Report shines light on pricey meals at Criminal Court
11th July 2016 · 0 Comments
If you’ve ever served on a jury, you’ve most likely been treated to lunch. Sometimes it’s sandwiches, other times burgers. But a FOX 8 investigation into court records at Orleans Parish Criminal Court revealed jurors there are eating far better than most, and court staff are eating for free — all at the expense of the city’s taxpayers.
FOX 8 News reported that most of the city’s residents have been inside the Criminal District Court, one of the busiest in the state. The courthouse reportedly serves as host to an average of 300 jury trials a year.Those who are selected to serve as jurors describe it as a long process.
But while the process may need to be fine-tuned, Orleans Parish jurors can count on a good meal that has sometimes included everything from veal parmesan to rib-eye steaks.
“You’re trying to keep people happy in terms of the work you’re requiring them to do,” retired Chief Judge Calvin Johnson, who sat on the bench for 17 years before retiring in 2008, explained to FOX 8.
Johnson added that in addition to jurors, trial judges, court staff members, sheriff’s deputies assigned to the courthouse and attorneys for both sides enjoy free meals as well.
“The way the court operates, you have to have the people contained. The judge needs to be present during the lunch hour, the court staff needs to be present during the lunch hour, lawyers need to be present during the lunch hour,” Johnson explained.
According to records reviewed by FOX 8 News, the court spent a total of over $100,000 annually, from 2010 through 2012, buying lunches for juries and all the court staff.
Interestingly, FOX 8 discovered that there is currently no official policy regarding the purchasing of meals at Criminal District Court for jurors and others.
“Back when I was there,” Johnson commented, “we didn’t have limitations, I don’t think. I don’t remember limitations on lunch spending and such.”
FOX 9 News reported that there currently is no written policy stating where lunches must be ordered from or how much a judge can spend.
FOX 8 News investigators pulled receipts from lunches over the past three years. Among the restaurants most ordered from were Mandina’s, Zea on St. Charles, the House of Blues, and Sammy’s Food Service. Many bills totaled $300, $400 and $500 a day.
One receipt FOX 8 investigators pulled is from a jury trial held in Chief Judge Camille Buras’ courtroom in January of 2010. Lunch was ordered from Mandina’s for the 14 jurors, the judge and 15 others. Someone named “Angie” listed under court room personnel ordered a club sandwich and gumbo totaling almost $20. A person listed as “Kuhn” ordered an almost $18 plate. And “Lisa” ordered shrimp gumbo, totaling $30.
“A $30 gumbo to me doesn’t pass the eyeball test. Something’s wrong with that,” Raphael Goyeneche, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, told FOX 8. Goyeneche has spent decades working in and around Criminal Court.
“I worked in that system myself 30 years ago and the nicest meal I saw anyone get was a po-boy,” Goyeneche said.
Although there is no written policy in place, during the FOX 8 investigation the court’s judicial administrator, Robert Kazik, told us that he asked the judges to keep lunch prices to around $10 a person.
Kazik said he made this request a little more than a year ago. But receipts we saw, were dated after his request, show that didn’t always happen.
In Judge Robin Pittman’s courtroom in April of last year, five people ordered lunches over $20 a piece. Also in April, Judge Buras held a trial during which four people ordered lunches from Mandina’s, costing over $22 a piece. In this case, none of those people were jurors — they were either courtroom staff, attorneys or sheriff’s deputies.
Looking at the receipts, Goyeneche commented, “There are some examples here that are outrageous. And I think that if the has a rule, then those rules need to be enforced.”
We attempted to ask the current judges about the money being spent on lunches, but Administrator Kazik said no sitting judges would speak to us about this.
Instead, Kazik offered up retired Judge Johnson. After looking at the receipts we pulled, Johnson agreed the judges are not sticking to that $10 limit, commenting, “To order a $25 lunch is obviously inappropriate.”
Johnson did, however, defend the Criminal Court staff, saying, “When you add up what those people do on a daily basis back there, then you look at what they do… based on that perspective, then, what they do has some value. It has more value than a $10 lunch or a $15 lunch.”
While the staff may be working efficiently, Goyeneche says that doesn’t mean the price of their meals has to be double the limit the judicial administrator suggested.
“They’re entitled, I think to be fed, but they don’t have to get fat and they don’t have to pick the most expensive items on the menu,” says Goyeneche.
Those $30 bowls of gumbo and $27 pasta meals are adding up — and it’s not as if the court is flush with cash. Each year the court asks the City Council for money for jury expenses — expenses that include paying the jurors for their service, paying for their parking, meals and other minor costs associated with jury service.
“This type of thing is going to make anybody, particularly the city that has a financial problem to fund all of the different things, say, ‘You know what, maybe the court doesn’t need all of the money that we’ve giving them,’” Goyeneche told FOX 8 News.
Since judges are allowed to decide where they want to order lunch from and basically let jurors and their staff have free rein with the menus, Goyeneche suggests it’s time to crack down, saying, “They need to manage it and make sure everybody on their staff realizes that you can’t abuse this or take advantage of this.”
This article originally published in the July 11, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
