A hearing committee for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board has recommended that former Lafayette City Court Judge Michelle Odinet not face discipline in her role as an attorney for using a racial slur at her home in December 2021.
The committee’s decision was based on a Dec. 13 hearing in Lafayette at the John M. Shaw United States Courthouse for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, where the three-member panel heard arguments from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and Odinet’s attorney.
The disciplinary case centered on a December 2021 video taken inside Odinet’s home that captured the judge and family commenting on home surveillance footage of an armed burglary at the home the night before. Odinet, her children and their friends came across a man going through a family car after the judge picked the group up from a night out.
In the video, Odinet calls the man, who was Black, a “n—--r.”
Odinet resigned from the bench in the aftermath of the video going public.
Her replacement, Lafayette City Court Judge Jules Edwards, was sworn-in on Jan. 4. Edwards, who is Black, defeated Roya Boustany in a December runoff to win the seat.
In presenting their case, the ODC argued Odinet violated Canons 1 and 2A of the Louisiana Code of Judicial Conduct and Rule 8.4(a) and 8.4(d) of the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct, which governs the work and professional behavior of attorneys.
The ODC sought punishment under a Louisiana Supreme Court rule that states a former judge’s behavior on the bench can fall under attorney disciplinary board oversight when the misconduct “...would have been grounds for lawyer discipline.”
While the three-person board agreed Odinet violated the two cited judicial canons dealing with integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, the panel found Odinet’s use of the racial slur outside of a legal setting wasn’t grounds for lawyer discipline.
The committee wrote in their report that the Office of Disciplinary Counsel fell short of proving that the breaches of judicial conduct had corresponding consequences under the conduct code governing attorneys. The three-person committee said that the cases the ODC cited in their arguments all pertained to work and client-related offenses, and did not address a private incident like Odinet’s.
“There is no ground for lawyer discipline under the Louisiana Rules of Professional Conduct for profanities and undignified/uncivil language used by a lawyer in their own home,” the committee report said.
The hearing committee also noted the consequences Odinet has already experienced related to the fallout from her speech, including “widespread public condemnation, lost income and impact on family and children,” exceed the ODC’s proposed discipline, which was suggested to range from public discipline to a deferred suspension.
“This Committee further finds Respondent’s self-imposed discipline, resigning as judge, more onerous than any discipline sought by ODC such that any requested discipline is superfluous,” the committee report said.
The committee report was filed into the record by the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board on Monday and a copy of the document was provided to The Acadiana Advocate by Odinet’s attorney, Dane Ciolino.
Ciolino said while Odinet’s speech was “completely unacceptable,” the case boiled down to an issue of government overreach, not of individual punishment.
“I think she and I are both pleased with the result because this means an occupational license for a lawyer, or for anyone else, can’t be placed in jeopardy by the use of profanity in a private home,” Ciolino said by phone Monday.
If the Office of Disciplinary Counsel objects to the committee’s findings, the case will go before an adjudicative committee for the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, then on to the Louisiana Supreme Court. If neither party objects to the committee’s decision, the hearing report will go straight to the Louisiana Supreme Court for final decision, per the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board’s website.
Ciolino said he has not heard whether the ODC plans to lodge an objection or allow the case to move forward.