Lafeyette Judge sprung being Racist

Post Reply New Topic

Lafayette citizens and community organizers are filing complaints against Judge Michelle Odinet, and criminal defense attorneys are asking her to recuse herself from the cases of their defendants after racial slurs were captured in a video recorded inside the judge’s home was circulated on Monday.
https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/ne ... 9ea5f.html

On the video, Odinet’s family gathered to watch home security footage of an attempted burglary that took place Saturday in their driveway. Family members shout the N-word multiple times and make other racial comments toward the man accused of breaking into a car.

The clip, where a voice is heard saying, “And mom’s yelling n-----, n-----,” to which another female voice answered: “We have a n-----, It’s a n-----, like a roach,” also prompted at least one criminal defense attorney to ask the judge to recuse herself from their cases.

In the statement, Edward ‘Ted’ James, chairman of the Louisina Judiciary Commission called Odinet’s behavior “dangerous as she oversees a vast amount of cases in her Judiciary, that include African-Americans who appear before her in court, in the city of Lafayette.” He added, “a sitting Judge should not use any racial slurs or show bias against any specific group of individuals.”

Lafayette City Marshal Reggie Thomas called for Odinet to be "held accountable” for the words on the video.

I wonder how much of the judiciary are like this woman? she looks like a young progressive



The judge has asked for forgiveness.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michelle ... 4e3c31aBut I think her number is up.

THAT person...is a judge??????

Sorry...I am a heterosexual male...who grew up in the 20th century. Am having trouble adjusting to this world ...in which people like judges can be sexually attractive.

There are three kinds of folks I never thought I would be sexually attracted to...judges, politicians, and cartoon characters. Then came Banizar Bhotto (prime minister of Pakistan), and the Littlest Mermaid movie. and finally this.

Future shock.

Anyway....

What were you saying about her?

Likely, neither voice on the video is her voice, as parties involved would of identified her voice.


Hold her accountable for her mother's / family's words?

I watched a couple of podcasts where it's obvious the "mom" in the video is her. In any case she's already incriminated herself by apologising so not sure why you are making that an issue?

IKR....I'd turn into a MAGA for her as well (if I wasn't married of course).

Her apology does not take responsibility for being one of the voices.

So I am just wondering if she is expected to take responsibility for others.

I believe she can't be sacked so she has to resign. She is facing a growing chorus of local Lafayette lawyers and members of the public to resign. I can't imagine she can face her colleagues.

But there again she is pretty hot so I am willing to give her an n-pass. Plus the black guy did try and rob her.

Federal judges can be removed by an act of Congress. State and local judges can be removed by their state and local legislatures. The exact processes vary.

She can start by being responsible for herself.

Her "apology" reads:

"I was given a sedative at the time of the video. I have zero recollection of the video and the disturbing language used during it. Anyone who knows me and my husband, knows this is contrary to the way we live our lives."

And honestly, "I was sedated and don't remember a thing" is NOT something I want to hear a judge say either.

"This isn't who I am!" is what every bigot says when they get caught being who they are.

“The dog ate my homework” does not work in that situation.

As long as it doesn't affect her work, it's no big deal. If one was worried about bias, you could maybe find this by breaking down the cases based on "race" and seeing if there is any evident.

I actually have more respect for someone that dislikes something but is still impartial, as that's an extra hurdle to overcome for objectivity.

I was given a sedative.???

By whom? For what? Which sedative?

I don’t remember a thing???

This is a judge and it is the best she can come up with?

Sheeesh.

I agree with your last statement.

However, few saints can maintain that kind of impartiality. And many, many racists are blind to their own prejudices.

It's how it goes, but I hold out for people to keep their biases out of things when it comes to something as important as criminal justice, and when they do, I respect them for it greatly. At the social level, I also do of course, though it's not as important, as criminal justice involves whether someone is free or not for whatever the executive thinks they did wrong. Bias can put innocent people away, or give them harsher punishments than they normally would receive.

Unless bias can be shown, I would never worry about an "ism" or anything else in whatever walk of life, as we all hold opinions, ideals and thoughts that others won't like, and what society thinks are appropriate opinions, ideals and thoughts at any given time is a fickle thing. That's just me though, as I grew up in the sticks and stones world, and being autistic sometimes gives you perspective when you're that odd one out that isn't really liked by the majority for your own opinions, ideals and thoughts (which the autism shapes; the simple thing as speaking the truth regardless, isn't well accepted due to obvious reasons).

Last edited by Dillogic on 16 Dec 2021, 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I am curious how the wheels would start turning for her removal? One thing she does not have in her favour is that the Lafeyette governor has attacked her
https://www.wbrz.com/news/governor-says ... ist-video/
Her son Eli has already faced the consequences of the recording (his was one of the voices) and has been removed from the LSU track and field team which will likely wreck his dreams of being a sports star or getting a university scholarship.

According to The Advocate, Odinet's attorney confirmed the judge was one of the people heard shouting the slur in the video. So she can't hide behind the defense that it wasn't her voice.

I have been reading about whether sedatives can diminish responsibility for what a person says and the answer seems to be no. Only drugs that are classed as hallucinogens can be bought into defense and then the person claiming they were not responsible for their statements would need to have a history of delusion or some type of mental illness that could reduce their personal responsibility.

It doesn't look good for the hot judge.

While it likely doesn't diminish responsibility, GABAergic sedatives, the agonists, lower inhibitions all the same as ethanol does. While it doesn't do it to me, it happens with others, and most have probably experienced it with ethanol to some extent, either with themselves or witnessing others. The extreme of these GABAergic sedatives, the Barbituate Sodium thiopental, was used as the "truth serum". One could argue it could have revealed something the individual never would reveal normally, so that it's obviously not an active part of the individual's decisions, which could be a fair argument when it's just "words". We all will say inappropriate things if we have no filters (hello autism).

I wouldn't get too hung up on a racial slur, but this should likely be grounds for an investigation into bias simply due to the position of this individual; you can't be too cautious when it comes to such a thing. I wouldn't call it grounds for dismissal on its own, but I'm not really sensitive in these matters. It's just words if there's no bias.

Sedatives might act in the same way as alcohol intoxication in impairing executive function in the brain and (as you outlined) inhibiting filtering of her inner thoughts. I think a psychiatrist might also posit that the judge's adjective to describe the robber reveals how she attributes being black with the criminal act she was witnessing on her security camera footage.


It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the aforementioned use of the adjective (n-word) gives some insight into how she views black people which (the argument goes) compromises past, present and future cases where she has sat as a judge in court.,