New Orleans, La. -- Judge Ben Willard of Section C at Criminal District Court says he can't stay quiet any longer about a recent Metropolitan Crime Commission report on the efficiency of judges.
"The information that was put out there to the public was misleading," says Willard.
The report shows a decrease in efficiency across the board at Criminal Court for 2011. Judge Karen Herman ranked first in efficiency, while Judge Ben Willard ranked next to last on the list.
The overall rankings are based on the numbers of open felony cases, the percent of felony cases more than a year old and how long it took to close the felony cases in that section of court.
Judge Willard says the report ignores the amount of jury trials that take place, which he says contributes to the amount of time that other cases in his court remain open.
"When you're involved in a jury trial, you cannot address ordinary things that may be on the docket, and the difficulty that may be involved in a jury trial at times will dictate that the case itself may take a longer period to try," says Willard.
Willard says another thing the statistics do not reflect is continuances that he often grants in Section C. He says, if the defense or prosecution asks for a continuance in a case and he doesn't grant it, the case will be dismissed, essentially ending it.
Judge Willard says the prosecutors will then re-file, basically starting over with a new case number, and he believes it's a waste of resources.
"For purposes of this report that was put out by the Crime Commission, that was treated as two separate cases when in reality, it's the same bill of information, the same defendants, same evidence and police officers. It's essentially the same case," says Willard
Judge Willard goes on to say the report does not take into account the extra responsibilities he takes on as a drug court judge.
"The report takes no consideration into the time, effort and energy without additional compensation that the drug court judges put in on top of their ordinary duties here at court," says Willard.
"Judge Herman also operates a drug offender court and she also operates a mental health court, so she operates two specialized courts, manages her docket and is still able to lead the court," says Rafael Goyeneche.
Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission is sticking by the report.
"There is still way too much disparity between the top-performing judges and the bottom-performing judges of the court, which indicates it's less about the types of cases and more about the management," says Goyeneche.
"I've been tagged as one of the hardest working people in this building and I will continue according to my ethics and my judicial philosophy. And if that takes a little bit longer than some, according to the statistics in the report, then I have to move forward because that's what works for me," says Willard.
Goyeneche says the standards used to measure the performance of the judges are recognized by the National Center of State Courts as valid. He also wants to point out that the numbers were not compared with other courts around the nation but instead, they were compared to the other judges at Criminal District Court.
