Niki Roberts seeks to unseat Juvenile Judge Yolanda King

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Juvenile Court candidate Niki Roberts’ life was transformed by a mistake. “I was a 16-year-old high school student ending junior year and entering senior year when I made the decision to have sex. As a result I became pregnant. I was afraid to tell my mother and wondered what people would think about me. I finally made the decision to tell my mother and while she was disappointed and upset she offered me her love and support. Now it was time to enter my senior year at the Academy of the Sacred Heart. I had to inform the school that I was pregnant. I was fortunate that Sister Shirley Miller was the headmistress. She believed in me and would not allow this one instance in my life to define me. The school was of course dismayed but they allowed me to continue as a student and I worked hard to graduate on time and became a proud alumna and a graduate of the Academy of the Sacred Heart.”

“After graduating from high school I attended college while working full-time and raising my daughter. I worked from 11 at night to 7 in the morning and attended classes during the day. It was not easy but I knew that it was necessary in order to graduate and be able to care for my daughter. I was able to graduate from the University of New Orleans and obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree in History with minors in Africana Studies and English. After graduating from the University of New Orleans I attended law school at Loyola University School of Law. While at Loyola Law School I continued to work full-time and care for my daughter. I graduated from Loyola Law School and after passing the bar exam I began working at the District Attorney’s Office.”

“My life experiences taught me that children make mistakes and that those mistakes have the ability to change the course of the rest of their lives. But if there are people who can help them stay on track they have the ability to become productive members of our community. I accepted responsibility for my actions at 16 and I worked hard with the help of my support system not to become a statistic. The people who supported me made it clear that I’d done something wrong and that it was up to me to make it right but that they would help me along the way.”

“I have trained my entire legal career to serve as a judge and more particularly for service as a judge in Juvenile Court,” she continued, “I have over 12 years’ experience as an assistant district attorney with almost half of that time serving in the juvenile courts. I have the training, experience, and temperament to make an immediate impact on being sworn in. I am dedicated to making a difference on the Juvenile Court bench.”

Her campaign to replace embattled incumbent Yolanda King in the Juvenile Court Section E seat is predicated on three primary planks, to “use my previous experience to operate my courtroom in an efficient manner which will minimize the time spent in court by victims and witnesses; Improve community involvement in juvenile court by developing a mentoring program by collaborating with existing stakeholders and reaching out to new partners. This will focus on corporate, educational, and individual partners, in a fashion such as Habitat for Humanity does; and [to] partner with educational systems and business entities to establish vocational and technical opportunities.”

The election is the first Tuesday in November.

This article originally published in the October 13, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.