of sending over 500 texts during a murder trial.
• Traci Soderstrom said in one such text that she could look at a "pretty" police officer "all day."

A district judge from Lincoln County, Oklahoma, was accused of sending over 500 inappropriate messages during her first murder trial.

Traci Soderstrom, 50, exchanged hundreds of messages with a bailiff in the courtroom, per a petition written by Oklahoma Chief Justice John Kane filed on Tuesday and seen by The Oklahoman, a local newspaper.

Soderstrom sent the messages in June when she was presiding over a trial for a man accused of beating his girlfriend's two-year-old son to death, according to the petition.

"He's pretty. I could look at him all day,' the paper reported, reproducing Soderstrom's text message, referencing a police officer who had taken the stand.

According to The Oklahoman, Soderstrom also mocked a district attorney and juror's appearance.

"Why does he have baby hands?" Soderstrom said of District Attorney Adam Panter in a text. "They are so weird looking."

In another text, Soderstrom told the bailiff that she thought one of the jurors was "definitely wearing a wig."

Kane has recommended that Soderstrom be removed from her position, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing the court petition.

"The pattern of conduct demonstrates Respondent's gross neglect of duty, gross partiality, and oppression. The conduct further demonstrates Respondent's lack of temperament to serve as a judge," Kane wrote, per the AP.

Whether Soderstrom — who has been suspended with pay — will be removed from her post will be decided by Oklahoma's Court on the Judiciary, per the AP.

Soderstrom's conduct first came into the spotlight in July when The Oklahoman published security footage of her scrolling through her phone throughout the murder trial.

Soderstrom was elected to her position in November for a term that ends in January 2027. While campaigning for the position in November 2022, Soderstrom told Countywide & Sun that she had an extensive legal background, ranging from criminal law to juvenile law.

"I also believe that it is important that every person that comes before the court is treated with respect, is treated fairly, is treated with dignity, and is treated with compassion," Soderstrom told Countywide & Sun. "Obviously, the judge's job is to judge but not be judgmental and disrespectful and mean-spirited about it."

Tracy Schumacher, Soderstrom's attorney, told The Oklahoman that Soderstrom "takes these allegations very seriously."

"We are in the process of requesting the entire record from the Council on Judicial Complaints so that she can respond appropriately," Schumacher continued.

Schumacher and representatives for the Oklahoma Council on Judicial Complaints did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.