Ruling Gives Jordan More Time


	Print or Email This Page Ruling Gives Jordan More Time; Katrina Messed Up System, Court Says June 2, 2007 The Times-Picayune By Gwen Filosa Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office deserves extra time to prosecute its backlog of cases because of the disaster that followed Hurricane Katrina 21 months ago, an appellate court has ruled. The ruling, issued this week, is a significant victory for Jordan's prosecutors, who watched helplessly in March as a judge at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court quashed an aging murder case after finding that the district attorney's office blew the legal deadline for bringing the defendant to trial. In a five-page ruling released Wednesday, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that prosecutors have every right to expect relief in the form of time after having had to scramble to regain its footing in the immediate months after the storm. The case that drew the important ruling is that of Javardes Brazile, 21, a New Orleans man charged in 2004 with possession of crack cocaine. His trial was delayed a number of times, by either the judge, prosecutors or Brazile's public defender, and the last scheduled date was Aug. 23, 2005 -- six days before the city was hit by the hurricane. "Shortly after the last continuance, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast," the 4th Circuit's ruling begins. Judge Calvin Johnson quashed Brazile's indictment Sept. 19 after finding that the two-year legal deadline -- or "prescription" -- during which prosecutors must bring suspects to trial had run out. Jordan's lawyers appealed, winning this week. But according to the 4th Circuit, Katrina, which ruined Jordan's office building on South White Street along with 80 percent of the city, is enough of an unexpected disaster to rank as an excuse for needing more time to bring cases to trial, the court ruled. Time frame undecided The Louisiana Supreme Court will have the last word on just how much time prosecutors have to work with as a result of the catastrophic hurricane season of 2005. The 4th Circuit did not offer a specific date for when the impact of Katrina ended and the new legal clock started. "The state was prevented from trying Mr. Brazile on Sept. 19, 2005, and for some time thereafter while the court was not in operation due to Hurricane Katrina," Judge Roland Belsome wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel. Belsome was joined by Judges Patricia Rivet Murray and Terri Love. Quoting case law, Belsome added, "An interruption of prescription occurs when the state is unable, through no fault of its own, to try a defendant within the period specified by statute." The ruling overturns Johnson's Sept. 19 decision and sends Brazile back to court to await trial on the crack charge. Jordan, whose team still works out of rented office space downtown -- its third location since the storm -- said the 4th Circuit ruling means his prosecutors are not to blame for pre-Katrina cases that didn't make it to trial under the standard legal deadline. "We would argue that the limitation period was interrupted and began anew for all cases pending at the time of the storm, and all cases filed during the period before the courts reopened for trials," Jordan said in a statement issued Friday. It could be big The ruling could have a dramatic effect in Orleans Parish, where judges have been weighing the legal deadline question since post-Katrina recovery began. In March, Criminal District Court Judge Lynda Van Davis threw out the second-degree murder charge against Rudy Francis, 53, who had been free on bond awaiting trial for years since the 2000 killing of Larry Darnell Lawrence, 43. Her decision ended the prosecution of Francis, but Jordan has appealed her ruling and the 4th Circuit is expected to hear the appeal later this month. Francis was accused of shooting Lawrence, his business partner, eight times in a car. At his 2004 trial, Francis claimed self-defense, despite thefact that he originally told police that an armed robber had attacked Lawrence. At the March 13 hearing before Van Davis, Francis' defense attorney Jason Williams lashed out at Jordan for the handling of his client's murder case. "Eddie Jordan is derelict in his performance" of enforcing Louisiana law, Williams argued. Van Davis essentially agreed, saying that even though the flooding rendered the courthouse at Tulane and Broad useless for ten months, she and other judges were making do in borrowed courtrooms at the federal courthouse on Poydras Street. Jury trials resumed at Tulane and Broad on June 5, 2006, but Van Davis said in March that prosecutors blew a November 2006 trial date because they were not prepared with evidence or witnesses. Louisiana law states that once prosecutors begin a felony case, they have two years to commence trial. In capital cases, the deadline is three years. But in the Francis murder case, the law provides one year, because he obtained a new trial in 2004 after a mistrial. In light of Katrina's wrath, Gov. Kathleen Blanco gave prosecutors an additional 90 days to suspend legal deadlines, beginning Oct. 19, 2005. But Van Davis ruled that even with those extra months, prosecutors failed to act in time. When Francis returned to court March 8, 2005, after his mistrial, the one-year legal clock began ticking, Van Davis ruled. Louisiana law entrusts the district attorney with scheduling trial dates, but Jordan countered that in Orleans Parish, the judges manage the court calendar. Van Davis cited the law that makes it the DA's job to seek trial dates. Jordan inherited the Francis case from his predecessor, longtime DA Harry Connick, and took Francis to trial in June 2004, only to have a jury deadlock on a verdict and send the case back to square one.
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