Judge behind viral exchange with IT tech orders lawyer who demanded apology in court, email shows
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A local attorney has been ordered to appear before a Harris County judge after criticizing the judge over his behavior toward an IT staffer, email messages show.
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According to emails obtained by ABC13, local attorney James Stafford told Judge Nathan Milliron in an email after seeing a video of a tense interaction between Milliron and the IT staffer.
ABC13 received these emails from Stafford and has not confirmed with Harris County their authenticity.
“I hope you issued him an apology for how you treated him. I hope you were just having a bad day and this is not your typical judicial temperament,” Stafford wrote in the email to Milliron.
Milliron responded by ordering Stafford to appear in his court on April 9, claiming the attorney was communicating “ex parte.”
Ex parte is a legal term for when someone communicates with a judge in a pending case without the other parties being aware, which is generally prohibited.
Stafford replied to the judge, stating that he has no cases before him, so the initial email would not be considered ex parte.
“Judge, I have no cases in your Court, thus this is not ex parte but merely a voter exercising one’s freedom of speech concerning what some would consider offensive decorum in your courtroom,” Stafford’s email to Milliron read.
Stafford told ABC13 that he does not plan to appear before Milliron’s court on April 9.
This all comes after a video that circulated widely online over the weekend, showing Milliron in a tense exchange with an IT worker who had come to assist with a computer issue in the courtroom.
Milliron, who has served on the bench since January 2025, declined to comment on the incident when approached by ABC13 in the courtroom on Monday.
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