A Texas judge has resigned after he was filmed sleeping during testimony concerning an autistic student suffering suicidal thoughts.
Special education hearing judge Larry Craddock was caught napping last week at a due process hearing, where parents of special needs children disagree with the way a school is educating their child, Fox News reports.
Representing the North Texas student, attorney Myrna Silver said Judge Craddock was sleeping for extended periods of time and missed a quarter of the proceedings.
"We dropped water bottles. We tried coughing, we jumbled our books to help stir him awake but it wasn't working," the student's parent Donna Harvey said.
Mobile phone footage shows the judge dozing at the front of the court.
Ms Harvey and her partner Sheryl Kaminsky claim their teenage son Ryan has became suicidal because the Keller Independent School District will not address or acknowledge his autism.
Judge Craddock apologised for falling asleep but did not resign from the three-day hearing until Friday.
He insists it was the lawyer's responsibility to wake him up.
Judge Craddock, who blames his drowsiness on medication, has been accused of falling asleep on the job before, with claims he nodded off 15 times during a hearing in 2006.
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