EBR DUMPS DRUG COURT, REALIGNS JUDGES' DUTIES

As of noon Friday, East Baton Rouge Parish state district judges
changed the way felony narcotics cases are handled. Judges abolished
the Drug Court that has handled those cases for 12 years. State
District Judge Don Johnson, who has been presiding over the Drug Court
for 17 months, will begin taking on the same variety of criminal cases
that the other seven sections of state criminal courts handle in Baton
Rouge.

The change will give Johnson about two months to clear or drastically
reduce his docket of Drug Court cases, 19th Judicial District Court
Administrator Jo Bruce said.

The final order that changed the rule differed from the proposal that
judges approved in March. In the proposal, Johnson would have had a
year to clear the Drug Court docket before getting new cases.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Doug Moreau, whose office
has opposed the change, said late Friday that his office will no
longer have attorneys assigned exclusively to narcotics cases.

"I don't have the people to do that," Moreau said. "I've got to have
people to man (Johnson's court)."

Moreau said that means all assistant district attorneys will handle
narcotics along with the other criminal cases.

The same is true for the East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Public
Defenders.

Mike Mitchell, director of the Public Defender's Office, said he, too,
lacks the number of personnel needed to have attorneys assigned
strictly to narcotics. As with the prosecutors, Mitchell said the
public defenders from the Drug Court will take on a variety of
criminal cases.

"That's the only way we can do it," Mitchell said.

In addition to the changes to narcotics cases, the rule changes for
the 19th Judicial District also apply to how the cases get assigned to
judges.

In the past, cases were assigned to the judge on duty during the time
of arrest. Under the new rule, the case will be assigned based on
which judge is on duty when the crime occurs.