On Friday, August 9, 2024, Nola.com reported that Judge Vercell Fiffie of St. John the Baptist Parish is facing discipline from Louisiana’s Judiciary Commission for repeatedly rejecting search warrants.

According to the report, the Judiciary Commission recommended that Judge Fiffie be suspended without pay for six months after complaints were filed by fellow judges and law enforcement officials in St. John Parish, starting a few months after he was elected to the bench in 2021. The complaints alleged that Judge Fiffie was unreceptive to feedback and refused to sign search warrants, slowing down investigations into cases involving child pornography, child abuse, domestic violence and other matters.

The Judiciary Commission’s investigation found that Judge Fiffie engaged in willful misconduct and demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the law by failing to act in a timely manner on warrants. He rejected over 27% of warrants presented to him in 2021, which was vastly higher than the rejection rates of the other two judges, who both rejected less than 3% of warrants. One of the judges who filed a complaint, Judge Nghana Lewis, had two bench warrants recalled by Judge Fiffie despite already having a case pending with the Judiciary Commission regarding a prior warrant.

In interviews with the Judiciary Commission, Judge Fiffie did not accept responsibility for his actions and insisted he recalled the warrants because he believed the defendants were present in court, despite this not being true in at least one instance. The article notes Judge Lewis expressed concerns about Judge Fiffie’s “obdurate refusal” to follow orders from higher courts.

Members of law enforcement in St. John Parish also testified against Judge Fiffie, including Sheriff Mike Tregre who called his behavior “abnormal.” In several cases, Judge Fiffie’s delays in signing warrants reportedly put investigations at risk or forced police to seek warrants from other judges. This included a case where a neighborhood had to be locked down for two hours until Judge Fiffie approved an arrest warrant for a domestic violence situation involving an armed suspect.

When asked during his hearing to define probable cause, Judge Fiffie described it as “fluid” and said it depends on the facts of each situation.

The Judiciary Commission’s unanimous recommendation will now be considered by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which has final say and is not bound to the panel’s discipline ruling.

 

 

Source: Nola.com