The Dallas judge embroiled in a controversy over her rules requiring those in her courtroom to wear face masks announced Monday that “all proceedings will be conducted virtually and jury trials will be temporarily suspended until an appropriate alternative solution can be implemented.”
In two separate documents — a one-page public announcement and a four-page letter to the Texas Supreme Court — Dallas County at Law Judge D’Metria Benson said that her rules were not designed to combat Covid-19 but were based on doctor’s instructions due to an “extremely rare autoimmune disease” that caused her to be hospitalized in an intensive care unit and be placed in a medical coma for 10 days in January 2025.
On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ordered Judge Benson to end her mask mandate for all lawyers, jurors and witnesses in her courtroom.
The justices’ action came after a Dallas products liability and medical malpractice lawyer filed an official complaint in May stating that the standing order needed to be struck down because it “lacks any supporting legal authority” and infringes “on the constitutional right to a fair trial by jury by inhibiting the jury’s role in assessing witness credibility.”
“I will of course follow the Texas Supreme Court’s order to lift the mask requirement in the courtroom,” Judge Benson wrote in a public statement released Monday. “I also want to clarify that my masking policy … is not related to preventing the spread of Covid-19.”
Judge Benson said she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in May 2022 and was “advised by my physicians to take stringent precautions because any infection, illness or disease could be life threatening.”
In her letter to the Texas Supreme Court, Judge Benson said she does “not exaggerate the level of my susceptibility.” She said her masking policy is “based on sheer medical necessity.”
“My high susceptibility to infection was unfortunately substantiated in January of 2025 when I suffered severe infection and related complications after a surgical procedure that resulted in me being admitted to an intensive care unit where I was placed in medical coma for 10 days,” she told the justices in the letter. “I spent three weeks in the hospital the majority of which time was spent in the ICU. After being released from the hospital, I was directly admitted into a rehabilitation hospital where I spent three weeks before being released to go home. I was home for approximately two weeks before I was again admitted to the hospital on an emergency basis for treatment of a severe infection of a vital organ. I remained in the hospital for five days. I was sent home afterwards with an intravenous antibiotic treatment which required in-home nursing care for several months.”
Judge Benson said that she personally purchased hospital-grade HEPA air filters for the courtroom and my chambers.
“To set the stage, my courtroom is approximately 60 feet by 30 feet,” she wrote the justices. “It is an enclosed space in an old building with poor ventilation and asbestos in situ.”
Judge Benson said that she conducts “multiple hearing dockets with as many as 30 or more cases some multiple counsel.”
“Attorneys, parties and members of the public come and go,” she wrote. “The amount of time that they spend in the courtroom and the number of other individuals to which they are exposed, is significantly less than the prolonged exposure experienced by a court managing its docket. Common sense and propriety demand that society protect the most vulnerable and one another. My policies are based upon common sense and medical advice.”
Scott Frenkel, the lawyer who originally filed the complaint against Judge Benson over the mask mandate, told The Texas Lawbook on May 18 the judge’s statements about her health concerns “appear inconsistent with the image presented by her own conduct outside the courthouse.”
“I have personally observed Judge Benson attending fundraisers without a mask, in settings where no one else was masked and where there were no masking or screening requirements at the door,” Frenkel said. “Most recently, just a few months ago, I saw her at an event hosted at a Dallas law office attended by approximately 75 people. Neither Judge Benson nor any of the attendees were wearing masks. She moved freely throughout the room, engaging with attendees without any apparent concern.”