Judge Blasts DA's Office in Backlog; Murder Trial for Mom, Son on Hold

August 30, 2007
The Times-Picayune (LA)
By Gwen Filosa


An Orleans Parish judge blasted the district attorney's office Thursday for failing to move forward with some of its most prominent cases, including the homicide of a 17-year-old boy.

"This is a systemic problem with your office," Judge Julian Parker said, as prosecutors once again asked to delay a hearing in a high-profile second-degree murder case. "What do I have to do to get you to move forward? I've tried to be nice. I've scolded. I've threatened you all with jail."

District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office has shifted and shuffled its trial attorneys within the past month, eliminating its standard homicide squad and creating an elite "Violent Offenders Unit" to handle a staggering number of murder cases at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

But last week, three of Jordan's most experienced prosecutors assigned to the new unit quit after a matter of weeks; another veteran prosecutor just gave his notice.

Jordan doesn't attend court on a daily basis, so on Thursday it was one of his new hires -- a veteran who worked under former District Attorney Harry Connick, who took Parker's hits.

While Assistant District Attorney Francis deBlanc told the court he needs more time because his key witness lives out of town and wasn't available Thursday, a mother and son accused in the February murder of a Central City teenager sat shackled in court, dressed in jail-issued clothes.

DeBlanc said he had only just received the case and didn't know that Parker had ordered the former prosecutor to either deliver the witness Thursday or spend time in jail for contempt of court.

"I hope every time I show up things will get better, and they just get worse," said Parker, reminding the audience that he was a prolific prosecutor from 1984 to 1988, long before the advent of cell phones and e-mail.

Vanessa Johnson, 44, is accused of giving her son a pistol Feb. 7 and telling him to "Go out and get them all," after a neighborhood rival punched him during a fight. Clarence Johnson, 17, did as his mother said, killing Robert Dawson, 17, on the corner of Simon Bolivar Avenue and Clio Street, police said.

Their attorneys, Jason Williams and Clif Stoutz, blamed Jordan's management for cases stalling.

"It was Eddie Jordan's decision to remove (prosecutors) assigned to serious cases," Williams said. "Everyone has new cases. The victims don't know the prosecutors, and we start from scratch. There hasn't been a piece of this case that's gone forward."

Both Johnsons remain in jail, awaiting pretrial hearings more than six months after their arrests.

Others have been in their shoes. On Tuesday, prosecutors dismissed a capital murder case against a man in which they had nothing linking him to the killing -- two years after the suspect was arrested.

But prosecutors say they have an eyewitness who watched Vanessa Johnson give her son the gun and instructions to murder, but he lives four hours away and couldn't come to court, they said.

Parker said they had all day to deliver the witness.

"When can we get this case off the ground?" Parker asked deBlanc, reminding him that weak cases are often dismissed. "If you can't, you know what you have to do. You can't keep citizens in prison month after month, year after year."

The hearing began Thursday at 9:30 a.m., when Parker expected -- as ordered last month -- to have the state produce its eyewitness and the photographic lineup he had signed, implicating Clarence Johnson as the killer. Instead, Parker threatened to jail deBlanc if he didn't produce something by the evening. Later, prosecutors brought in two large brown paper bags filled with evidence, as well as the photo lineup.

"The DA has really done nothing to move this case forward. I suspect if I hadn't threatened to put you in jail, that evidence wouldn't be here now," Parker said.


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