Hanging judge

Remember last month all Kern Reese wanted to do was put the mayor under house arrest.  Judge Giarruso has "different ideas."

The scene that played out in Giarrusso’s court Tuesday was almost a rerun of the arguments the two sides made over the summer in a case in which Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese ultimately ordered that Mayor Mitch Landrieu be placed under house arrest. Reese’s ruling was stayed at the last minute by the state Supreme Court.

Giarrusso put off deciding whether to follow a similar path, saying she wanted to give the high court time to weigh in on the question of whether the courts can force city officials to pay millions of dollars they don’t want to.

After saying she would wait until January for that ruling and then take her cues from the Supreme Court, she suggested she was already thinking about taking further steps in the case.

“I have ideas that are a little bit different than Judge Reese does,” Giarrusso said.

Okay, like what, though?  She doesn't actually say.  Although she does say this. 

City officials have attempted to link the cases. Andy Kopplin, Landrieu’s chief administrative officer, said in court Tuesday that the city has no plans to pay the pension fund money while it continues efforts to negotiate a global settlement with the firefighters covering both cases. The city and firefighters have been in mediation in an attempt to reach such a deal for months.

Giarrusso said she was “extremely troubled” by the lack of a plan.

“I told you the last time you were here I was going to give you a lot of rope,” she said. “I hope you didn’t all hang yourselves with it.”

Uh oh.  Y'all better get that settlement worked out. Either that or be out of town by sundown, apparently.