After this weekend’s violence in Orleans Parish Prison, Sheriff Susan Hutson's decision to pull back deputies from courthouse duty across the parish caused some courthouses to close down and a lot of people are asking if this really was a prudent decision from the Sheriff. I asked Paul Sens, the Chief Judge from Municipal and Traffic court for his perspective today.
So Judge, this has impacted your court as well?
“Oh yes… I woke up to go to my court this morning at eight - I start court at eight o'clock, so I was there to do it - and I found out that they pulled the security guards from the Sheriff's office that work in the front. They screen everybody coming in for guns, anything else that. They're gone, they're not there. I said, what's going on? And then they pulled out the news report from last night and which also kind of got my goat a little bit. I pulled my chief, my judges, I'm still waiting for everyone to respond, but I said, I'm not putting my people or the public in harm's way. I'm closing my court until further notice. So I closed it at eight, told everybody to go home and see what happens.
You're the chief judge, right? And what you're saying is that no one notified you - you didn't find out till this morning when you walked into court and you noticed that the screening operation was gone?
Funny thing is today I had more people in my court than I've had in the last two and a half years. It was packed. And then the guy comes up to me and says, well, Judge, none of these people have been screened. And then I read the news report and I said close the court. The public's not gonna be subjected to this. My staff's not gonna be subjected to this.
We have news reports that this was communicated with everybody yesterday, but obviously not your court.
Well, I'm the Chief Judge, if they're going to contact anybody, contact me.
So what happens now? What are the implications for your court?
For us, it's not that big a deal. I hesitate to use the word because it's been bastardized so much, but our court's been very progressive. In the last year we’ve taken a hundred thousand old attachments out of the computer system, we have a community court, for people who need mental health services, substance abuse services... we kind of buck the curve. If you come to my court, you'll get a court date in 30 to 45 days. So it may be a little bit of an inconvenience, they’re already back now.
They didn't call you and say, oh, nevermind, we're coming back? They just showed up?
The official administrator called me and said, they're back in the front screening because there were people out there, the media was out there taking pictures, you know, so maybe they figured… oh, I don't know. I don't get it. Part of this, in my opinion, is who we elect, you know. People come and say they're progressive and they're anarchists, right? You got to call it the way it is.
