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Bench Marks
Two slates of candidates seek to fill seats in civil and juvenile court — both of which were vacated by unethical judges.
By Katy Reckdahl
On the first level of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court building, parents and kids wend their way past a non-working water fountain to the crammed lobby of juvenile court. The future of this poorly maintained, overcrowded building is one of the few issues shared by judges in this building’s two courts — civil and juvenile.
This year, the two courts have something else in common — each have a seat left vacant by an unethical judge. In civil court’s Division M, three candidates are vying for the final four years of C. Hunter King’s six-year term. In juvenile court’s Section C, five candidates compete for the last five years of Yvonne Hughes’ eight-year term. The state Supreme Court removed King in October for requiring his employees to work on his 2002 re-election campaign and then lying about it. In April, the same court ejected Hughes for a host of violations, such as conducting her daily docket by telephone, if at all, and arranging the release of more than 1,000 adults from Orleans Parish Prison.
Each court also had another open seat that was filled by an unopposed candidate. In Civil District Court’s Division C, lawyer Sidney Cates IV replaces Roland Belsome, elected earlier this year to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal; in juvenile court’s Section E, attorney Louis Douglas, son of late civil rights lawyer Nils Douglas, replaces Anita Ganucheau, who’s retiring after 25 years on the bench.
The civil court race for Hunter’s seat attracted three women with widely varying backgrounds. Bernadette D’Souza, a longtime managing attorney at New Orleans Legal Assistance, is particularly known for founding legal aid’s domestic violence program in 1999. State Sen. Paulette Irons has received national attention for her work in the Louisiana Legislature over the past 12 years but cannot seek re-election at the end of her current term because of state term limits. Marie Williams is a staff attorney for the Pro Bono Project and former counsel for ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).
According to the civil-court system, the three judges with the least tenure handle the Domestic Relations Section before “moving up” to the regular civil docket, which deals with high-profile, big-money cases — lawsuits, estates and succession. In this race, however, D’Souza has promised to stay on the domestic docket. Typically, judges can’t wait to start the civil docket after presiding over a lengthy domestic-dedicated docket and its messy, high-stress cases — divorce, custody, division of community property, restraining orders, child support and visitation. As result of this regular churn, it’s not unusual for even amicable divorces to go through a few different domestic judges.
In discussing this election, court insiders often mention the same three questions. Does Williams, at age 33, have enough life experience? Does D’Souza’s platform cost her support among heavy-hitting trial attorneys who often fund civil races? Does Paulette Irons, celebrated in the legislature for her quick wit and sometimes-sharp tongue, have “judicial temperament”?
In the juvenile-court race, the recent League of Women Voters’ Election Guide proves helpful in narrowing the race. Despite what candidates said in that guide, juvenile judges have very little to do with generating programs. Ask those who work closely with juveniles and they advise skepticism about judicial candidates who talk too much about programs and reforms. Instead, they say, look for juvenile judges who know the law. In addition, they should also know adolescent development, because that’s what makes juveniles both less culpable than older offenders and less competent to make courtroom choices. A basic knowledge of adolescent development would help a judge understand the importance of capable public defense in juvenile court.
The race has drawn a range of candidates, all of whom espouse rehabilitation for nonviolent kids and strict punishment for violent offenders. Attorney David L. Bell has had his own local private practice for nearly a decade. Well-known former public defender and past juvenile prosecutor Sandra Cabrina Jenkins, an attorney with Scheuermann & Jones, ran against now-criminal-court-Judge Ben Willard and gave him a stiff challenge in 2002, coming away with 44 percent of the vote. Yolanda King, who made an unsuccessful bid for the juvenile bench in 2002, is a former prosecutor and, for the past five years, has been Judge Dennis Bagneris’ senior research attorney for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. Kim O’Dowd has been a partner with her dad in a private West Bank law practice, O’Dowd & O’Dowd, for more than 26 years. Robin M. Shulman, an assistant city attorney prosecuting domestic-violence cases in municipal court, has worked as the chief juvenile screener for the district attorney’s office and served for four years as a juvenile hearing officer presiding over child-support cases.
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