| President’s
Message
Friday , September 14, 2007
Danziger Update
On Friday, September 14, 2007, in Section G of the Orleans Parish
Criminal District Court, Judge Julian Parker, denied the State's
Motion for recusal, remanding the case back to Judge Raymond Bigelow
in Section I.
ADA Dustin Davis spent several hours attempting to demonstrate
that Judge Bigelow had the "appearance of impropriety".
Judge Parker agreed that there was an appearance of impropriety,
but it existed in the Office of the District Attorney, not in Bigelow's
court. Judge Parker said that even to the untrained eye, the fact
that Davis failed to act on the relationships which he claimed formed
the basis of that "appearance of impropriety" until after
Bigelow made a ruling adverse to the State's position, was highly
suspicious. Judge Parker noted that the appearance was that of "Judge
Shopping", and that most of the Judges in the Criminal Court
building, like himself, were former prosecutors, former law enforcement
officers, or former NOPD, and that they would likely be no more
sympathetic to the State's suspicious argument than
he.
Parker stated that "there was no meat on the bones" of
the State's case, and the ADA Davis' attempts at linking Claire
and Donovan Livacarri's finances to FOP and PANO's donations to
the Danziger officers violated 1st Amendment privileges. Judge Parker
categorically prohibited Davis from exploring that avenue, chastising
him often with his apparent unfamiliarity with the prevailing case
law. Parker described the State's case as defective and deficient.
District Attorney Eddie Jordan sat mute while Assistant DA Davis
took a significant amount of criticism from Judge Parker. In the
end, Judge Parker simply denied the Motion to recuse and remanded
the case back to Section I. No date has been set as yet for the
next hearing in Section I.
We will keep you pos
ONE NOPD
Michael Glasser, President PANO
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