Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Schrader took the stand in her own defense Thursday and acknowledged she instructed a private investigator and his associates to monitor her court computer to find out whether it had been compromised after county employees failed to act.

“I take full responsibility, absolutely,” said Schrader, insisting she was justified in allowing a monitoring device to be attached to her courthouse computer after her repeated complaints about unauthorized documents showing up and other “alarming” occurrences related to her computer seemed to be going nowhere.