Former judge Etta Mullin of Dallas once asked a bailiff to handcuff an eight-months-pregnant prosecutor into her chair so she would remain present for a trial, alleges the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

But Mullin denied that allegation and claimed during an Aug. 27-28 trial that 11 witnesses who testified against her were not telling the truth and had all conspired against her because her courtroom ran more slowly than others, requiring attorneys to take more time on cases, hitting them in their pocketbooks.

“These folks did not like that the rules were changed. They did not like they had to appear in court. They did not like they had to wait in line,” said Mullin's lawyer, Marc Richman, of The Law Offices of Marc H. Richman in Dallas. “Their main complaint is that they couldn't make money because she took too long, and maybe she did take too long. But the punishment for an inefficient court is not the judicial conduct committee. … It's at the ballot box.”