By The Guardian (World News) | Created at 2024-09-26 10:15:13 | Updated at 2024-09-30 13:25:28
4 days ago
Court watchdogs and advocates for victims of sexual abuse are calling for a New Orleans judge to be punished and voted out of office after he controversially delayed the trial of retired Catholic priest charged with child rape and kidnapping – on the morning of jury selection.
Judge Benedict Willard’s critics say his angry outbursts have been a problem over more than two decades on the bench. But they are raising fresh concerns after Willard’s decision to remove members of the local district attorney’s office during a rape trial in August reverberated to affect the eagerly anticipated trial of Lawrence Hecker, 93, on Tuesday.
According to court records, during the rape trial of Freddie Sterling on 21 August, Willard was notified that a male juror had allegedly come on to a female district attorney’s office employee. In a discussion that was not heard in open court, Willard allegedly called the DA’s staffer a “distraction” and ordered her removed from court, rather than replacing the juror who had allegedly commented on her looks and made suggestive comments.
When Ned McGowan, the second-in-command at the DA’s office, asked Willard to put his actions and reasons on the record, the judge immediately ordered McGowan removed from court. McGowan accused the judge of “cowardice” as bailiffs escorted him out.
“Go get me some more deputies,” Willard said, according to a court transcript. “I’m asking you to leave once again out of the disrespect that you’re performing in terms of dealing with this court. Deputy, the first assistant DA needs to leave. He’s being disruptive, disrespectful and improper.”
McGowan appeared in Willard’s court at least twice more after that without incident, including on 5 September during a pre-trial hearing in the child-rape case against Hecker, which has garnered national attention. But when McGowan appeared again for Hecker’s trial on Tuesday, the judge became angry once more.
He again accused McGowan of “disrespect” and abruptly announced he was transferring the case to another court. The court’s minute entry says Willard recused himself “due to the negative activity of the state towards this court”.
WWL Louisiana asked the judge for an interview. Willard said he was prohibited from doing so.
First elected to the bench 22 years ago, Willard is known for his quick temper and tendency to verbally spar with attorneys and members of the media. Rafael Goyeneche of the New Orleans criminal justice watchdog the Metropolitan Crime Commission said Willard went too far this time.
“I think he has some anger issues,” Goyeneche said. “And I’ve seen him allowing his emotions to get in the way of his responsibility as a judge. And these are two of the most recent and most egregious that have played out.”
In the Sterling case, Willard decided to keep a man on a jury deciding the fate of a defendant accused of raping a woman after that juror had been accused of sexually harassing a woman on the prosecution team. The trial ended in a hung jury.
In the Hecker case, Willard recused himself just as the trial was about to begin, yet again delaying a case he has overseen for a year. The 93-year-old Hecker’s physical and mental state has deteriorated to the point that a court-appointed psychiatrist called him only “fragilely competent” to stand trial.
Outside court, a frustrated assistant district attorney Andre Gaudin compared the effects of Willard’s conduct to the impact of Hecker’s abuse in the 1960s and 70s, which Hecker admitted during an August 2023 interview with WWL Louisiana and the Guardian.
Hecker, “with his position of authority and esteem and respect, was able to victimize them,” Gaudin said. “And now we have another person with authority who has, through their decision on the morning of trial to make a recusal, caused a massive delay. And that is exceptionally frustrating for everyone involved.”
Aaron Hebert is one of Hecker’s alleged victims. He, too, said he was frustrated with Willard.
“He should have recused himself a month or so ago when all this came up about holding [McGowan] in contempt,” Hebert said. “This is just another method, a way of putting everything off … Victims and survivors are, once again, hurt again.”
The DA’s office had 11 witnesses ready to testify, including several who say Hecker molested them, as well as the alleged victim in the case before Willard, who traveled from out of state to give testimony on how Hecker suffocated him to the point of unconsciousness and raped him in a church in 1975, when he was in high school.
“And [the DA’s office] had to go through the sordid details of these abuses at the hand of this pedophile priest with all of these victims, to prepare them for the trial,” Goyeneche said. “Everyone walked into court expecting that this is the day of justice, only to find out that the judge, without any advance warning, decided to transfer the case.”
The Hecker case was immediately transferred to judge Nandi Campbell’s court. Gaudin and his boss, district attorney Jason Williams, said they hoped Campbell would move it quickly to trial, although no new date had yet been set.
Hebert said he wants Willard voted out of office when he comes up for re-election in 2026. Three times previously, Willard has been re-elected without opposition.
Goyeneche called on an office that oversees Louisiana’s judges to investigate Willard “with respect to whether he violated some of the judicial canons”. Goyeneche said he believes Willard did.
Such investigations are secret unless they are referred to the state supreme court. In the four years since the supreme court altered rules to make those cases public, there have been none against Willard, whose taxpayer-funded salary in 2023 was $174,893.70, according to his financial disclosure statement.
