The Metal Detector in the Courthouse
Basement
Repeated threats of terrorist attacks have not been able to
raise a metal detector from storage at the basement of the Municipal-Traffic
Court at 727 S. Broad St. Nor, officials say, has the ominous arrest last year
of a knife-wielding domestic violence suspect who waited for his estranged spouse
outside the courthouse next to New Orleans Police Department headquarters.
"That kind of stuff happens all the time,"
one veteran court employee says. "Emotions run high .... Sometimes folks come
into the record room and they just get into it."
Dozens of convicted felons still freely enter
the building daily for hearings on misdemeanor charges and traffic offenses,
unchallenged at the courthouse entrance. A civil sheriff's deputy staffs a kiosk
near the center of the hallway, officials say.
"We have had members of the public express
their concern about how easy it is to enter the building," Traffic Court Judge
Paul Bonin says. "So far there have been no major incidents, but there have
been incidences of people bringing weapons into the building."
Dozens of shackled prisoners also are brought
into the courthouse from nearby jails for municipal proceedings, but the key
safety concern among court personnel is the simmering spouses and angry families
who show up for an estimated 15,000 domestic violence hearings at the court
each year.
"We are very vulnerable with that kind of
caseload," says Lucille Perry, director of the court's victim-witness assistance
program. "There's security, but not enough money to support (more) security
officers. The staff is very skilled at keeping the escalation down ... but what
we really need is a good working metal detector and we don't have that. We separate
partners. We do all kinds of things, but we do have incidents. Somebody yelling,
somebody screaming, somebody waiting outside the courthouse to get to somebody."
"We definitely need [an assessment]," says
Louis Ivon, administrator of Traffic Court and a retired New Orleans police
officer. Several years ago, he says, a former clerk of court purchased a metal
detector but the court has been unable to get the money or personnel to operate
the machine.
Each year, judges from both courts appear
before the City Council to plead with the cash-strapped city for more funds
for security, but to little avail. The metal detector remains in the basement.
And the Municipal-Traffic Court today is more easily breached than even the
Civil Courts building, which has a metal detector staffed by armed civil sheriff's
deputies.
Help may soon be on the way for Municipal-Traffic
Court -- from the feds.
Until contacted by Gambit Weekly late
last week, court officials said they had no idea about a little-publicized,
free security assessment offered by the United States Marshals Service. They
immediately contacted local U.S. Marshal Theo Duroncelet.
Municipal Court Judge Paul Sens says he also
sent Duroncelet a letter requesting the courthouse assessment, which the marshal
will then forward to the Department of Justice in Washington. "He says he is
going to move as quickly as he can and come do a survey for us," Sens says.
"It will be a great assistance for us when we go to the City Council." This
fall, the court has its annual budget hearing before the council.
The federal marshals, who are charged with
protecting federal judges and federal courthouses, most recently conducted a
security assessment of the new Louisiana Supreme Court building on Royal Street.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Jacques Thibodeaux says the service has also received requests
for the written site assessments from Criminal Court, the Orleans Parish District
Attorney's Office and the Criminal Sheriff's Office, which provides security
for Criminal Court.
The assessments are not made public. "They
are for the agencies to improve their security measures," Thibodeaux says.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice,
the program aims to "break down jurisdictional barriers between federal, state
and local [entities]," Thibodeaux says. The program has been around for years,
but has escaped the attention of many local judges and law enforcement observers.
It likely will be more actively promoted by Marshal Duroncelet, a veteran of
state and local courthouses who was appointed U.S. Marshal for the federal Eastern
District of Louisiana by President George W. Bush in March 2002.
"We're going to do everything possible to
help make this city safe," says Duroncelet. The security assessments also are
available to state and local courthouses throughout the 13-parish jurisdiction
of the federal Eastern District of Louisiana -- St. Tammany, Washington, Tangipahoa,
Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Charles,
St. James, Assumption and St. John the Baptist parishes.
Golden Boy
Dominic Massa, the 26-year-old WWL producer
and recently elected president of the Press Club of New Orleans, has combined
his lifelong interests in television and history to produce his new documentary
New Orleans TV: The Golden Age. The one-hour program will air at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 13, on WYES-TV/Channel 12.
Narrated by WWL-TV anchor Angela Hill, The
Golden Age traces the history of local television from 1948, when WDSU-TV
aired as Louisiana's first TV station, to 1972, when WDSU was sold and WWL emerged
to dominate news competition.
The show covers such early icons as newsmen
Bill Monroe, Alec Gifford, Mel Leavitt and Phil Johnson (sans beard). Also appearing
are Terry Flettrich, renowned locally for Mrs. Muffin and Midday,
and hurricane guru Nash Roberts. Local shows of the period include Morgus
the Magnificent, The John Pela Show, Romper Room and Popeye
and Pals. The program discusses how the Jesuits of Loyola University came
to purchase WWL-TV in the 1950s, and recounts the debut of WYES-TV as the city's
first public television station.
A native New Orleanian, Massa says his opportunity
to work with Roberts and Johnson before they retired from WWL informed his work.
He says he chose 1972 as a cutoff date because it comes before the influx of
new television personalities -- including Angela Hill and Garland Robinette.
Next, he says, he'd like to turn his attention to either more television --
or, barring that, the history of local radio.
