Texas lawyer speaks out after going viral over kitten filter

A Texas lawyer who unwittingly went viral on Tuesday after he was unable to remove a kitten filter during a Zoom conference with a judge is speaking out.

Rod Ponton, a Presidio County attorney, said that he was having lunch shortly after his hearing with 394th Judicial District of Texas Judge Roy Ferguson when his phone started "blowing up" with calls from "all over the world" responding to a video of the mishap which had been posted to social media.

"You know, I got as big a laugh out of it as everybody else," he told NBC's "Today" show. 

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Ferguson had informed Ponton about the feline filter during the proceedings, and the attorney at "claw" told the judge that he was aware and did not know how to remove the image.

H. Gibbs Bauer, another lawyer on the call, sat relatively stone-faced, though putting on his glasses and leaning in.

"My assistant here, she’s trying to, but I’m prepared to go forward with it," Ponton said. "I’m here live. I’m not a cat."

"I can see that," Ferguson responded.

The original video, posted by the judge, has more than 35,200 likes on Twitter and over 4 million on the court's YouTube account. A clip posted by Reuters reporter Lawrence Hurley now has more than 323,700 likes. 

Ponton told the "Today" hosts that he was using his assistant's computer at the time and not sure how the filter was initially applied.

"I was [prepared to continue]," he assured. "Meow, meow, meow."

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In a Tuesday interview with The New York Times, Ponton said his assistant was "mortified" by the mistake.

Although MySanAntonio.com reported that Ferguson helped Ponton navigate the app’s settings and eventually remove the filter, the judge tweeted that the error was a "by-product of the legal profession’s dedication to ensuring that the justice system continues to function in these tough times."

"IMPORTANT ZOOM TIP: If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the Zoom Video Options to be sure filters are off," Ferguson wrote alongside the video. "

"Everyone involved handled it with dignity, and the filtered lawyer showed incredible grace," the judge noted. "True professionalism all around!"

Nevertheless, Ponton told NBC's Carson Daly that, "it certainly made [his] day."

According to the Times, this isn't the lawyer's only claim to fame. 

In 2019, he appeared in the final episode of the Netflix series "The Confession Killer," about the convicted killer Henry Lee Lucas.