Louisiana Voice

If you’ve ever wondered why we as a society have a diminishing respect for our system of justice, there are ample examples of why that confidence level is eroding.

Beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ridiculous 2010 ruling so affectionately known as Citizens United to the glut of pardons of criminals by the Trump administration to the way in which Louisiana courts manhandled the civil rights of former attorney Ashton O’Dwyer to the manner in which family court matters are handled in heavy-handed secrecy to the most recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court in the trial of one of the defendants in the tragic death of Madison Brooks, the evidence is there for all to see.

O’Dwyer was a prominent New Orleans attorney who was literally railroaded into oblivion by an obliging Louisiana Supreme Court in a concerted effort by other attorneys, including the then-Louisiana Attorney General, to block him from seeking class-action damages on behalf of victims of Hurricane Katrina as a result of negligence in construction and maintenance of the levees built to protect New Orleans from flooding. He was beaten, tased, fired upon with rubber pellets, imprisoned and otherwise abused by State Police and ultimately disbarred from the practice of law because he refused to pay unjust financial penalties.

Family courts are rife with examples of abuse by presiding judges, even to the extent of deliberately overcharging those unfortunate enough to end up before them exorbitant charges for copies of court documents needed to support their cases.

One need only peruse campaign contributions for most judges to understand the existence of at least the appearance of impropriety. Their campaign financial reports are heavily-weighted with contributions from attorneys who practice before them. In one case, LouisianaVoice found a judge, Dawn Amacker of the 22^nd JDC (St. Tammany and Washington parishes), whose report shows that 73.2 percent of her campaign contributions of $500 or more were from attorneys. Another report, that of Pam Baker of the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court, was even more eye-opening, with 87.4 percent of all donations of $500 or more coming from attorneys.

The obvious response to that is what would you expect? Judges preside over attorneys; they’re all in the business of the courts.

Exactly. That’s precisely the reason LouisianaVoice has long maintained that judges should not be allowed to accept contributions from attorneys. The same logic should apply to the Public Service Commission; its members should not be allowed to accept contributions from the utilities they regulate. Nor should the Louisiana Insurance Commissioner be allowed to accept contributions from the insurance industry it regulates. And the Louisiana Attorney General? Well, the individual holding that office doesn’t oversee or otherwise regulate attorneys, per se, but the attorney general awards literally millions of dollars in contracts to attorneys to represent the state in litigation. So, does the attorney general tend to reward favored attorneys or law firms? You bet. It’s Louisiana politics in its purest form. Even Attorney General Liz Murril’s own husband’s firm has generous state contracts.

So, having said all that, it has a bad look when the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned two other courts and ruled that a judge in the Madison Brooks rape should not have been removed from the case despite a defendant’s having texted family members that the judge was a family friend and would be sympathetic to his case.

Casen John Carver is on trial for rape in the matter. Brooks, at the time of the January 2023 incident, was a student at LSU. She was allegedly raped in a moving vehicle before being dropped off and subsequently struck and killed by a passing car.

Carver is from Denham Springs and was one of four males in the vehicle when prosecutors say she was sexually assaulted.

Carver texted family members that Judge Gail Horne Ray was a friend to the family and that she had a family member who also had been accused of rape, so she would be sympathetic to his case. That 2023 text read, “And the judge we are getting, I think u know about but we are friends with her and she is really good for our case. Her son was accused of rape a while back so she knows to help us.”

Ray’s son, Nelson Dan Taylor Jr., 46, was convicted of two counts each of forcible rape and aggravated burglary in 1997. His mother was one of his trial attorneys, court records show.

Carver requested a bench trial rather than a jury trial, meaning he would have been tried before only a judge with there being no chance for a jury to decide his fate.

That, along with the text, would—or should—give ample justification for the presiding judge to recuse herself. Instead, fellow 19^th JDC JUDGE BRAD MYERS ruled that despite finding no evidence of bias on Judge Ray’s part, Carver’s statements were “particularly concerning” and that the recusal was necessary to “safeguard public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

A check of Judge Ray’s political campaign finance reports shows that Carver’s attorney, Joe Long, contributed $1000 to her campaign on Nov. 10, 2022—a couple of months before Brooks died.

Still, the Supreme Court’s reversal would have us believe there was no reason for recusal, that there is no appearance of impropriety or conflict. So much for “safeguard[ing] public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Which, again, underscores the reason for the decline in faith of our judicial system.