Jailed YouTuber returned to the news on Thursday as his controversial filing to remove Judge D. Douglas Metcalf from overseeing his trial resulted in immediate action by Presiding Judge Danelle B. Liwski.
On Thursday, Liwiski ordered a hearing to review Myers’ motion for change of Judge to be held on June 10, 2024. Her order includes instructions for the Court Reporter to prepare an official transcript of the excerpt from the hearing where Myers accused Judge Metcalf of threatening him.
In his motion to remove Metcalf, Myers took issue with all of the rulings that have gone against him at hearings by Metcalf. Myers also accused Metcalf of judicial misconduct as he alleged that Metcalf threatened him.
Myers stated that the following exchange occurred at his May 12, 2025, status conference.
Myers – “If you don’t set an evidentiary hearing within seven days, you will be intentionally disregarding the law, which is judicial misconduct.”
Metcalf – “That’s okay, you can file a complaint if you don’t like it.”
Myers – “You will be receiving lots of complaints.”
Metcalf – “Don’t threaten me, it will not be good for you.”
Based on this exchange, Myers wrote, “This is judicial misconduct and requires the immediate removal of Judge Metcalf from this case. Threatening to retaliate for someone putting a judicial conduct complaint is conduct unbecoming of a judicial officer. This is completely against the judicial code of conduct, and shows the whole world that Mr. Myers can not get a fair trial with Judge Metcalf. If Judge Metcalf can not handle public scrutiny, he should resign.
Rule 1.2(2) Code of Judicial Conduct reads: ‘A Judge should expect to be the subject of public scrutiny that might be viewed as burdensome if applied to other citizens, and must accept the restrictions imposed by the code.’
Rule 1.2(3) Code of Judicial Conduct reads: ‘Conduct that compromises or appears to compromise the independence, integrity, and impartiality of a judge undermines public confidence in the judiciary.’
Rule 2.4 Code of Judicia Conduct: ‘An independent judiciary requires that judges decided cases according to the law and facts, without regard to whether particular laws or litigants are popular or unpopular with the public, the media, or government officials.
Clearly the publics confidence can not by very high in Judge Metcalf when they watch him openly defy the law, rules of procedure, and code of conduct. Then when told that a defendant, and the public are going to follow established procedures, and file a complaint he threatens Mr. Myers with retaliation on the record. This kangaroo court is embarrassing the entire Pima County Superior Court, and the entire judiciary for the state of Arizona.”
Myers also accused Metcalf of not allowing “press” to cover his trial. Metcalf provides audio livestreams of his hearings and feels that outside recording is disruptive. While Arizona has a rule allowing audio recording by individuals, each Judge still has control over their individual courtrooms and can block that rule.
Metcalf’s audio streams are made public on Pima County, Arizona’s YouTube channel. Pima County does not provide permanent storage of the audio files on their YouTube channels. Because of this, Myers’ supporters and independent reporters such as this channel restream the hearings to provide permanent storage of the events in court.
https://www.youtube.com/live/uWFhRdTfa9w?si=AsxSuHAAAz4Yvz3V&t=1393
Audio from the May 12, 2025, hearing is available from multiple sources on YouTube, including on our own channel, as linked above, which has been timestamped to the moment that the hearing started.
The exchange Myers quotes and has quoted in multiple interviews with fellow YouTubers over the past week simply did not happen. It’s not in the audio of the hearing.
Myers’ supporters lost a media request to broadcast from the courtroom early in the pre-trial hearings, and Metcalf’s further opposition to live broadcast from his courtroom does not mean that reporters were prevented from covering the trial.
We have had a local reporter in the courtroom for the past few hearings in the Myers case. On at least one occasion our reporter was joined by a local stringer (independent news reporter), and both reporters were able to report on the case without intervention or harassment by court officials.
Our reporter has used pen and paper to take notes during the hearing they attended and has been able to provide in-depth reporting on the hearings afterwards. Our reporter appeared live on our YouTube channel immediately after each hearing and was able to report directly on what happened from her notes.
When our normal reporter was not available to attend the May 16, 2025, hearing, a substitute reporter went in their place and again, had no trouble reporting on events in the courtroom using pen and paper to take notes.
Despite Myers’ claims, Myers’ supporters have the same ability to report from the courtroom yet have not been observed at the hearings in the case since losing their motions hearing early in the case.
Myers’ own domestic partner has also not attended recent hearings but has the same ability to take notes on and report on the hearings in her partner’s case.
While our reporter and substitute reporter are both not available to be in court on June 10, 2025, an audio broadcast is expected to be made available on the Pima County YouTube channel.
We will restream the content on our YouTube channel and provide full commentary in our livestream following the hearing.
