Sheriff's deputies beat up public defenders in New Orleans
From New Orleans:
The head of the Orleans Parish public defender's office claims two of his attorneys have been roughed up by sheriff's deputies at Criminal District Court, and he has filed a complaint with the State Judiciary Commission.Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton said there have been two incidents over the past 12 months in the same courtroom, with the second incident coming just days ago.
Bunton said one of his staff attorneys, Stuart Weg, was arguing for the release of an "innocent and erroneously detained man" when Judge Ben Willard ordered him removed from the courtroom.
"He didn't rush the bench. He didn't go after any deputies. He's a lawyer. He's an officer of the court," Bunton said.
Weg was arrested by Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Deputies.
In a letter to the State Judiciary Commission, Bunton said, "Mr. Weg was released from Orleans Parish Prison and returned to our offices with bruised ribs and a date to appear in municipal court for various charges."
Seriously, I cannot imagine an Horry County judge ordering a defense attorney to leave the courtroom or our sheriff's deputies doing violence to an attorney. There is surely more to the story, but all I've got is what was reported in the article.
Comments
New Orleans is screwed up. Way screwed up. It is possible and probably happened. The atty is lucky that he is alive. There is little to no supervision of the deputies at OPP. And they don't like it if an inmate gets mouthy. Gusman is too busy watching the 12 flat screens in his hurricane RV to worry about what them deputies are up to.
Posted by: cmr | December 9, 2009 11:21 PM