State v. Simone
| Decision Date | 30 June 1923 |
| Docket Number | 25673 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. SIMONE. Ex parte SIMONE |
Conviction and sentence annulled.
N. H Nunez, of St. Bernard, and Fred A. Ahrens, of New Orleans for applicant.
OPINION
O'NIELL, C. J.
Relator, being prosecuted on a bill of information for the crime of attempting to bribe an officer, filed a petition for recusation of the judge. When the attorney was about to read the petition in open court, the judge asked whether it was verified by the defendant's oath, and, being informed that it was so verified, he gave warning that he would hold the defendant accountable if the petition contained any disrespectful language. The petition was then read to the judge by defendant's attorney.
He alleged, as cause for recusation, that the judge was, personally and politically, so biased and prejudiced against the defendant, and was so interested in the prosecution, that he could not give the defendant a fair or an impartial trial. In support of the motion, it was alleged specifically that the judge had expressed anxiety to try the case, and that the prosecution had been in fact instigated by the judge as a last and desperate attempt to punish the accused for not supporting him in the last preceding election.
The judge did not refer the motion to a judge ad hoc, or allow he defendant an opportunity to offer proof of his allegations. Deeming the allegations false and defamatory, and "frivolous and absurd," as the judge sad, he peremptorily overruled the motion for recusation.
The case was then tried by a jury of 12, and resulted in a unanimous verdict of acquittal. Court then adjourned sine die. "Shortly after adjournment," as the minutes recite, "the court was reopened." The judge then ordered the sheriff tobring Joseph Simone into court. The order being obeyed, the judge summarily adjudged the defendant guilty of contempt, for the language used in his petition for recusation, and sentenced him to ten days' imprisonment in the parish jail. At the same time the judge told the defendant that he was really guilty of the crime of which the jury had acquitted him, and that, if he should ever be convicted on any charge in that court, he would get the limit.
The allegations on which the judge was asked to recuse himself were, for the most part, the same that were declared sufficient, if true, to compel the judge to recuse himself in the case of State v. Banta, 122 La. 235, 47 So. 538...
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State v. Davis
...had a material interest in the prosecution. For that reason it was held that the motion disclosed a cause for recusation. In State v. Simone, 154 La. 73, 97 So. 302, the was that the defendant was not guilty of contempt for having made, in his motion for recusation, substantially the same a......
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State ex rel. De Armas v. Platt
... ... instructor ... Relators' ... counsel strenuously argue that these two grand jurors could ... not be adjudged guilty of contempt of court and removed for ... legal cause when they acted fully within their legal rights ... as such officials, citing State v. Simone, 154 La ... 73, 97 So. 302 ... Generally, it may be said that all public officials are ... entrusted with certain powers upon which the lawmakers, in ... their wisdom, have placed limitations and restrictions. Grand ... jurors, as public officials, are no exception to this ... ...
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