Judgment against Orleans D.A. not all bad Friday, Oct 26 2007
Uncategorized 8:00 am
The media and others in New Orleans are viewing the $3.7 Million judgment against the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office as a bad thing. It’s not all bad.
The judgment was rendered against the office of District Attorney because a Federal jury found that District Attorney Eddie Jordan committed racial discrimination by a wholesale firing of the incumbent white employees of the office when he became the D.A. Nothing wrong with that result.
Now the question is who will pay the judgment. Apparently to pay the judgment would take the remainder of the budget of the Orleans District Attorney’s office. Of course, the reason the judgment has almost doubled since rendered is due to Jordan’s time-consuming and fruitless appeals.
According to a story in today’s Daily Monopoly:
“The disruption [if the D.A.’s office had to pay the judgment] would be so severe that it would virtually shut down the DA’s office and render it impossible (for it) to perform its functions,” said Val Solino, an executive first assistant to Jordan, in an affidavit filed at federal court this month. (emphasis mine).
The track record of the D.A.’s office is one that would make it hard to recognize if it was shut down. It’s not as if it is performing it functions now. So what’s the harm.
The solution
LA Constitution Article IV, Section 8 provides:
As necessary for the assertion or protection of any right or interest of the state, the attorney general shall have authority …upon the written request of a district attorney, to advise and assist in the prosecution of any criminal case; and … when authorized by the court which would have original jurisdiction and subject to judicial review, (a) to institute, prosecute, or intervene in any criminal action or proceeding, or (b) to supersede any attorney representing the state in any civil or criminal action.
If the Orleans Parish District Attorney is shut down, by its own fault, how hard will it be to get a judge, even in Orleans Parish, to authorize the Attorney General to take over the prosecution of criminal cases in Orleans Parish.
Charlie Foti is no longer in the running for reelection for Attorney General. Sending in his prosecutors will not only keep Foti busy until he goes out of office in Mid-January, but it may keep him from persecuting doctors and nurses.
It seems like a win-win to me.
C.B.