McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — A state district judge in North Texas went on trial Tuesday on charges of accepting a bribe that boosted her 2008 election bid in exchange for future favorable rulings in her court.
Judge Suzanne Wooten faces felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, money laundering, bribery and tampering with a government record. She is being tried in the same Collin County courthouse in which she was elected to preside.
Prosecutors allege that a campaign consultant for the 43-year-old judge took six payments totaling $150,000 from a couple locked in a bitter child custody battle with the husband's ex-wife.
None of the payments was recorded on campaign finance reports, prosecutors allege.
Without the money, "Wooten's campaign did not have the resources for expenses such as radio advertisements, outside campaign consulting and other expenses," prosecutors said in court filings.
Wooten has denied wrongdoing, and The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday that her attorney says she will testify.
"Judge Wooten is going to look every juror in the eye and clear her name," her attorney, Peter Schulte, told prospective jurors Monday during jury selection.
Wooten was suspended with pay after her indictment last year. If convicted, her punishment ranges from life in prison to probation.
Wooten defeated longtime Judge Charles Sandoval in the 2008 Republican primary and had no opposition in the November election. But she excused herself from hearing the child custody case in question because of a conflict of interest with one of the attorneys.
The Texas attorney general's office began helping the Collin County district attorney's office investigate the criminal charges in December 2008 — before Wooten was sworn into office. A former Collin County district attorney later recused his office from the case, and the current top prosecutor in the county tried unsuccessfully to have the attorney's general office removed.
