Orleans Parish Sheriff's Deputies today returned to courthouses in the city, a day after their absence forced the criminal, civil, and municipal courts to close. The deputies were not there because Sheriff Susan Hutson reassigned them to jail duty, after two inmate deaths over the weekend.
Monday, New Orleans Municipal Court Judge Paul Sens told WWL's Newell Normand that the sheriff may have broken state law by leaving the courthouses unguarded. He said that sheriffs are statutorily required to provide for courthouse security. Today, Sheriff Hutson sidestepped WWL-TV's question about whether her reassignment broke state law.
"The court's close for a number of reasons, and they close it when elevators don't work, when the air conditioning doesn't work. There's a number of issues that cause courts to close. COVID also shut it down, so there are a number of emergencies that come up that can cause the courts to shut down," she said. "We have to err on the side of saving lives, and I'm going to do that every time."
Sheriff Hutson also denied reports that the federal judge overseeing the jail consent decree ordered her to put deputies back in the courts.
"Absolutely not. What I told the judges that I spoke to, the district attorney and the public defenders, that we're working through a process. We have to do something right now as we're in crisis mode, and we've gotta work through that process, and we did that, and we've done it in two days," said Hutson. "That's a victory for us, and for the entire system."
