Get this off my desk

Every politician's dream everywhere is to hold the trappings of office; the social recognition, the little privileges, the bankable resume, the power to grant petty patronage favors for kickbacks, etc. without having to solve real problems.  If you are one of these office holders, anything serious, anything that requires you to fight with anyone powerful or, god forbid, actually believe in anything, is a big No Thank You.  You want to get that shit off your desk as quickly as possible. 

So, for example, you may have run for District Attorney in order to be congratulated as a "reformer." But when it comes time to do the job of dismantling the massively unjust carceral machine you promised to oppose, well, that's not really why we're here is it? No, indeed not.  We want that off our desk.   We don't even mind handing the keys to office back over to the very same people we replaced if it means we don't have to deal with it anymore. 

On Monday, shortly after this story was first published, Williams’ office released a CEA between his office and the AG, signed at the end of November. The agreement gives the AG’s office full authority to handle any state police cases in New Orleans from start to finish — from investigation, initiation of charges, trial, and even post-conviction matters. 

It also gives the Louisiana State Police’s Force Investigation Unit authority to handle any investigations related to law enforcement uses of force when they arise from arrests or investigations by state police. Any criminal matters related to those incidents would be prosecuted by the AG’s office. 

(The four page agreement released Monday afternoon, however, was missing one page. The Lens has requested it.)

The announcement comes at a time when conservatives across the country are targeting other local progressive prosecutors, hoping to strip them of power. 

Republican lawmakers in other states have passed bills allowing state attorneys general to step in to prosecute certain crimes refused by local DA’s. Other bills sought to impeach local prosecutors or suspend them from office. Landry seems inclined to take Louisiana in a similar direction. On his campaign website he bemoaned “woke” district attorneys playing a dangerous game of “catch and release” — a clear reference to Williams. 

When viewed against national dynamics, the new New Orleans partnership seems to provide a unique counterpoint. Though the state would not usually have the authority to enter the Orleans courthouse and try cases, Williams has invited prosecutors from within an office run by Donald Trump-backed Liz Murrill, to handle cases instigated by the state police, an agency under federal investigation for racial profiling and excessive force by troopers.

“None of this would be possible without the permission of Jason Williams,” said Rafael Goyeneche, director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.

People think this is weird but Jason knows what he's doing.  Sure, it's an insult to the people of New Orleans that the reformed justice system they overwhelming voted for has been replaced by a right wing coup from outside of the jurisdiction.  But, you see, by welcoming the coup himself, Jason still gets to call himself the District Attorney. And that's really all that matters here.

Going with the feels

 Incredible work by these highly literate lawmakers

With the committee's action to advance SB418 without anyone objecting, the legislation now heads to the full Senate. If repealing the "Raise the Age" is approved in the upper chamber, the measure then would head for consideration by the House.

Murders increased 30% nationally, 35% in Louisiana in 2020. But Louisiana has had highest murder rate for 32 straight years, testified Jeff Asher a data analyst for AH Datalytics that does work for New Orleans law enforcement agencies. The statistics show large increases for violent crimes in red and blue states, big cities, small towns, and suburbs. The rates of murders started increasing in early 2020, accelerated in May 2020, and have stayed elevated since.

Those under the age of 18 account for 4.4% of all murder offenders in Louisiana in 2020 – down from 5% since 2018.

Asher said the data shows no evidence that the implementation of "Raise the Age" contributed to the statewide increase in murder or gun violence.

“You’re saying that for every 100 murders committed in this country roughly five are done by juveniles,” Talbot said. “These statistics don’t make me feel better. Tony Clayton makes me feel better.”

Surveillance state

In what is probably the final bit of fallout from Leon Cannizzaro's "fake subpoena" scandal, Jason Williams's office has entered into a settlement with plaintiffs in the civil rights lawsuit that came out of the scandal.  We don't need to re-hash the details of all of that here too much.  The Lens article runs us through the paces of summarizing it anyway. But anybody reading this already knows about Cannizzaro's use of fraudulent subpoenas and abuse of material witness warrants to compel testimony from crime victims.  The upshot here is Williams, who was elected DA based in large part on his promise not to do that stuff anymore, has agreed to 42 months of "monitoring" to ensure that he doesn't.  The joke is this now means we've hit a golden trifecta of criminal justice consent decree type arrangements in Orleans Parish now. 

The New Orleans Police Department and the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office are also under court-appointed monitorships, and have been since federal consent decrees were first approved for the agencies in 2013.

The agreement with the DA’s office is different from those other agreements, however. For instance, the U.S. Department of Justice is a party to both the police and Sheriff’s Office consent decrees, as a plaintiff. Williams’ agreement is only between his office, the individual plaintiffs and their attorneys. 

In addition, the monitoring periods for both the police and the Sheriff’s Office are indefinite. Both keep monitors in place until, and for a period after, the agencies reach substantial compliance with their consent decrees.

The DA’s office, however, will only be under a monitor’s supervision for 42 months. And since both sides have agreed on Schwartzmann, there will not be a lengthy, politically fraught search for a monitor in this case.

The Schwartzmann referenced in that quote is civil rights attorney Katie Schwartzmann who has been named to head the "monitoring" effort.  This article doesn't go into the details of her position, though. We don't know from this how much she is paid or what the total cost of the monitoring will be. One assumes whatever it is comes out of the DA's budget and that it is in addition to the amounts paid out here according to the terms of the settlement. 

In consideration of the remaining plaintiffs, Williams’ office will pay $120,000 to the ACLU Foundation, in two $60,000 installments over the next year. The allocation of that money will be determined by the plaintiffs and their attorneys. And the office must create a new procedure for victims and witnesses to file grievances over their treatment by DA’s office employees.

Anyway maybe they will tell us more about who gets paid and for what.  Recent experience tells us that's at least as important as whether or not the monitoring program actually accomplishes its stated purpose. 

It's Friday, are we tuned?

Are we staying that way?

In his last two campaigns for DA, Cannizzaro filed to run on the first day of qualifying, according to records from the Louisiana Secretary of State. Reached by phone, Billy Schultz, who has worked as a political consultant for Cannizzaro, said he didn’t have any information about the DA’s plans.

“Stay tuned,” he said, “that’s all I can tell ya.”

If Leon really is bowing out, that could open up the dynamics of the DA race quite a bit.  Candidates will now have to build their cases as to what sort of "reform" they might stand for beyond just putting Not-Leon in the office. This article finds each of the announced candidates going out of their way to brag a little bit about their willingness to put people in jail, though. So we're not especially optimistic.  But, hey, stay tuned. 

Update:  Kind of an anti-climax here. 

In a statement posted on his office's website, he said “I have proudly devoted the past 42 years of my life to the cause of making New Orleans a safer place to live, work, raise families and visit. But after long discussions with my wife and family, it became apparent that my interest in serving another term has waned, outweighed by a desire to spend more time with my family, especially my nine grandchildren born since I first took office. This was not an easy decision, but it is the one with which I’m most at peace."

People had all sorts of wild theories going about Leon getting a federal appointment or running for some other office. But no, he's gonna spend more time with the fam.   That's what we had to stay tuned for?

Clusters

We keep seeing the word "cluster" used to describe multiple cases of COVID 19 positives discovered in one spot.  So far the state has identified six so-called clusters of cases in nursing homes where many individuals live together in more less confined close quarters.  This might be the last we learn about them.

A cluster is identified as two or more cases that appear to be connected.

But, the state said, it will no longer identify the facilities: "With the involvement of hospitals and multiple providers and the growth in cases of nursing home residents, the Department of Health will no longer be reporting where positive cases have been identified," the Department of Health said in a statement.

But the conditions that make them likely aren't too difficult to predict.  Which is why it's a good idea to take preventative measures while we can. 

In New Orleans, the public defenders’ motion was sweeping in its breadth. The agency called for the release of anyone in the jail whose age or poor health puts them at greater risk, all inmates held on misdemeanor charges, almost all inmates held on nonviolent charges, all inmates who are being detained on suspected parole violations and anyone within 30 days of finishing their sentence.

The request to release aged and sickly inmates would apply even to defendants awaiting trial on violent felony crimes.

Cannizzaro's statement in this article is set in sympathetic language but he still doesn't sound agreeable to helping.  Last week he sounded like he would be fine just locking up all the COVID cases in town like some sort of leper colony.  So maybe this is an improvement.

Leon's death camps

Cannizzaro wants to keep everybody locked up in unsafe conditions..... you know.. for safety.

As the Orleans Parish Public Defenders office attempts to get as many people out of jail as possible amid the spread of the new coronavirus, prosecutors with the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office are arguing against bond reductions for some defendants, arguing in part that they will pose a “threat to the community” through the spread of the virus if released.

Just make stuff up

The New Orleans D.A.'s office has an interesting approach to establishing the facts of a case.

One of the complaints accuses an assistant district attorney in Cannizzaro's office, Scott Vincent, of repeatedly trying to hoodwink higher courts, often by misrepresenting what happened in lower court proceedings.

The attorney, Thomas Frampton, cites Lewis’ case and 11 other Orleans Parish prosecutions over the past year in which he claims Vincent misstated or invented facts or the law in appellate briefs.

In his other complaint, Frampton takes aim at Cannizzaro, claiming the district attorney knows all about Vincent’s false statements in Lewis’ case and refuses to fix them.

Leon must be angling for Joe Biden's VP slot if he wants to put people in jail that badly.  He still hasn't said if he wants to be reelected D.A. or not. One assumes he does, but it's likely to be a more difficult race than usual now that Jason Williams has made it official. 

But Williams said Tuesday that New Orleans needs a shift away from the tough-on-crime style of prosecution that has defined the DA's Office starting with the 30-year tenure of Harry Connick Sr., who first employed current District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro as a prosecutor.

"At a time when criminal justice reform is being effectively implemented throughout the country, our DA continues locking up low-level, nonviolent offenders in the misguided belief that the more people we put behind bars, the safer we will be," Williams said.

The announcement means Williams is first out of the gate for a highly anticipated race. Cannizzaro has yet to say whether he will seek a third term, and recently retired Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter also hasn’t declared his intentions, despite persistent chatter that he might mount a challenge from the left.

About that Arthur Hunter thing.  I'm no professional politics talking guy but I would venture to say his chances are pretty slim with Williams in the race. But it looks like there may be more personal reasons to consider stemming from that Lewis case. 

Frampton said his meeting with Cannizzaro featured some choice words by the district attorney for Hunter, the judge who presided over Lewis' case and ordered the disputed mistrial.

Cannizzaro described Hunter as “pathetic” and “incompetent,” according to Frampton.

“Mr. Cannizzaro stated that the mistrial had come about because the trial judge ‘didn’t know what the f--k he was doing,’” Frampton wrote. “He shared his belief that the trial court’s mistrial declaration occurred because ‘the judge just got lazy like he normally does over there.’”

Or maybe they'll just let Jason be D.A. now all on his own.  Okay that's a bigger whopper than anything Leon's ADAs could come up with.

Classic Leon

Cannizzaro's kids got a dressing down from the Fifth Circuit today over their use of so called "fake subpoenas."

On Wednesday, Alford argued that even if the so-called “DA subpoenas” — phony documents that falsely threatened their recipients with jail time for failing to comply — may have been deceptive, legally invalid and improper, prosecutors were using them to bring critical, and often uncooperative, witnesses in to talk about ongoing criminal cases.

“The object of that document is to get the witness into the office to discuss the prosecution,” he said.

“Are you saying that this is somehow noble because they were trying to talk to witnesses?” Judge Jennifer Elrod asked. “What’s the classic role of the prosecutor? Creating fake documents, that’s not the classic role. Coercing people to come in for interviews when you don’t have the authority to do that, that’s not the classic task of the prosecutor.”

Or maybe it is. The do love intimidating people. 

Nobody wants to be D.A. apparently

Is Leon just grandstanding and fearmongering to hear himself talk?

Orleans Parish prosecutors lost almost as many trials as they won last year, a steep drop in convictions from just two years ago, when prosecutors secured guilty verdicts in three out of four of the 60 cases that produced a verdict.

In response, and amid an exodus of mid-level prosecutors, Cannizzaro has asked senior litigators once assigned solely to major felonies to train recent law school graduates.

“Our crime-weary citizens rightly expect the prosecutors of our office to be determined, competitive and proficient in the courtroom,” Cannizzaro said in a recent interview. “We have recognized where our trial numbers have deviated from the usual standards, and that is why we implemented in December a temporary reorganization plan.”

In a better world we might think a declining conviction rate is a good thing since it means, at the very least, that the District Attorney has slightly less leverage to go around bullying people than he currently does.   It also would mean we wouldn't have to allocate so much money to Leon's office which, as we can see, is what he's really pushing for here.

The DA blames the city.

He says that a $600,000 annual budget cut — roughly 5% of his overall budget — imposed by the City Council in 2017 and 2018 prompted lawyers to leave. The funding was restored in 2019, and in the 2020 budget his office has received a $500,000 increase.

But as long as Leon is free to assume that people really are "crime weary" (and the media does nothing to discourage them from feeling that way, he'll continue to push for more money to spend on putting more people in jail.

One would also assume that he's in the news making all this noise because he's gearing up to run for reelection but... there are these "rumors."

Some courthouse observers speculate that prosecutors are leaving because of the uncertainty ahead of this fall’s district attorney election. Cannizzaro hasn’t said whether he’s running, and the one contender who has announced, City Councilman Jason Williams, promises to be a formidable candidate.

“The rumors change from day to day” as to whether Cannizzaro will run, said Gregg Carter, a criminal defense attorney.

Yeah, well, there were similar rumors the last time he was up for reelection too.  Also there are similar rumblings that maybe Williams is thinking about backing out of the race himself. 

If so, it's odd to find him running around downtown with a bullhorn and getting on TV and stuff.  Is there a trick to running for D.A. that involves really seeming like you don't want to run for D.A.?

Leftover money

Obviously it would have been less than what we might consider ethical for this PAC to hang onto "leftover" money from the Governor's election and plow it right into their next cause. But would it have been technically illegal if they had?  It doesn't say here. But I'd like to know.  Anyway, they're going after Leon now.

People Over Politics supported Edwards during his successful re-election bid, paying for a billboard in the same location and paying for canvassers during the race.

The current version of the group is not affiliated with the Edwards campaign, Greene said. Leftover money collected by People Over Politics as part of the gubernatorial race was sent on to Edwards’ leadership PAC, and the group has secured new funding for the district attorney’s race, she said.

A list of donors to the group was not immediately available. The group's chairman is Anthony Marullo, a real estate developer.

The organization is not supporting any specific candidate against Cannizzaro, Greene said.

Also if that is the same Anthony Marullo I'm thinking of then, yes, he is "a real estate developer." That's a bit of an understatement, though.  Marullo's family has owned the French Market Restaurant for decades. Here is an amusing story from 2016 about Marullo's dispute with a health inspector he says was shaking the restaurant down.  The family also controls numerous other properties including several hundred apartments in several locations as well as a somewhat controversial CCs franchise. 

As for their interest in the District Attorney's office, we can only guess what that might be.  The PAC spokesperson says they plan to go after Leon's record on prosecuting domestic abuse cases as well as his use of so called "fake subpoenas"  to compel witnesses to testify. While we agree that those things are bad, we'd like to know more about what is actually motivating this PAC's (currently anonymous) contributors and the Marullos specifically.   Because odds are it's something besides just an earnest concern for the victims of Cannizzaro's practices.

QOTD

Jason Williams:

Councilman Jason Williams, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, said in a statement announcing Wednesday’s meeting that there has been “an increasing amount of reactionary comments and decisions based upon a belief that juvenile crime is on the rise.” Police data doesn’t back the perceived trend, he said, and more information and discussion is needed ahead of “crafting new policies or clinging to old ones.”

“The premise of juvenile intervention must not be based on a single bad news cycle,” Williams said.

He's talking here a little bit about LaToya Cantrell's "reactionary" curfew enforcement policy. He could just as well extend that to her administration's embrace of invasive surveillance and predictive policing.  Or he could talk about her punitive.. almost vengeful.. approach to traffic enforcement. And for that matter he could comment on his colleagues' imposition of absurd fines for parking violations and minor breaches of bicycle etiquette.  Generally speaking, this supposedly "progressive" mayor and council have been remarkable in their enthusiasm for aggressive "reactionary" police practices.

None of them have been quite as boorish as Leon Cannizzaro, of course.

Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, who declared juvenile crime “out of control” in April, has participated in recent summits with city leaders to arrive at solutions. In a statement Tuesday, he commended Cantrell, the council and court officials for their efforts yet called for holistic efforts as well as “meaningful consequences” for violent youth criminals and parents who don’t supervise them.

“While some continue to advocate for coddling juvenile offenders at all costs, others are recognizing the very real trauma their violent acts are inflicting upon our community and are realistic about the need to restore accountability into our juvenile justice system,” Cannizzaro said in a statement.

The children will not be "coddled."

Anyway, Leon is up for reelection next year. Williams is one expected challenger but, as we've seen this week, there are better models out there to emulate. City Council is holding a hearing this afternoon about juvenile criminal justice policy.  Maybe they'll have something new to say there. 

Time to start finding candidates for DA

I think we have our first contender.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said Crawford has "falsely" portrayed herself as a licensed lawyer, and Chief District Defender Derwyn Bunton said he has sidelined her while his office looks into whether she should have been handling cases.

“We're gathering information and working to resolve it. Until we get more information, she is not authorized to appear on our behalf or on any client's behalf in court,” Bunton said.

Attempts to contact Crawford were not immediately successful.

I'm not even really joking.  I mean, since when has Cannizzaro cared about what's real and what's fake, anyway? Besides, look, a bunch of people might get their convictions overturned now.

Defendants who entered guilty pleas with Crawford at their side could challenge their conviction. Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said those cases would have to be considered on an individual basis, if it's confirmed that Crawford was ineligible.

"Each case is still going to be looked at on a case-by-case basis to see whether she provided substandard legal advice and whether that advice caused prejudice to a client," Ciolino said. "It doesn’t turn into an automatic get out of jail free card."

An excellent start, as the saying goes. 

The bail industry

Doing pretty good business in this city according to a new report released this week by the Vera Insitute.

The report argues that money bail and conviction fees are unjust, disproportionately harm black people, do not increase public safety and end up unnecessarily costing taxpayers.

“The extraction of wealth is a terrible suppression of economic and racial equity in this city,” Jon Wool, the Director of Justice Policy at Vera’s New Orleans office and one of the co-authors of the report, told The Lens.

According to the report, in 2017 New Orleans residents paid $6.8 million dollars for bail fees and premiums and $1.9 million in conviction fees. The majority of those costs — 88 percent of bail premiums and 69 percent of conviction fees — were paid by black families.

The current system of money bail also fails to keep the city safe, the report argues.

“In New Orleans, 65 percent of people arrested for the most serious crimes or who are flagged as high risk for other reasons avoid jail by paying bail,” the report says. Meanwhile, it claims, many are incarcerated simply because they can’t afford to bond out.

“We are using government’s most oppressive  tool — incarceration — in circumstances where it’s wholly unwarranted,” Wool said. “And it singles out poor people and black people, all in the name of raising revenues for government agencies and politically powerful for-profit industry.”

“That’s morally wrong. Bad policy, and morally wrong.”

Vera's report further proposes that by ending the cash bail system, the city can actually save as much as $8 million a year which it should spend on the courts, the DA, and the public defender and eliminate the "user pay" system that currently prevails. 

But, of course, it won't be that simple. People have vested interests in maintaining the $8.7 million industry as it is. DA Cannizzaro sounds like he's making his pushback against reforms a central theme of his reelection campaign. During the recent legislative session, lawmakers voted to bail out the bail bondsmen, so to speak, by retroactively approving $6 million worth of new fees they had been sticking their customers with. And, of course, the Mayor recently endorsed a plan that allows judges to lock up more juvenile defendants by ignoring a standard risk assessment tool.

So there's a lot of heavy lifting to come still if we want to get out from under this oppressive system.  Here's the link to Vera's report. 

Leon's "silent majority"

The hard right position Cannizzaro has staked out ahead of next year's DA election might be surprising given the context. The conversation on criminal justice policy has shifted in recent years enough to allow for the success of a few mild sentencing reforms, an end to the state's non-unanimous jury law, and popular sympathy for the ongoing legal effort to end so-called "debtor's prisons." 

But Leon insists that a "silent majority" of New Orleanians are laying in wait to push back against this, again, rather weak tide of cautious reform. When we noticed this ramping up last month it laid to rest our doubts that Cannizzaro would even seek reelection.  He's already in campaign mode.

Actually he's already in the second phase of  campaign mode. When the Lens caught up with him his spokesperson this week, they already found him playing to both sides a little bit.

In a statement, Cannizzaro’s spokesman Ken Daley said it would be “premature” to comment on an election that is nearly two years away. But he defended Cannizzaro’s record, saying the DA supported criminal justice reform programs when he believed they would work.

“The DA makes no apologies for aggressively prosecuting violent criminals,” Daley said. “That does not mean he opposes reform efforts, if they are rooted in common sense and not simply a grab for grant dollars.”

That's pretty clever.  New Orleanians are so gaslighted by a cycle of violent crime met with decades of "lock em up" rhetoric that they have readily embraced mass surveillance as well as gentrifying efforts such as crackdowns on bars and corner stores and music venues. So it's reasonable to assume a wariness of criminal justice reform from a significant slice of the electorate. Maybe this doesn't constitute a "silent majority" but it probably does mean Cannizzaro has a solid base from which to reach out.  Any opposition campaign will have a lot more work to do than he has.

Welp, Leon is running

There had been speculation that Cannizzaro might be ready to hang it up in 2020.  But this sure sounds like campaign rhetoric to me.  The worst kind too.

In 2015, Cannizzaro signed onto a grant application for a study aimed at reducing the jail population. But he turned into a critic of the project after the District Attorney’s Office was cut out of the grant award.

“When I see public safety being imperiled by ill-conceived policy decisions and social experiments, I … tend to speak my mind,” said Cannizzaro, New Orleans’ top prosecutor since 2008. “The silent majority of New Orleans residents who are concerned about their safety can no longer wait to speak up. We need caring citizens, we need business leaders, we need influential donors and we especially need voters to start raising your voices in defense of rational policy decisions, public safety and common sense.”

It's been clear for a while that Leaon has a nose for money since his philosophy is changeable in accordance with whether or not anybody is giving him some.  But at least now that he is into this quasi-fascistic fear baiting appeal to a "silent majority"routine,  he does us the favor of coming right out and saying he wants the attention of  some "business leaders" and "influential donors." 

In any case, this all means he's either running for reelection or there is some other behind the scenes funding squabble we aren't privy to at the moment.

Leon isn't going to run

I mean it's early but think about it.

But whether he will face off against Cannizzaro, who will be 67 in 2020, is unclear. The district attorney, who is nearing the end of his second six-year term, has not said publicly whether he will seek re-election. On Wednesday, he declined to answer questions on the matter directly, instead referring an Advocate reporter to his spokesman.

The spokesman later issued a statement that did little to clarify Cannizzaro's plans. The statement said that "the job aspirations of others are immaterial," and that Cannizzaro and his staff "remain focused on doing our jobs of prosecuting criminals, enforcing our laws and advocating for the many crime victims of New Orleans."

I know I know.... just gonna focus on the process.. etc.  Great way to get in the mood for Bama Week.  But, again, what are the odds that a guy already passed retirement age is going to want to run in what looks to be a tough election and then have to go back and do six more years of  grinding away at The Process?  I wouldn't, would you?

On to 2020

Yeah yeah I have a bunch of stuff to say about the November 6 elections. But, in Louisiana, we're really looking ahead to next year's state government races which will more or less kick off as soon as the midterm results are in.  And, then, of course, there is this.

City Council President Jason Williams told a packed New Orleans Film Festival audience Tuesday night that he’s in the 2020 race for Orleans Parish district attorney.

Williams, 45, made plain what many political observers had long expected: that he’ll take another run at a position he sought a decade ago, when he ran a distant third to Leon Cannizzaro.

Cannizzaro, who is nearing the end of his second six-year term as district attorney, has not said publicly whether he will seek re-election.

That's a whole cycle and a half away but it's something everyone has been waiting to talk about.  As DA, Leon has been just about the purest embodiment you could conjure of the brutality and injustice our legal system visits on the poor and vulnerable.  A lot of people will be champing at the bit to get after him.   At the same time, he's possibly the toughest and most savvy politician in the city. If he decides to run for reelection it will be because he believes he can win.

As for Jason Williams, it's possible that he could have been mayor if he'd decided to try for that last year.  But he's had an eye on this race for a long time.  He's been increasingly disappointing as a councilman lately so this move might work out for the best all around.   It's true a lot can happen in two years. But if this race happens, it will get a lot of attention. 

Also for all their differences Jason and Leon do share a number of allies in common.  So if they do face off, people will have some interesting choices to make.  Which is why it wouldn't be surprising to see Leon find a graceful way to move out of the way at some point. Remember his name came up in the conversation for that US Attorney appointment recently.  That didn't happen but it was notable that he was apparently open to making a jump.  Keep that in mind.

Sad Leon is the real victim

John Bel's criminal justice reforms took his allowance away. Emphasis added here by me for fun.

Cannizzaro also complained that the funding wasn't being used to help victims more, specifically that it wasn't being given victims' programs operated by district attorneys.

"We must also be sure, in the rush toward criminal justice reform, the most important demographic is not forgotten or neglected. I speak of the victims of these offenders," Cannizzaro said. "I am hopeful that as justice reinvestment moves forward, that the victims of violent crime and those that advocate for them, will receive a more equitable share of the funds."

Most of the offenders affected by the criminal justice overhaul -- including those who have had their sentences shortened in 2017 -- didn't commit crimes that involve victims. The focus of the criminal justice overhaul was on prisoners who committed nonviolent crimes. Over half of the crimes committed in Louisiana are nonviolent offenses without victims, said officials with the Department of Corrections.

Victims services also are getting a boost in funding thanks to the criminal justice overhaul. The law requires that 20 percent of any savings that is pumped back into the criminal justice system from the criminal justice overhaul be spent on victim services. Edwards announced this week that $1.7 million more is available for victim assistance because of the prison population reduction, though it's not going to programs run by the district attorneys.

The most significant way in which the reforms affect victims of violent crimes at all is in the form of the nice little funding boost it provides for victims services.  Leon doesn't care so much about that as he does that he isn't seeing any of the money himself.  Sounds like somebody's got a victim complex.

"Bond angels"

Okay let's first make some statements for the record. Posting bail bonds on behalf of people who can't afford it is a terrific harm reduction model. And since this organization is also working to end the cash bail system itself, they deserve support. Let's be clear about that at least. 

A 31-year-old man sat in the New Orleans jail for 15 days this June until he got surprising news from his attorney: Someone was posting his $2,500 bail for a heroin possession arrest. It wasn’t his fiancée, who had been trying to scrounge up the cash. “Bonded out by who?” he recalled asking. “I couldn’t believe it. They just picked me.”

The answer was an organization called the New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund. Until this month, it has flown under the radar — except for the lucky defendants awaiting trial who have been released thanks to its money. The group's founders include Joshua Cox, a senior adviser to Mayor LaToya Cantrell who has continued posting bails since Cantrell took office, including that of the man who was arrested for heroin possession.

To the man released from jail, who asked to remain anonymous, they are the “bond angels.” His charge was refused by prosecutors the day after his release.

I'm a little curious about the Advocate's position here. This article mentions Cox's relationship with Cantrell several times.  The impression one gets is they intend it to be a hit piece on her somehow.  But tying her to a cause like this hardly seems like it should reflect poorly on her.

In any case, it is much to the Freedom Fund's credit that it has pissed off Leon Cannizzaro.  For this they probably deserve some sort of medal.

Cannizzaro declined an interview request, but he made his feelings clear in a statement.
“This is a very disturbing set of circumstances,” he said.

Family members or friends who post a cash bail with their own money will encourage a defendant to show up in court when ordered, he said. Otherwise, they stand to lose their money. “But when there is some outside group, some agency we don’t know anything about, simply posting the bond for the individual and walking away, then it gives the defendant no reason, no incentive to show up. And so he doesn’t have to be accountable,” he continued.

Still, having said all of that, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room here. As much as we support the Freedom Fund's work, in this case it must be said that they are, in fact, terrible people. 

In an interview on Tuesday, Medbery and another group member, software developer Chris Laibe, said the Freedom Fund sprang out of the same concerns the federal judge had about the New Orleans bail system.

Medbery and Laibe said a group of entrepreneurs like them, under the name of the Krewe de Nieux, had been looking for a way to change the city’s criminal justice system.

That may seem like a small thing for now. But just make a note of it. It's likely to become relevant sooner or later.  

Leon is delinquent

What happens if you ignore a fake subpoena? Is it any less or more a penalty than ignoring an order to turn over your files on fake subpoenas?

Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office still has not provided information to the New Orleans City Council about its use of fake subpoenas, more than a month after Cannizzaro told council members he would. And Council President Jason Williams wants to know why.

In a letter to Cannizzaro obtained by The Lens, Williams is requesting that Cannizzaro provide the information, which the council requested last fall. At the time, Cannizzaro estimated it would be available by mid-May.

“We are now beyond the timeline you provided for disclosure, however several items remain outstanding,” Williams wrote. Williams’ spokeswoman Katie Hunter-Lowrey said the letter was delivered Wednesday morning.

Or maybe it's not an order. Williams only "requested" the information from Cannizzaro's office, right? But then I guess a fake subpoena isn't really an order either so we're back to the original question.

Fittingly, the answer is, the deadline isn't really a deadline.

In a letter to the council, Cannizzaro said that compiling the additional information would take time because it doesn’t keep a centralized inventory of documents in its case files. Finding it would require a manual review of 150,000 cases. That review had begun, he wrote, but it could take “as long as six months.”

“It has now been over seven months since your response to the Council, and we have received no supplemental information,” Williams wrote in his letter. “I hereby request that you provide the supplemental data … or provide justification for why this information is being withheld.”

Earlier this month, Cannizzaro’s spokesman Ken Daley told The Lens that the six-month timeline “was an estimate, not a deadline.”

This is probably as okay with Jason as it is with Leon. It means he can keep writing letters and asking about this for several more months getting us closer to the time when the two end up running against each other anyway.