SAN ANTONIO – As seven civil district court judges were conducting a hearing on Zoom last Wednesday, the proceedings were hacked with a series of pornographic pictures and obscene language.
”It’s a new frontier,” Local Administrative Judge Ron Rangel said Monday about the incident. “We’re exploring places that we’ve never explored before.”
Rangel said similar instances of hacking have occurred in other jurisdictions, but this was a first for Bexar County.
He praised the judges for the way they handled the incident, as the training they received in responding to hacking attempts paid off.
”What was important was that the judges handled it very well at the time,” Rangel said. “They immediately reported it, the viewing was stopped and the hearing resumed in five or 10 minutes.”
Rangel added that hacking “goes with the territory. There’s good things and there’s problems with technology.”
An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Hacking a court hearing is considered contempt of court. Punishment ranges from a $500 fine to six months in jail, or both.