Terrebonne Parish judge's costume draws criticism from NAACP
By DOUG SIMPSON
The Associated Press
11/10/03 3:47 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A south Louisiana NAACP branch is considering seeking a sanction against a white judge who appeared at a Halloween party in black face and wearing a prison jumpsuit and shackles around his wrists and ankles.
Judge Timothy C. Ellender, a state district judge in Terrebonne Parish, has acknowledged that he wore the costume, including an "afro" wig, but said it was a harmless joke. "It's a tempest in a teapot," he told The Courier of Houma.
Ellender did not immediately return a call for comment on Monday.
Jerome Boykin, president of the NAACP's Terrebonne Parish branch, said Monday that Ellender's costume stereotyped blacks as criminals and convicts.
"For a judge to take the time to paint his face black with shoe polish, put on an afro wig, a prison jumpsuit and shackles ... and walk around in public, I feel he ain't fit to be a judge," Boykin said.
Ellender has agreed to meet with Boykin and about 10 other black activists, elected officials and clergy this week to discuss the matter, Boykin said.
The black leaders will decide after the meeting whether to file a complaint to Louisiana's Judiciary Commission, which can censure and dismiss judges who violate the state's judicial code of conduct. The code requires that judges always behave in a manner that promotes public confidence in the system's fairness.
Boykin said he heard about the costume from several white people who attended the party at a seafood restaurant in Houma, about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans.
Ellender has drawn criticism in the past for keeping a shotgun in his courtroom and giving out unusual sentences.
He sentenced a man convicted of accidentally killing his best friend to regularly place flowers at the victim's gravesite. He sentenced a youth with chronic speeding violations to clean up trash from a bayou using the judge's pirogue, a flat-bottom boat similar to a canoe.
By DOUG SIMPSON
The Associated Press
11/10/03 3:47 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A south Louisiana NAACP branch is considering seeking a sanction against a white judge who appeared at a Halloween party in black face and wearing a prison jumpsuit and shackles around his wrists and ankles.
Judge Timothy C. Ellender, a state district judge in Terrebonne Parish, has acknowledged that he wore the costume, including an "afro" wig, but said it was a harmless joke. "It's a tempest in a teapot," he told The Courier of Houma.
Ellender did not immediately return a call for comment on Monday.
Jerome Boykin, president of the NAACP's Terrebonne Parish branch, said Monday that Ellender's costume stereotyped blacks as criminals and convicts.
"For a judge to take the time to paint his face black with shoe polish, put on an afro wig, a prison jumpsuit and shackles ... and walk around in public, I feel he ain't fit to be a judge," Boykin said.
Ellender has agreed to meet with Boykin and about 10 other black activists, elected officials and clergy this week to discuss the matter, Boykin said.
The black leaders will decide after the meeting whether to file a complaint to Louisiana's Judiciary Commission, which can censure and dismiss judges who violate the state's judicial code of conduct. The code requires that judges always behave in a manner that promotes public confidence in the system's fairness.
Boykin said he heard about the costume from several white people who attended the party at a seafood restaurant in Houma, about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans.
Ellender has drawn criticism in the past for keeping a shotgun in his courtroom and giving out unusual sentences.
He sentenced a man convicted of accidentally killing his best friend to regularly place flowers at the victim's gravesite. He sentenced a youth with chronic speeding violations to clean up trash from a bayou using the judge's pirogue, a flat-bottom boat similar to a canoe.
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