Judge Carlos Cortez has filed a defamation and extortion suit against Dallas attorney Coyt Randal “Randy” Johnston alleging that Johnston and three of Cortez’s fellow state district judges created rumors about Cortez to attract a political opponent against him.
In his original petition in Judge Carlos Cortez v. Coyt Randal “Randy” Johnston, which was file-stamped on Nov. 1 in Dallas’ 298th District Court, Cortez alleges that Johnston filed a complaint against Cortez with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct (SCJC) last year based on rumors that “came from three Dallas County District Judges. . . . To be perfectly clear, Defendant Johnston decided to file a complaint to the SCJC about rumors that he, Judge Craig Smith, Judge Lorraine Raggio and Judge Martin Lowy created themselves about Judge Carlos Cortez and moreover, did so admittedly with not one of them having any personal knowledge of the truth of these self-created rumors.” [See the petition.]
