The technician reported in February that he had found 38 adult websites, including SmutLife, ThongDreams and ParadiseNudes, and five dating sites in the Internet history of Judge George Robertson’s office computer.
“I was at a time in my life where private and personal matters led me to seek an inappropriate escape,” Robertson said.
Robertson sobbed as he explained how a caseload of around 3,000 cases per year, long hours volunteering as an elder at his church and clinical depression had caused him to experience a “temporary lapse in judgment.”
He added that a therapist concluded his behavior was a form of passive rebellion.
“It’s on a mental-health basis you give as a reason why you engaged in this conduct?” lead examiner Ed Collister asked, adding that he found the excuse hard to swallow.
Robertson, who raises chickens as a hobby, said he accidentally discovered the adult websites while doing an innocent search for “baby chicks.”
He said he quickly became fascinated with viewing adult sites, but never for more than five minutes at a time.
He added that, coincidentally, his fascination was wearing off at about the same he was caught, about nine months after he first “stumbled” across his first adult site.