Comments in alleged abuse case land judge in hot seat, again

A Houma judge disciplined for racial insensitivity has been brought back before the Louisiana Supreme Court to answer allegations that he belittled a woman who wanted a restraining order against her husband.

Justice Greg Guidry asked why 32nd District Judge Timothy Ellender was back before the Supreme Court only five years after his six-month suspension and orders to take a sociology course about racial diversity for wearing blackface at a Halloween party.

“That sanction was severe, but it didn’t prevent this from happening,” Guidry told the Timothy Ellender Jr., who represented his father at last Wednesday’s hearing.

“It’s a completely different incident,” the younger Ellender said. “That was about racial insensitivity.”

Guidry replied: “And this is insensitivity to women. That’s the big distinction you’re making? I see lots of similarities between the two cases: disrespectful, insensitive and insightful behavior.”

Judge Ellender admitted the facts of the case, which was on audiotape. The Supreme Court must decide a penalty.

The state Judicial Commission recommended public censure, saying the hearing March 2, 2007, didn’t include vulgarities or shouting.

At issue was a March 2, 2007 hearing in which Judge Ellender refused to keep in place an emergency restraining order obtained by Eula Smith Warren, calling her petition a vulgar word for “feces” and saying she could get a divorce but not a restraining order.

He also congratulated her husband, Charles Warren, for threatening to make his 2-year-old daughter’s “booty bleed” if she didn’t behave herself at a Subway restaurant.

“Can’t you find a better place to eat than that?” Ellender asked the couple.

He ruled that Charles Warren hadn’t abused his children or wife, and said, “Heat, big smoke, but no fire. Dismissed. You want a divorce, get a divorce. You’re not getting a TRO. See y’all later.”

Eula Warren wrote to the state Judiciary Commission a month later, prompting an investigation and a meeting at which Ellender admitted the facts of the case.

“I understand now why women don’t go to court,” she wrote. “That judge treated me just like my husband does. He gave my husband permission to abuse his wife and children.”

Ellender Jr. said his father had apologized to the commission and said he would like to apologize in person to Eula Warren.

“He had a bad day. He didn’t have his hearing aids in. He was rude, hurried, nothing to be proud of. But he was not out of control,” the younger Ellender argued.

Ellender said he wrote a letter of apology to Eula Warren after meeting with the commission in February, but she apparently had moved – the letter was returned.

“There is no letter of apology in the record,” Justice John Weimer said last Wednesday. “We can’t consider it.”

In the previous case, the white judge was sanctioned because he wore a Halloween costume in which he dressed as an inmate in an orange jumpsuit borrowed from the local sheriff, handcuffs, an Afro-type wig and black makeup.

Ellender was first elected in 1982 and has been returned to the bench five times.

Ellender said in 2004 that he meant no disrespect to black people and wore the costume only to complement his wife’s police costume.

Chief Justice Catherine Kimball said last week that victims of abuse are more fragile than many others who come before a district court.

“If anything, they should be treated with greater respect and not less,” Kimball said.

Ellender’s son argued that this was the first complaint about poor treatment to alleged victims of domestic violence.

“His desire to move his docket got the best of him that day,” Ellender Jr. said. “He had a full courtroom that day. He has promised to slow down and give litigants much more time. It wasn’t some crusade against victims.”