June 05, 2015 03:08 PM UTC

WTF George Brauchler? Judge Admonishes Arapahoe D.A. for Tweeting in Court During Aurora Theater Shooting Trial

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• by: Colorado Pols

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler is overseeing the prosecution in the Aurora Theater Shooting Trial. Brauchler is also increasingly being mentioned as a potential Republican Senate candidate in 2016, so maybe he is feeling like he needs to raise his name ID or something. But wow — Brauchler really fumbled the ball yesterday afternoon in court.

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”33%”]“If you’re bored, and don’t want to pay attention to the proceedings, then you’re welcome to leave.”
     – Judge Samour[/mantra-pullquote]

As multiple media outlets are reporting, Brauchler Tweeted about the trial yesterday afternoon during the cross-examination of a key witness for the prosecution. As Fox 31 reports:

In a decision before court began Friday, the judge on the theater shooting trial ruled to prohibit attorneys from texting and tweeting during court.

The decision came after defense attorney Tamara Brady brought up a Tweet from George Brauchler, the Arapahoe County District Attorney, sent during court proceedings Thursday.

At the time, defense attorney Daniel King was in the middle of cross-examining Dr. William Reid, the court-appointed psychiatrist who conducted a mental health evaluation of James Holmes and diagnosed him with Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

“If the prosecution is seeking the execution of a man, perhaps the District Attorney should pay attention to the cross-examination of a mental health expert instead of chatting on social media,” said Brady.

[mantra-pullquote align=”left|center|right” textalign=”left|center|right” width=”33%”] “If the prosecution is seeking the execution of a man, perhaps the District Attorney should pay attention to the cross-examination of a mental health expert instead of chatting on social media.”
– Attorney Tamara Brady[/mantra-pullquote]

Brauchler apologized for the incident (sort of) by saying that he thought he was responding to a text message and hadn’t realized he had sent out a Tweet. He claims that he deleted the Tweet after court adjourned on Thursday, but as defense attorney Tamara Brady pointed out (with her voice cracking with emotion) Brauchler’s message was re-tweeted at least three times before it was deleted. Needless to say, Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour was not pleased with Brauchler. You can watch the video here, and we’ve transcribed the entire exchange after the jump, but here’s what Judge Samour had to say:

It was about four weeks ago, and I specifically said that I don’t want anyone sending tweets from the courtroom about anything, but obviously much less about the case…

…I have prohibited the media from tweeting from the courtroom. I didn’t think it was appropriate for attorneys to be doing it, especially when proceedings are ongoing. We’re not even talking about during breaks – but during actual courtroom proceedings. There’s nothing that can’t wait until a break or until after court to be tweeted.

I don’t have any reason to doubt Mr. Brauchler and so I am going to take him on his word that this was an accident…and an inadvertent mistake. But even texting is something that really should wait until the proceedings are not ongoing. I don’t know why email or text can’t wait until a break, especially when it is your witness who is testifying and being cross-examined. I am going to prohibit the parties from texting from the courtroom during the proceedings.

If you’re bored, and don’t want to pay attention to the proceedings, then you’re welcome to leave…out of respect for the court, when you’re in here, you should not be texting or tweeting or anything like that. You should be paying attention to what’s happening in here. [Pols emphasis]

Ouch! Maybe it was an accident; maybe not. But as Judge Samour points out, there is no reason for Brauchler to be chatting about the case via text message or social media — particularly when court is in session. Furthermore, Judge Samour had already banned Tweeting from the courtroom several weeks earlier.

It remains to be seen whether Brauchler’s ill-advised Tweet will have any impact on the outcome of the trial, but the message was marked as an official court exhibit.

Aurora Theater Shooting Trial
Courtroom Exchange: June 5, 2015

DEFENSE ATTORNEY TAMARA BRADY:  It came to our attention last night that Mr. Brauchler issued a tweet at 4:51 pm which would have been during the cross-examination of Dr. Reid. If I can approach I’d like to give the court a copy of that tweet…

…If we could mark that as a court’s exhibit, please.

 JUDGE CARLOS SAMOUR: Yes

BRADY: Your honor, I assume the court issued this order for a good reason, so I will leave it up to the court’s disrection what sanction to impose for this violation. I would state that if the prosecution is seeking the execution of a man, perhaps the District Attorney should pay attention to the cross-examination of a mental health expert instead of chatting on social media. [Pols emphasis]

JUDGE: Do you want to read for the record what the tweet states?

BRADY: It states on June 4, 2015 at 4:51 pm: “I agree on the video. I hope the jury thinks so, too.”

JUDGE: Mr. Brauchler?

ARAPAHOE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGE BRAUCHLER: First, I want to apologize for how this happened but I want to explain that I was not on social media at the time. I’m not sure…how it all connects, but I got a text – it was from a direct message. This has happened to me accidentally before. Someone had just simply made a comment that I thought I was replying to on text. As soon as we left court, Mr. Orman told me that, hey, that reply went out all over Twitter. And I quickly deleted it, and it doesn’t exist anymore. I think it was on there for less than 20 minutes.

Having said that…again, I was not attempting to be on social media or do anything on social media, and I haven’t violated the court’s order since it came up.

But having said that, the steps that I’ve taken are to turn off my phones and just instruct people that if I need to do any business while I’m in court, they would let me know through other means. Um, and judge, it’s an embarrassing mistake but one that I think I corrected quickly and have put myself in a position to not violate it again. I’m sorry.

BRADY: Before the correction, it was re-tweeted at least three times. We found at least three times that that tweet went out from other people. As the court knows, once it gets out there it spreads exponentially. Dr. Reid was a pretty important witness, and the prosecution should be paying attention to the cross-examination of the witness.

JUDGE: That’s the problem with tweeting something – you don’t know who is going to re-tweet it…

 …It was about four weeks ago, and I specifically said that I don’t want anyone sending tweets from the courtroom about anything, but obviously much less about the case… [Pols emphasis]

 …I have prohibited the media from tweeting from the courtroom. I didn’t think it was appropriate for attorneys to be doing it, especially when proceedings are ongoing. We’re not even talking about during breaks – but during actual courtroom proceedings. There’s nothing that can’t wait until a break or until after court to be tweeted.

I don’t have any reason to doubt Mr. Brauchler and so I am going to take him on his word that this was an accident…and an inadvertent mistake. But even texting is something that really should wait until the proceedings are not ongoing. I don’t know why email or text can’t wait until a break, especially when it is your witness who is testifying and being cross-examined. I am going to prohibit the parties from texting from the courtroom during the proceedings.

If you’re bored, and don’t want to pay attention to the proceedings, then you’re welcome to leave…out of respect for the court, when you’re in here, you should not be texting or tweeting or anything like that. You should be paying attention to what’s happening in here.

We’ve marked the communication as a court exhibit.