The state Supreme Court has temporarily disqualified a Lafayette City Court judge after a video indicated that Judge Michelle Odinet made racial slurs in the wake of a burglary attempt at her home.
The video, which has gone viral, seems to show Odinet and others watching a surveillance video of police capturing a Black man who allegedly attempted a car burglary at the judge’s family’s Bendel Gardens home earlier this month. Odinet is heard to say, “We have a (N-word). It’s a (N-word), like a roach.”
In response to a motion filed by Odinet, the Louisiana Supreme Court on Dec. 16 ordered that the judge be disqualified from her judicial duties without pay pending a review of her actions. The high court also ordered a retired judge, Ronald Cox, to be assigned to the Lafayette City Court to assist with the docket in Odinet’s absence.
Odinet’s attorney said it is uncertain whether she would attempt to return to the bench in the future.
“Judge Odinet is humiliated, embarrassed and sorry for what she has done and the trouble that she has caused to her community,” Dane Ciolino told the Louisiana Record in an email. “In the weeks to come, she will consider what's best for her and her community in the long term.”
Odinet’s remarks were condemned by Gov. John Bel Edwards, the Urban League of Louisiana and other groups. The district attorney for New Orleans, Jason Williams, said his office’s Civil Rights Division would review cases prosecuted by Odinet when she worked as an assistant district attorney in Orleans Parish.
“The language attributed to Judge Odinet last week is deeply concerning to any person who genuinely cares about fair outcomes in our criminal system,” Williams said in a prepared statement this week. “... The casual dehumanization displayed by Judge Odinet raises serious questions about her impartiality and the presence of bias and discrimination in her work on the bench and during her time as a prosecutor.”
Odinet prosecuted juvenile delinquencies and adult felonies such as rape, narcotics use and first-degree murder when she worked in the District Attorney’s Office prior to her election to the bench on Nov. 3, 2020, according to the Lafayette City Court.
Her disqualification by the state Supreme Court was supported by six justices, but Justice Jefferson Hughes dissented.
“While I condemn the language reported in the media, at this point all we have are media reports,” Hughes said in his dissent. “I would like to see some hard facts as to who said what and when. This situation did not happen in a vacuum.”