The race for a seat on the Orleans Parish Criminal Court bench pits a juvenile court judge with a thick stack of endorsements against a veteran former prosecutor who claims a vast edge in criminal courtroom experience.
Tracey Flemings-Davillier, a former civil attorney who won a seat on the Juvenile Court bench in 2010, is running against Glen Woods, who served as a special prosecutor under former District Attorney Harry Connick.
They are vying to serve out the final two years on the Section B bench, which Criminal District Judge Lynda Van Davis is vacating at year's end.
According to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, Davis amassed the largest and slowest-moving caseload of the dozen criminal court judges in 2011, with nearly 350 cases clogging the docket.
Both Woods, 57, and Flemings-Davillier, 42, have made reducing that caseload a central theme in their campaigns.
Both also have pledged to work with experts, educators and community groups to provide alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders. And both are Democrats.
That's about where the similarities end.
Woods has sought to paint Flemings-Davillier as ill-prepared for the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of criminal court.
"It's difficult for me to understand how someone who is never at Tulane and Broad and only a judge for two years thinks they can handle the rapes, robberies, murders and complex cases that come through, without any experience," Woods said.
Woods, who is now in private practice, also took a swipe at District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro for his endorsement of Flemings-Davillier. Woods finished a distant second last year to former city attorney Franz Zibilich in a race for the Section L seat. Zibilich also won Cannizzaro's endorsement.
"I think politically he's trying to place people on the bench that he has some type of control over," Woods said of the district attorney.
Flemings-Davillier acknowledges she has appeared only once as an attorney in criminal court, on a minor matter she said she can't quite recall. But she scoffs at the criticism, saying she's far more qualified than Woods, given her time on the bench.
As a juvenile court judge, Flemings-Davillier said she handles the same types of motions, legal questions and sentencing and probation decisions as the criminal court judges.
"I have aggravated battery cases, aggravated rape cases, attempted kidnapping, attempted murder. I've dealt with the entire criminal code," she said. "I'm doing the job of a judge. He has not done that job."
Flemings-Davillier practiced law at the Phelps Dunbar firm -- working on mold, asbestos and pollution cases, and more -- before winning the juvenile court seat in 2010.
Two years earlier, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Municipal Court bench.
She said her showing in both races drew solicitations for a variety of political posts, and she won't rule out a possible run for city council or some other political body in the future. But her background in law and sociology -- she has a sociology degree from Loyola -- called her to the bench.
"I love to learn about people, to study issues, thought processes," she said. "I feel like I have no choice but to do it."
While at the law firm, Flemings-Davillier handled several juvenile cases pro bono. She said she left the firm after 14 years for public life "so if I could look back in my life, I'd know I made an impact."
She wants to jump from juvenile to criminal court, she said, because she sees more young people being tried there and thinks she can have a bigger impact.
"It's a greater need in the criminal court system because of the violent offenses you have younger people charged with," she said. "The problems are bigger."
Flemings-Davillier is currently deputy chief judge in juvenile court and serves on several committees focused on juveniles. She has also served on boards including the Louisiana Children's Museum, the Contemporary Arts Center and the Louisiana Children's Museum.
Her connections have helped her lock down a wide swath of endorsements. Among them: Cannizzaro, Rep. Cedric Richmond, Sheriff Marlin Gusman, Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the entire City Council.
Woods, on the other hand, stands largely on his record under Connick, where he worked for 16 years and prosecuted some of the city's most notorious criminals
He helped send rookie police officer Antoinette Frank and Rogers LaCaze to death row for an infamous 1995 triple murder at the Kim Anh restaurant in eastern New Orleans.
Woods recognizes the potential downside of that resume. U.S. Supreme Court justices and others have criticized the tactics of prosecutors under Connick's helm, with some accused of withholding key evidence from defendants.
None of that criticism has targeted Woods. Questions were raised recently about whether he and another prosecutor turned over a blood report to defense attorneys in a 25-year-old rape case -- Woods said he did -- but the issue was left unresolved after new DNA tests tied the defendant, Booker Diggins, to the crime.
If prosecutors in Connick's office withheld key evidence, for instance, in the case of exonerated death row inmate John Thompson, Woods said he shares in the disgust.
"There's no question in my mind that at least one prosecutor in Harry Connick's office crossed the line, and I was outraged. It was just a blatant violation of the law," Woods said. "I had to live with the mistakes that were committed by other prosecutors."
Woods said he worked for about nine months in Cannizzaro's courtroom in the 1990's while the district attorney served on the criminal bench, and that he helped Cannizzaro maintain a lean, efficient docket.
"I know how to run a courtroom and a docket," he said.
Woods noted that if Flemings-Davillier wins, her seat in Juvenile Court would need to be filled through a special election. Woods said Flemings-Davillier has "broken a commitment to the public."
According to the Secretary of State's office, the cost of a special election in Orleans Parish would run about $440,000.
Flemings-Davillier said such moves happen frequently. She said she expects to remain on the criminal court bench for some time.
"I can promise I will be on the criminal court bench as long as the citizens want me there," she said, "but if the citizens ask me to do something different, I'll have to weigh that."
Campaign finance statements released this week show no significant activity by either candidate as of yet.
Flemings-Davillier owes well over $100,000 in loans to herself, her husband and other relatives for her past two campaigns.
Kimya Holmes-Simmons, who qualified for the race in August, dropped out.
Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/10/race_for_orleans_parish_crimin.html
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