Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
Louisiana Supreme Court justices debated Tuesday whether to boot Baton Rouge Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts off the bench, repeatedly pressing her attorneys on why she doubled down on responses that the state's Judiciary Commission said were lies about her military service and insurance claims. Foxworth-Roberts, who was elected in 2020, is accused of lying about attaining the rank of captain in the U.S. Army, as well as having described herself on the campaign trail as a veteran of Desert Storm. She was just 16 during that conflict. Judiciary Commission members also took issue with insurance claims she filed during her campaign, when she said someone stole roughly $40,000 worth of jewelry and other goods from her car while she was campaigning. But Foxworth-Roberts filed a police report about the burglary from her home, never telling police that her car was three miles away when it was broken into. “It is this pervasive pattern of fundamental dishonesty that brings us unhappily here today," said Michelle Beaty, special counsel for the Judiciary Commission, as she argued Tuesday that the high court should strip Foxworth-Roberts of her judgeship. Doing so would be an extraordinarily rare step — it's been 16 years since the Supreme Court has disrobed a judge in Louisiana. “The court is more willing to accept human frailties, that you made a mistake and you learned from it, than dishonesty," said Chief Justice John Weimer during the hearing. Justice Jay McCallum repeatedly pressed Beaty on how the high court could issue such a harsh punishment for Foxworth-Roberts after recently agreeing to a far lighter punishment for one of her colleagues. He appeared to invoke the case of Baton Rouge District Judge Eboni Johnson Rose, who reached a consent agreement in the spring with the Judiciary Commission over a handful of verdicts that she issued from the bench. The Supreme Court agreed to suspend Johnson Rose for six months without pay, deferring all but two months of it. The high court had already placed her on a paid interim suspension before they took up her case, which McCallum described as a nine-month paid vacation. McCallum asked if there was a difference between sanctioning a judge who displayed problems on the bench that affected every day people in their courtroom, versus a judge whose problems were largely outside of the courtroom. Beaty said, though, that Foxworth-Roberts' issues bled over into her courtroom because her credibility was in question. Beaty also faulted Foxworth-Roberts for failing to cooperating with the Judiciary Commission's investigation, while court filings in Johnson Rose's case said she did cooperate. “You can be incompetent and cooperate and everything’s forgiven," McCallum said. “I just wish you would have given us the hammer six months ago to use here, but you missed that opportunity," he later added. Both Justices Cade Cole and Weimer invoked the phrase, "it's not the crime, but the cover up" in reference to Foxworth-Roberts' case. Cole said he understood her campaign ads generated confusion, but questioned why Foxworth-Roberts continued to obfuscate on answers that could have been explained once the Judiciary Commission investigation began. Those included her telling the Judiciary Commission in testimony that she'd reached the rank of captain, and that she failed to mention to police that her car break-in happened miles from the scene of where she reported it. Attorney Steve Irving, who represents Foxworth-Roberts, said that while Foxworth-Roberts did not pinpoint the exact location of the burglary to police, she also did not lie about it. “That’s maybe too fine a line for us to accept,” Weimer responded. Irving urged Supreme Court members to issue no more than a suspension for the judge. He defended Foxworth-Roberts, saying that when she answered "yes" to the question of whether she rose to the rank of captain in the Army, it was in response to a compound question from Judiciary Commission lawyers. “The details show this is not a removal case,” he said. He also sought to portray Foxworth-Roberts as a victim of an extortion scheme by a former campaign employee. The circumstances stressed her out, he said, affecting how she responded to the commission's investigation. "Are you suggesting that the quote unquote 'extortion' is why she lied?" asked Justice Piper Griffin. Irving responded saying Foxworth-Roberts did not lie. "And you're suggesting to this court that we would want judges on the bench who would respond to stress, which being a judge, being a lawyer, is an extremely stressful lifestyle that we professionally choose to be a part of," she said. "Are you suggesting that we should forgive that because of the outside circumstances of what is going on in your life?" This is a developing story that will be updated.
