Global Courant 2023-04-29 18:27:40
A federal judge overseeing New Orleans’ Roman Catholic bankruptcy backed down in an overnight reversal that came a week after an Associated Press report showed he donated tens of thousands of dollars to the archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church in the case involving nearly 500 victims of clergy sexual abuse.
U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry initially announced hours after the AP report that he would stay on the case, citing the opinion of fellow federal judges that no “reasonable person” could question his impartiality. But amid growing pressure and persistent questions, he changed course late Friday in a concise one-page dossier.
“I have decided to withdraw from this matter in order to avoid any possible appearance of personal bias or prejudice,” Guidry wrote.
The 62-year-old lawyer has been overseeing the 3-year-old bankruptcy appeal, and his challenge is likely to confuse the matter and trigger new hearings and appeals for any resulting ruling he has made.
However, legal experts say that was the only course of action given the circumstances, citing federal law that calls for judges to step aside in any proceedings where their “impartiality may be reasonably questioned.”
“This was a clear and blatant conflict that had been going on for a while,” said Joel Friedman, a longtime New Orleans legal analyst and now a law professor at Arizona State University. “It creates exactly the problem that the rules are supposed to avoid, the impression on the public that he is not an impartial decision-maker.”
Guidry’s refusal underlines how closely intertwined the church is with the city’s power structure, a coziness perhaps best expressed when executives from the NFL’s New Orleans Saints secretly advised the archdiocese on public relations messages at the height of its clergy abuse crisis.
AP’s review of campaign finance data showed that since being nominated to the federal bench by then-President Donald Trump in 2019, Guidry donated nearly $50,000 to local Catholic charities from leftover political contributions from his decade as Louisiana Supreme Court justice. The bulk of that donation, $36,000, came in the months after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2020 amid a spate of sexual assault lawsuits.
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Guidry also served on the board of directors of Catholic Charities, the archdiocese’s charitable arm, between 2000 and 2008, as the archdiocese endured an earlier spate of sexual abuse lawsuits.
During the bankruptcy, Guidry regularly issued important rulings that changed the momentum of the bankruptcy and benefited the Archdiocese.
Last month, he upheld a $400,000 sanction against Richard Trahant, a veteran attorney for victims of clergy abuse who was accused of violating a sweeping confidentiality order when he warned a local school principal that his school had hired a priest who admitted to sexual abuse. to have committed. He also rejected at least one request for unsealing secret church documentspart of a wealth of data on clergy abuse in New Orleans stretching back decades.
Guidry referred the potential conflict to the Washington-based Code of Conduct Committee, which noted that none of the charities to which he donated “was or are an actual party” to the bankruptcy.
It also noted that Guidry’s eight years on the board of Catholic Charities ended more than a decade before bankruptcy and that his church contributions amounted to less than 25% of the campaign funds he had available to donate.
“Based on that advice and based on my assurance that I can be fair and impartial, I have decided not to back down,” Guidry told lawyers in the case on April 21.
But it was not clear what details Guidry shared with the committee, and he refused to release its advice. The advisory also raised eyebrows, as one of the judges Guidry consulted on the potential conflict, Jennifer Walker Elrod, will hear an appeal against the bankruptcy before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals next week.
“We have no reason to rely on this classified opinion because we have no idea what the analysis is,” said Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, adding that it was “perfectly reasonable to to doubt Guidry’s ability to act impartially under these circumstances.”
“The public should not rely on a judge’s personal assurance of his own righteousness,” Clark added. “The fact that he would even make this claim shows how misguided and ethically blind this judge is.”
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Mustian reported from New York.
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Contact AP’s global research team at Investigative@ap.org.
