NEW ORLEANS — It is often said that the wheels of justice turn slowly.
At New Orleans criminal court on Friday, that old adage was taken a step further and those wheels came to a grinding stop. In the middle of the morning docket, the District Attorney's office staged a mass walk-out, briefly pulling all its prosecutors from the building.
“I walk into Section K today, no DAs. I walk into magistrate, there were no DAs,” veteran defense attorney Jeffrey Smith said.
Smith cut his teeth at the busy and sometimes chaotic New Orleans courthouse at Tulane Avenue and Broad Street. When every prosecutor in every section of the court staged their protest Friday morning, he was hardly surprised.
“It's not the first time I've seen this,” Smith said.
In fact, earlier this week, District Attorney Jason Williams pulled his prosecutors from magistrate court amid a dispute with Magistrate Judge Juana Lombard.
The already simmering tensions boiled over again mid-morning Friday after employees and victims of the DA's office were not allowed through their usual secured entrance on South White Street. The entrance was briefly closed in what is now being described as a big misunderstanding between the DA's office, the judges, and the sheriff's office.
According to multiple sources, security by Criminal Sheriff's deputies was on heightened alert after two courtroom hearings earlier in the week were disrupted when family members tried to attack a woman who pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to murder. That was in the highly emotional case of three children who were killed by their father when he burned down the family home.
When the extra security ordered by the judges blocked prosecutors and other DA’s employees from entering the building Friday, the office responded with the brief walkout.
“We have a lot a lot of cases in that building and everyone needs to work together,” Smith said. “The prosecutors need to work.”
After some court hearings were postponed, representatives of the judges and DA's office met and resolved the situation. By late morning, prosecutors were again using their side entrance, which includes security provided by a sheriff’s deputy.
The judicial administrator’s office noted that everyone involved ultimately agreed to abide by a security protocol on prosecutors using the side entrance that was drawn up during a previous dispute back in 2022.
The District Attorney's office said it hopes the situation is resolved once and for all.
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