Nearly 100 protestors packed 16th Judicial District Judge Anthony Thibodeaux’s courtroom Wednesday morning as he took up some administrative motions regarding a few of the more than 300 recusal motions the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has filed against Judge Lori Landry.

Wednesday’s hearings were primarily to continue some of the recusal motions filed against Landry and allotted to Thibodeaux until arguments could be heard on the hundreds of motions that have been filed over the last six weeks. Judge Gregory P. Aucoin is scheduled to hear evidence Dec. 13 and 14 on the first 27-page motion filed last month, asking that 16th JDC Judge Lori Landry be recused from hearing the attempted murder trial of Kerry Stokes.

“We won’t even have the discovery material until after Nov. 11,” Thibodeaux said. “This will be dealt with eventually, but there are things that need to get done before we get to these so that Judge Landry can have a fair hearing,” he said.

In one case, Assistant District Attorney Rob Vines asked for the recusal motion to be withdrawn because the case was not allotted to Landry. In the rest of the cases — approximately a dozen of them — Vines asked for continuances of the motion.

Thibodeaux approved all of the requests.

Before Thibodeaux arrived to start court, Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette spoke at length to the crowd that had gathered, many arriving an hour prior to the 10 a.m. start.

“This is about us, about our constitutional rights,” Rashad said. “It’s about the 16th JDC District Attorneys. They are the real bullies here.”

Since the initial motion was filed in the Stokes case on Sept. 17, the District Attorney’s Office has filed a copy of the motion in every criminal case it has brought before Landry in the three-parish 16th Judicial District, which encompasses St. Martin, Iberia and St. Mary parishes, amounting to hundreds of defendant’s cases that are at a standstill until a decision is made on the motion.

In his court presentation for the initial motion, Vines made it clear that the filing of the motions was an attempt to have Landry removed from hearing any criminal cases in the 16th Judicial District.

The filing of the hundreds of copies of the motion to recuse has stopped all activity on the criminal cases brought before Landry, meaning that the criminal cases of hundreds of defendants brought before her are stalled until the motions to recuse are addressed.

The basic premise of the motion is that Landry “is biased or prejudiced against (the District Attorney’s) office such that she cannot be fair or impartial.”

The motions, which are all basically identical, describe 36 separate incidents claiming Landry:

• Said prosecutors from the district attorney’s office incarcerated African-Americans more severely and at a higher rate than others, have improper motivations and engaged in “trickery.”

• Engaged in abusive, inappropriate and bullying behavior towards the prosecutors and staff,

• Threatened to stab an assistant district attorney in the ear with an ink pen,

• Physically intimidated an assistant district attorney for a perceived slight,

• Blamed a victim’s family for “allowing” their children to be victimized,

• Repeatedly engaged in in-court behavior calculated to humiliate prosecutors, and

• Refused to fairly and impartially apply the law.

Many of the comments cited in the motion have Landry claiming the District Attorney’s Office “knew or should have known” of irregularities in the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office prior to the federal convictions of nine officers in 2016.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” Landry said, according to the motion.

Landry has denied any bias on her part. She has also called the motion “frivolous and without merit.”

Rashad worked the largely African-American crowd, declaring that District Attorney Bo Duhé, Vines, and former District Attorney Phil Haney were conspiring against the black community.

“When our civil rights have been violated, we have to do these things for our children,” Rashad said, calling the filings to remove Landry from all criminal trials “B.S.-type motions.”

“They trained her,” New Iberia resident Kevin Broussard said. “So she knows their corruption. She saw the corruption when she was an assistant district attorney. Now she is a judge and is calling them out on it.”

Landry had served as an assistant district attorney in the 16th JDC prior to running for judge in 2002. At the time she ran for judge, she had the support of Duhé, Vines and Haney. She is up for re-election in 2020.

When Thibodeaux came into the courtroom, he immediately instructed all in court to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before taking his seat.

As Vines was explaining the first case, Rashad raised her hand. When Thibodeaux did not recognize her, she called out to him.

“Only attorneys may speak to the judge,” Thibodeaux said.

When Rashad continued, he told her again that only attorneys spoke to the judge, leading Rashad to mutter under her breath about how “that’s the arrogance of the judges.”

Thibodeaux had her removed from court.

“Bailiff, escort her out,” Thibodeaux said. Rashad went without argument.

After Vines’ motions were heard, the bulk of the audience left the courtroom to rally on the steps of the Iberia Parish Courthouse.

Broussard railed against Thibodeaux for having the spectators stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

“Don’t say the pledge if they aren’t going to respect your rights,” Broussard said.

The group gathered on the steps were led in prayer, then heard more from Rashad and Lafayette NAACP head Marja Broussard before two members of Landry’s family spoke.

“I’m prejudiced,” Iberia Parish District 2 Councilman Michael Landry said. “I’m Judge Lori Landry’s uncle and I am a parish councilman. We pay for this courthouse. We pay to keep it running. Like my brother (former District 96 Rep. Terry Landry) said, there’s a process if you want to remove a judge, through the Supreme Court. This isn’t it.”

Judge Landry’s mother, Eva Landry, also spoke before the group disbanded.

“She would want this movement to be proper,” she said. “Like she says, if you want respect, you have to give respect. That’s what we are all about and that’s what we’re going to do. If I see anything out of order, I’m going to make it stop.”