Judge says porn countered stress

[Tommy]

Judge says porn countered stress


Sobbing at times, Saline County District Court Judge George Robertson told a state panel that stress from his duties as a church elder and a caseload of more than 3,000 cases a year caused him to view Internet porn sites on his county-owned office computer.

Robertson, who has been a district judge for 10 years, appeared before the state's Commission on Judicial Qualifications on Wednesday in an attempt to keep his job. The panel took the case under advisement and eventually will submit a report to the state Supreme Court.

A county computer technician discovered in early February that the judge had visited numerous pornographic sites. When confronted by Saline County Chief Judge Daniel Hebert, Robertson admitted visiting the sites.

Robertson, 56, has been suspended with pay since the history of porn sites was discovered on his computer.

He testified that he stumbled onto Internet pornography by accident while viewing a Web site related to his hobby of raising poultry.

He said from that site, he typed in the words "baby chicks" and "I found what I shouldn't have found."

Robertson said that while he went to the sites frequently, he didn't stay for more than a few minutes at a time.

But Hebert testified that it would be tough to assign Robertson to cover any type of court cases because "A judge's stock and trade is good judgment and there has been a severe lapse in good judgment that could be viewed as very offensive to the public."

Visiting the Web sites wasn't illegal, but it does break both county and local district court rules against improper computer use, officials said.