Court Watch NOLA releases 2020 court review
14th June 2021 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
Court Watch NOLA released its 2020 annual review on Orleans Parish courts, with a number of recommendations for future action.
The report criticized Orleans Parish Criminal District Court and Orleans Parish Magistrate Court for denying public access to court proceedings in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Orleans Parish Criminal District Court closed to the public for in-court appearances between March 16 and June 1 of 2020. On March 16, Orleans Parish Magistrate Court began Zoom hearings to determine bail and pretrial release. Both courts denied effective public access to their proceedings for a month. In the report, Court Watch NOLA demanded local courts create better emergency plans in case similar public health events happen in the future.
“Judges need to put a better emergency preparedness plan together that takes into consideration public access and public health. It is simply reprehensible and unacceptable to conduct court proceedings but not allow the public and journalists the rights to access such proceedings as the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judges did in the beginning of COVID,” Simone Levine, executive director of Court Watch NOLA, said.
Even when members of the public gained permission to watch court proceedings over Zoom, court watchers sometimes experienced difficulties either because the Zoom link did not work or because they were refused access to individual Criminal District courtrooms a total of 43 percent of the time and to Magistrate courtrooms four percent of the time.
Court Watch NOLA did offer some praise on the accessibility front. The report commended Judicial Administrator Robert Kazik and Deputy Judicial Administrator Shannon Sims for “their tireless work in ensuring the effective function of Orleans Parish Criminal District and Magistrate Courts and facilitating access to these courts.”
One of the report’s other major points targeted the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office’s recording of attorney-client phone calls. Levine, says this violates a basic constitutional right that’s over 300 years old.
“Jurisdictions across the country have been sued in million dollar lawsuits for recording attorney-client phone calls. We cannot afford to pay for another expensive lawsuit because our system players are violating our community’s constitutional rights,” Levine said.
The report’s executive summary stated that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office has allowed Orleans Parish public defenders to have unrecorded calls from the attorneys’ cell phones. But private attorneys have sometimes waited as long as a year to receive the same right. Levine criticized this process at a June 7 press conference.
“The protocol required by the sheriff’s office to get unrecorded attorney client phone calls is convoluted, confusing and contradictory,” Levine said at the press conference.
Court Watch NOLA also recommended the use of summonses for state misdemeanors and low-level felonies. The report cited the American Bar Association’s advice that summonses are warranted instead of arrests when the alleged crime does not involve “the use or threatened use of force or violence, possession of a weapon, or violation of a court order protecting the safety of persons or property.”
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, New Orleans Police Department officers were allowed to issue a summons only in cases in which a municipal offense and not a state misdemeanor or felony was committed. Under these rules, NOPD officers are required to make arrests even if the alleged offense is something like drug possession or failure to return a rental car.
In December 2020, the New Orleans City Council passed a law requiring a summons ticket to be offered to a defendant accused of committing most state misdemeanors. But officers are still required to make arrests for all felony non-violent, non-sex, and non-domestic offenses.
Court Watch NOLA recommended that the NOPD allow its officers to use their discretion in issuing summonses for all felony non-violent, non-sex and non-domestic offenses.
“NOPD Chief Ferguson has to trust his officers to make the decision when to offer a summons ticket and when to make an arrest for drug offenses for example or for criminal damage to property. NOPD Chief Ferguson is wasting taxpayer’s money and not following public health protocols in refusing to change internal NOPD policy to allow for summonses in non-violent, non-sex and non domestic felony cases,” Levine said.
Court Watch NOLA was founded in 2007 by the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region, Common Good, and Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans as a grassroots volunteer effort to bring greater transparency and efficiency to the criminal courts.
“Court Watch NOLA ensures criminal justice insiders such as judges, prosecutors, the sheriff and the police are held accountable by us, the outsiders to the system like you and me. We encourage basic democratic practices such as monitoring and education to remind public officials that they are finally accountable to us, the people of New Orleans,” Levine said.
The full report can be read online at www.courtwatchnola.org/reports.
This article originally published in the June 14, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
