Episode 22 - Candidate for 19th JDC Judge Justin Murphy Delaune

Dave and Drew interview candidate for 19th JDC Judge Justin Murphy Delaune. A hard hitting interview that discusses law enforcement, coaching kids' baseball, and the tuba.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Savigate podcast. Dave and Drew. This is episode number 22. We we can now drink and we're about to graduate from college, or in my case, I got another year. Um slow, slow learner. Dave Rapolo, a writer at The Savagate. I'm Drew Merle, uh attorney and St. George City Councilman currently. Uh this week, we got a special guest. Going to be a judge one day, which is great for me. I mean, unless that makes you have to recuse yourself now. I'm not sure if you really want to have that recorded, but anyway. Frowned upon. Scratch that book. All right. Good lord. That's right. That's right. Uh we're we're joined with attorney Justin Delon, who's gonna run for judge of the 19th JDC. Um Wow. What made you want to be a judge when you grow up?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Well, I always wanted to be a judge. Uh my uncle uh was a judge for a while in Ascension Parish, and um he was sort of a mentor to me growing up in uh Prairieville area. He's still an attorney out there, pumping it hard at uh God, he's got to be close to 80 now.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

But career you never have to retire from.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Exactly. Well, i is he still working? I'm not really sure. But my cousin and I were four days apart. We both grew up together, went to law school, and he went to go work for my uncle, and I went elsewhere. There you go. And uh so that just always wanted to be that I had that influence in life, and um, you know, the law was where I wanted to end up being a judge to serve the community is kind of where I wanted to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

So um is there an underrated musical instrument you'd like to recommend that you think doesn't get enough credit?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, uh you it sounds like you've done some research. It's the tuba.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

I'm a good, I'm a good reader. He's a googler.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah. Uh so I I uh went to law school and they told me to get into law school you needed a four-year degree. I was like, okay, well, um, let's see. I really like music. I played tuba and and I was pretty good at it in high school, and and I got a scholarship to LSU and went to study over there. So I decided to enjoy my four years doing something I was, you know, kind of passionate about and soaking up that college experience, and then graduated and uh told my professor who spent four years really training me up to be a professional musician that going to law school, not gonna be poor for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

That's right. Are you telling me there's a tuba scholarship? Is that what you got?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

There is a uh musical arts scholarship.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Was that your scholarship?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah, and they sometimes give it to tuba players reluctantly, but they do. Uh, but I also had tops. I mean, I was in that generation that really benefited from tops uh to help with my undergraduate. It was a small scholarship. It covered books and and the music that I needed to purchase every semester. Uh, but it was still great. You know, tops covered most everything. I had the Tops Honors Award, so it also gave me a little stipend uh for the other books, like the math books and stuff I never needed ever again.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

That's actually good prep. We have a lot of Baton Rouge musicians that come through 19th JDC, you might be facing.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Uh that's that's actually a good idea. Are you are you able to sentence fellows? Yeah, I like the air quotes musicians. Musicians. I mean, they're singers, you know, on, you know, up in North Baton Rouge. Uh, so so that might not be a conflict of interest.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Could you uh could you play the tuba in court? Will that be something we could hear?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

I can I you know, it's the the skill is something that is slowly waning away, and so every now and again I gotta pick it up and play again. But I can play neck at any point, you know. You know, if if they call it out, you know, play neck, I got you covered.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

You've been sentenced to life in prison. Play neck, let the judge play neck.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Okay, so that'd be a good Savvy article. I'm gonna have to think about that.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Let the judge play neck.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

That's good. Um, so are Nike JDC, people don't realize that they're that don't go to there every day what a wacky courthouse that is, where they've decided apparently a million years ago to some guys do a civil docket, some guys do a criminal docket. What is your intent with that?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Well, you know, it's it's it seems like one of those situations where we're gonna have to have more than me uh on this issue, but um to try to change this. I appreciate the separation out for family court. I think that's important, especially with the size of that docket and the special kind of nature of that docket. But with regards to civil and criminal, I I have always thought, at least in other courts where I run into those general jurisdiction courts where they have a civil docket and a criminal docket, they manage it very well. And I like the idea of covering both. I think it it rounds out a judge, it gives them experience, uh, gives them a lot more trial time. You know, there's not a lot of civil trials that go forward. Most of them are settled nowadays, and so it being I just appreciate the ability of a judge to switch between those two things and still manage a docket. Um I like the idea of them being together.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Well, I mean, look, if you're getting elected, the public doesn't know they would be electing like historically how they've done it. The new judge is getting a criminal docket only, and the the public doesn't know that their judge is only going to do this one thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Well, and I also don't like that there's it switches so much. Like I, you know, I I really like Judge Jordan. Uh, I've had a lot of good experiences with him. Uh, he switched from a criminal to a civil and now does both.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Hey, I also like Judge Jordan. He is a great judge. This is uh Dream Earl. At least we know whose courtroom is in this morning.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

I think I might be in Judge Jordan this morning too.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

So I might see you soon. We gotta get this podcast up fast.

unknown 5:55

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Um and and so I just remember getting a notice that I was gonna be in his courtroom, and I was like, Well, I thought he only did criminal. Like, oh no, he does civil now too. Uh, and he did really great, but he admitted getting up there that, hey, this is my first like literally foray in the civil. Uh, just bear with me. Um, but then at the same time, I had a case that it went from you know Judge Fields, who's you know, went up to the first circuit, to Judge Smith, and then it was with uh another judge, and I was like, who's got it today? Because you go look at the clerk's office and it still says Judge Fields. Yep. And and so it's just it creates an immense amount of confusion. And I I get the feeling sometimes that they're not fully invested because it just keeps messing moving around.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah, if I just wait long enough, it'll go somewhere else and it's gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

It'll get to a better uh, you know, uh uh a judge that I feel may be more favorable or less favorable, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Well, that's it too. You get you get a judge that you think is gonna be your your person, then all of a sudden you're moving lightning speed. Um so with the criminal element of it, what do you do to prepare for? Because I I know that they're two completely different uh set of rules, set of laws, procedures vastly different. Uh I'm a civil guy, so I don't do any criminal, very, very little of it. So it's a different world. Uh, how do you adjust to the criminal uh side of things?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Well, you know, I I've I've I think in my career had two criminal uh clients. And they were I was representing them on civil matters. Before I went to work at Portius, I did um um plaintiff's work representing them in pretty much in a small firm, anything that walked through the front door. But primarily we were doing labor and employment law uh in federal court, and they would get mixed up in some things sometimes. Sometimes their employer who they're now suing would all of a sudden bring criminal charges against them because they were uh, you know, they knew the DA or something like that. And and so I've I've been to criminal court a few times. Um, I don't, you know, think I'm an expert in it, although I do have a really good friend who I rely on whenever I have one of those situations. I call him because the guy knows criminal procedure, like the back of his hand.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Professional criminal, yes, understood.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah. And and so that's I think that's the the secret there. How do you prepare for it if it's not something you're an expert in? And that's the staff that you hire as a judge to help prepare you for those things, making sure they have a background in those things. But also just if I have to take the Sunday for to prepare for the Monday hearing, do it. You know, I I I used to love whenever I'd go to a pretrial conference on Friday because I got a trial beginning on Monday, and Judge Kelly goes, All right, well, I'm gonna take it all home this weekend and review it. It made me feel good, you know, that he wasn't gonna show up on Monday morning and go, All right, so where were we at? You know, what's what do I need to do? Because we get there on Monday morning, we get those pretrial hearings out of the way, and we go and pick a jury because he was ready to rule. He was gonna listen to argument a little bit. If we could change his mind, we might. But preparation, I guess, is key. If it's something he he admitted, he's like, I'm gonna have to take this home. I don't know anything about this.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Well, so wait, so I don't understand. You're running for judge and you're intending on reading everything ahead of time. You're disqualified. Yeah, immediately I'm out. Hold on. I don't want this guy gonna be suspended on the first. I'm not sure. You know what? This is gonna be one of those examples where you get a job, like one of those first jobs you get where you're like, maybe you're stocking a shelf and you're working really hard, getting that whole box stocked, and you're I'm done. What do I do now? And somebody looks at you and goes, You're killing it for the rest of us. Yeah, that's what you just did. Your peers will hate you. Wait a second, he he's studying up on this. I can't just show up and and and listen to some arguments and make a ruling? Have to read?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

It is crazy to think about, and I do have a great stock clerk story about that. I did finish really early one day, and I I the boss came back literally with a ruler and was like, all of these cans are not perfectly straight. It's like I went to go work at a different place the next week.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Yeah, you got it. So there you go. Uh, so that's awesome. I like reading ahead of time, makes my life easier.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

I I can't imagine going to court and just winging it as an attorney. Uh, you know, I've had some last minute things pop up. I even in front of Judge Johnson had to rush up there on a Friday morning because one of my clients got picked up on a bench warrant and rush into his courtroom in blue jeans, a button-up shirt, and a jacket, no tie, do my oral motion to a uh to address the court with no tie, uh, which was hilarious. And then it just happens, just winging it happens sometimes. And being being able to have a knowledge of the law is good. But if you're a judge, you know what's coming. You're not winging anything, really. I mean, sometimes you have to react on the bench whenever they maybe bring up something new during an oral argument. But I mean, that's you can react to things and not be winging it.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

I had a uh judge in Orleans parish, and when you'd go up there to argue, you'd get done. Whatever you wanted to say, get it out of your system, that's great. And all of a sudden he would pick up a piece of paper and he would dictate his judgment into the record with citations, which meant everything you said was meaningless. Meaningless. He had no intention of listening or changing anything. And I it was both impressive and infuriating at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Well, to his credit, uh Judge uh Smith has been that way sometimes with he has his uh ruling sheet, is what I call it. Because he all he's ready to go. And I've seen him listen to arguments though, and I appreciated this because I he was listening and I saw him scratch through. I was like, ooh, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

I hope it's good. Yeah, I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Because I didn't feel it was going my way uh in the briefing. And so, whenever during our arguments, when I saw him scratching, I I kind of felt compelled, and I appreciated him doing that, and it did work out for us because he said I didn't even think about it that way.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

So during your campaign, are we gonna see a campaign commercial or ad that features a potential criminal dancing and saying, I got Delan, I'll be out by noon.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Negative.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

You know, and just a little bit of background where I come from. My dad was uh uh sergeant for the or lieutenant for the state police. Uh my mom was a communications offer officer for the state police, my godfather a detective for the state police, my aunt uh was a deputy for the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office. I come from a law enforcement background, it wasn't necessarily where I wanted to go, but the idea of uh leniency on something, especially on violent crime, you won't see that. And as a side note, neither will you see leniency on a lot of DWIs, especially if this is as I saw in the news recently, somebody's fifth DWI. How do you get that far?

SPEAKER_02 12:56

One drink at a time?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

I take it one together. Anyway, um but it's you know that that is just insane to me. My mom was uh nearly fatally injured by a drunk driver four months after I was born. So I nearly spent my entire life without her. And then fast forward, she gets hit again by a drunk driver and and is now permanently disabled. And and so it's and it was at five o'clock in her in the morning on her way to the state police. And so you not only are you drunk, but you hit a state trooper. I guess just bonehead 101.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Was it a first offender?

SPEAKER_01 13:40

No, and it was apparently uh, and again, I was really young, but apparently it was a very old lady.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Um the worst drivers drunk or not.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

No comment. My grandmother recently uh got her keys taken away, so it's a hot topic right now. Cycle of life.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

The keys, take the keys.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

I mean, you feel like I feel like, you know, everyone just reads the headlines, but it's it's really a shame at how many repeat offenders are out there. And you ask anyone in law enforcement, they'll tell you there's like five to eight percent of the population is who they deal with over and over and over again. And I realize sometimes you're handcuffed to, you know, when it comes to bond or bail, you know, you can't, you know, it's not it's not meant to hold someone in jail. It's right, it's it's based on their uh, you know, if they're gonna return, if you feel like they're gonna return for court or not. But some of these people, there should absolutely be some kind of exception, you know, third offense, third offender um for a violent crime, they they shouldn't be out of jail. There's there's just no reason they should be out of jail.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

And it it is tough because you have guidelines, you have that as a judge you have to follow. And but for these repeat offenders, especially in violent crimes.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Violent crimes.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

The idea that they get out on, you know, uh, we just put up a little bit of cash and and we'll walk. Do do you think you're ever gonna see that person again? No. Or do you think uh do I have any confidence that in the interim they're just not gonna keep doing this criminal enterprise?

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Um I'll tell you so, under the Brim administration, I think you're slightly wrong because in the Brim administration, you could be on trial for attempted murder and get a parish contract to teach kids about guns. I mean, you do want the most experienced people. I mean who knows more.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, do you want somebody who's like spent their life as a uh like weapons instructor for the state police, or you know, do you want somebody who uses it on the street?

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Who knows how to shoot a gun sideways? I agree. Yeah, you want real world experience. Did you turn it at an angle?

unknown 15:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Well, I don't know if you saw this video I saw recently of the guy, he walks into the to the to the um gun range, the gun turns it sideways and fires off a full clip, doesn't and the guy behind him goes, man, you ain't hit nothing. He goes, Sometimes it'd be like that.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Real world experience right there. Yeah. Um, so I noticed you brought um two people helping you with your campaign here. The uh the the infamous Jess Jen Ung, and I believe that's uh Scott Wilfong over there. Um are they're here to cut us off when we say something inappropriate. Have you guys decided to not do any stolen Fowler ads for this uh campaign? It didn't work out real good. It didn't work out real good for the last 19th JDC.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

No can't it was a tough call. Yeah. Uh you know, touch and go there. We had a lot of back and forth. Uh Jess had to step in between us at one point.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

So you're not gonna claim that you served in a war uh abroad.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I will not.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Has Jess ever tried to convince you to dress up in camo for a campaign shot?

SPEAKER_01 16:45

No, she had to convince me to get out of it. You know, whenever I so a good friend of mine, Callie uh Boudreau, uh, whenever we were she was kind of an infamous Also a judge that that Drew Merl likes as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

This would be the most shared podcast at 19th JDC though.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah, it's gonna get passed around.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Uh you can accidentally email a link to the entire city court. I'm gonna cover all the bases.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Well, now let's go to the middle district. Um so uh Callie was like, listen, he I was always really paranoid whenever I was running that somebody was just gonna be out there taking pictures of me one day with family or something and then catch me in some compromised position or something. I said, Well, they're only gonna catch me in Crocs and a t-shirt. So hopefully they're okay with that. But uh, you know, it's funny. The the the camo is, you know, kind of the that's the Sunday best.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Will you wear Crocs on the bench? Well, just can you, right? Is there a dress code?

SPEAKER_01 17:44

I mean you could well I I I I would imagine there's a dress code, but I went to court the other day and uh one particular judge was walking by, didn't even recognize him because he was in a pair of Nike shocks, which I didn't know they still made, and uh blue jeans, and I was like, uh uh what the robe is for.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

What happens out of the robe is what happens.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Do it. The priests show up in casual clothes.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

I went to a court where the judge absolutely had a Hawaiian shirt sticking out of his robe. Why not? I wasn't gonna say a word.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Well, it did help me win a uh case again with Judge Morvan. Uh, I guess it was the day LSU and Joe Burrow went to the national championship. I put on uh, you know, my white shirt tie, and then I put on an LSU jersey. Yeah, then put on the jacket. Smart. And I go and win this hearing, and the plans counsel goes, Is it because he's wearing the jersey? Yep. The judge goes, It didn't.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Oh yeah. What do you think about Judge Morvan? Oh, he's retired. I don't care about him anymore. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

But he does mediation.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

He does mediation. There'll be a little editing before we know I actually I do like him a lot. I I will I will say he was the original judge in the St. George litigation, and you know, I I was happy about that.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Did he help St. George at? I don't remember that. No, he retired.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

He didn't help me at all. Oh, okay. He's dead to me. Edit that up. Let's talk about family life because everybody wants to know what the background is. And I know that uh because I do do some Googling, uh, that you have prepared for being a judge by being a youth baseball coach.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's that was last that's why I got a Celsius in front of me right now. Four games in four days uh the last few weeks have been tough getting prepared for that. But no, I've been coaching my I grew up playing baseball uh and wanted to play in high school, but uh was definitely not good enough for the one open spot that they had by the time I got there. Whenever I was in high school, East Ascension had a great baseball team. And uh they had one open spot. Um I remember one of my friends, Buzzy Heidel, got the spot, and he goes on to play for LSU, so that gives you an idea that uh my uh slightly overweight young self wasn't gonna make that team.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

So you weren't as good at Buzzy as baseball.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

No, Buzzy was a little bit better. He played quarterback, he'd he'd be a terrible judge, though. Yeah, that's true. I don't know though, I don't know. I do like Buzzy. I think he would bring a bit of style to the bench uh, you know, in his rulings. But uh no, so I as soon as my son got interested in baseball at like four, um, I decided to start coaching him in the YMCA League here in Baton Rouge when we lived in Shenandoah. And then uh when we moved out to Central C A Y L. And that's just been a passion of mine because I get to I love watching him play. And then we got a great group of kids that have moved up together and stuck together. Uh I took them to the LSU baseball game on Saturday. They're the same four core guys that have just kept kept the passion alive, kept going and having fun. But um coaching him has been a challenge because he is my wife's son. Uh but it's also been a great privilege because you know I get to see him grow up right there and and be a part of that, not in the stands, but on the field, you know, standing at first base because I I'm the first base coach on the team. And so whenever he gets on base, like last night he took a took a pitch to the butt. He got one right in the butt cheek. And I you in the past he would have just collapsed and and been, you know, limped. He took it, turned, threw the bat down, walked to first base, uh, kind of stretched it out. I was like, who is this kid and why is this adult at first base?

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Now, were you were you thinking at that point, as a judge, I would call that assault and battery?

SPEAKER_01 21:34

I don't think there was intent.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Uh the young man was having trouble with control. Gotcha. Yeah, so at best simple battery. It just happened.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Unless he knew he didn't have control.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

True. Or is it on the coach at that point? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Accessory.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yeah, it's an accessory.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

That'd be a good uh criminal law final.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Uh well, I think all the criminal law finals for the next year are gonna be about Afro Man. And if they're not, then you got a problem.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Do you now look at the cases like that that you normally would have just said, hey, whatever? Yeah. And take a second and go, hey, if I'm encountering this scenario, what do I think about it?

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Are you now like role playing with with Oh well the first thing I have whenever I look at a a wacky case is man, this would have made a great law school questionnaire. You know, just it's it the the I was like, this would have got them all F's. The grading curve would have been so low. Uh I might have gotten an A in that. Um no, it's it's funny. I mean, I've been practicing now for 14 years, uh coming up this October make 14. And and so I I keep telling myself, uh now I've seen it all. Uh, and then something else comes through the door, and you're like all right.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

So back to youth baseball. Do you think getting yelled at by parents has prepared you for a role on the bench? Well, play my kid, let him out of jail. Very similar.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah, exactly. Uh they do sound very similar. I'll tell you this uh sticking up for our parents, I guess over the years we've we've been able to cull the herd and we put an emphasis on making sure that not only do we have a good kid, but we have good family to back him up. We still have the overbearing parent, and I think that's always gonna be the case bench or baseball. Um, but no, I I try to be the go-between sometimes for our head coach. Um just just recent uh I'm not naming any names, but just recently we had a a parent who kind of felt strongly about the you know, the how we were handling this situation. And and I I just remember one of the head coaches was like, I'm going to, I'm going, you know, just I'm that I'm handling this, just going hot headed in.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

We're gonna fight in the parking lot.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

And I just said, Hold on, I'll I'll take care of it. Let me go talk to him and let's just try to smooth this over because this is obviously because at that point it was impacting the kid. And that's you know, who do I listen? The kid, if the kid's sitting there going, Who do I listen to? Then we've already gotten to a bad pot, bad spot.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Do you think as a judge you'll get yelled at less by these parents because they'll have some some fear of seeing you later?

SPEAKER_01 24:15

My favorite part is one of the well, God, I don't know if I should say that, but one of the family members was like, God, I'm so tired of hearing about this judge thing. I was like, We're like two months into it.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Well, buckle up.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Here we go.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Well, wait until you have to get out and walk and knock on doors for us.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah, I know. Uh, and this this wasn't one of the parents, this was uh a family member of one of the baseball members who comes to a lot of the games and I'm so tired of hearing that. It's just it's talking heads, all blah blah blah. I was like, all right, I think I've had five conversations with you in the this six months I've known you, but okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

But here's my handbill and a sign for your yard. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yes, please take this card. If you look on the back, there's a QR code, it'll take you to the website. You can learn more.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

You know, if you donate to the campaign, I'll talk to you a lot less about it.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

That's true. I that is actually what I'm gonna start using.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Well, have you donated yet? No. Well, let me talk to you a little bit more about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

Exactly right. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

So, um, what are your thoughts on Lane Kiffin and LSU?

SPEAKER_02 25:23

Yes, because that matters for the judge.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

It does.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

It matters for the people voting.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Well, you know, if we're in a good mood, we'll commit less crime.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Uh I'll tell you this much. Uh, my godfather, uh aforementioned uh former detective for the Louisiana State Police, grew up in Denham Springs, somehow moved to Mississippi and became an Ole Miss fan.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Oof.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Lost another one.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Okay, yeah, lost another one.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Low self-esteemer.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Yeah. And whenever he uh whenever Lane was looking at coming to LSU, the text that I got, which wasn't about turkeys or deer, was you better not take my coach. And I was like, it's it's not my call. I don't I'm not the one over here picking.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Uh to Landry.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Yeah, I was about to say, let's call the governor. I'm I'm going to his prayer breakfast.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Different branch of government picks our football coaches now. Not the judiciary branch.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

It's not the judiciary that picks the coaches. I, you know, listen, Lane has done a lot of really great things. I loved seeing his story at Ole Miss where he kind of turned the the wildness down a little bit, kind of became a little bit more of a a dad, a little bit more of a husband. I know that ship may have sailed, but he he's become what I felt was a better man and more fit to lead a bunch of young men. Um so I love that. Um I didn't like him when he was at Alabama because nobody liked him.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Nobody liked in Alabama. Nobody likes anybody in Alabama.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah, exactly. Uh I didn't particularly like him when he was at Ole Miss because I was always worried that we're gonna end up, you know, getting, you know, we may we may have the better talent, but if he's the better coach in that, you know, under Brian Killer, that was usually the case, um, we were gonna lose a game that we shouldn't lose. Uh, you know, and how many times did that happen under the last administration? At least now I feel confident that we're not being we're not gonna get out coached. Because I I, you know, it's it's hell growing up in the the less miles era where you don't know if the grass he's eaten is poison or not. I don't really know. But then having so much talent on the field and losing a game like nine to eleven.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Because you call for a spike with one second left.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Oh god, thank God for T Bob A Bear. Yeah. So true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

So with that being said, very, very important question uh taking football and applying it to being a judge. If we had an outstanding quarterback who, say hypothetically was on his sixth, eighth, fifteenth year of eligibility, and he could come back for another year under some bizarre circumstance like junior college, and they applied, and that case wound up in your court and you know, junior college for a couple of years, and we could use him for another year for a national championship run. Uh, would you grant him an additional year of eligibility?

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Oh, for LSU, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yes. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Because here's the thing: how do you interpret those? Uh, you know, these NCAA rules, uh, it's it's like hitting, it's like trying to nail an oyster to a wall, you know, trying to figure out exactly what it means, exactly what this year it's gonna mean, how they're gonna interpret it for this school versus that school. They're just making it up as they go. So if uh it supports my team, I'm in.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Excellent, excellent. What if he showed her the jersey that day?

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah, now what if he was an aspiring young quarterback doing a great job for LSU and ended up in your courtroom for allegedly beating up his girlfriend? Oh. I thought that's where you were going with that.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

No, I no, I mean, you know for kicking somebody, you know, while they were down. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

That's a prerequisite to get an NFL.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

You got to have some kind of arrest. Cowboys fan from the 90s. I have I have uh are you still a Cowboys fan? Yeah, yeah, but in the 90s, I should have been told that they were great, but they were all criminals.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Well, I'm out.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Uh you over. We got one more judge against you now.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Cowboys fan. Hey, I had the cowboy starter jacket whenever I was in middle school.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Yeah, but we all grew up. We all grew out of that. Yeah, we some of us grew up in Texas. Is this their year, Drew? Is this their year? The cycle of life as a Cowboys fan. So Saints fans, y'all don't have a chance. Uh love the Saints, but not the year. Um, as a Dallas fan, our cycle of life goes, oh my God, this is the year. We're gonna do it this year. Preseason, we're gonna do great. Regular season, it's gonna be something amazing, probably like 10 and 7, 11 and 6 or better. And then we're gonna lose in the first round of the playoffs. Oh man, next year's the year.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Cycle of life.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

It just comes right back to the top.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Yep. Every year.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

At least as the Saints fans, we know where we're at, you know, and anything positive is it's just a blessing.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

You got a quarterback. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

I saw him at the bananas game. Uh he did really well. He hit every target. The DBs were just really good for the bananas, you know. But uh, yeah, no ever regardless of status, I think everybody who comes into the courtroom should have the same rights and protections under the law, regardless of your status, and the same consequences. You know, the the law is a double-edged sword whenever it comes to these things. I I mean I remember obviously as a LSU grad, I'm in law school and reading about the stuff with Jordan Jefferson and just thinking, oh come on, just let him play, just let him play. But if he really did kick somebody while, you know, in the face while he was down on the ground. And now, I guess growing up being a dad, and you you see these players getting into trouble, uh, not at LSU, I see him a lot at Georgia, a lot at Alabama, just saying, um they they they have to have some consequences because if it doesn't start now, if they don't get the consequences now, this is gonna get worse as they get into the NFL and they get they they get this you know higher sense of empowerment. Everybody is equal under the law. And if you're not gonna treat them that way, then you give them a pass and you make them feel that they're now above the law. You can't have that, and it it just happens. Uh but especially with cowboys, but um Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

You certainly don't want to be driving on the roadway after the end of a Georgia football season.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

No, no, no, no. Just take it easy, clear the roads, round upon it.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Um, what are your thoughts on speaking of discipline, what are your thoughts on um discipline for judges who you know don't live up to their their uh expectations? For instance, if a judge were to charge uh someone with uh misdemeanor, malfeasance in office, well a crime that doesn't exist.

unknown 32:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Well, a as somebody who previously represented a librarian who was charged with second degree injury to a public record, which I didn't think existed. Um second degree injury.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Yeah, second degree injury Which means there must be a first degree, and there could possibly be a third degree.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Yeah. Uh and go look it up. Uh basically you just uh shredded a public record, uh, and that's second degree. I don't know what it takes to get to first degree, but you gotta do it with a weapon. That shredder was pretty violent.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

I threatened that shredder with a gun.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Maybe that'll change. Well, I can tell you this discipline for it. I guess this is goes out to voters. As voters, your power is to put people into place to make these decisions or the next time they come up for re-election, make sure they're not still there because the judges are disciplined by the Supreme Court. Uh it's you know, that the judiciary is kind of self-regulating.

unknown 33:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

And so as a voter, you don't have a lot of power in that, nor a lot of say. And sometimes that decision is very political when it gets up to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Um, I had my thoughts on um the discipline, uh, the the disciplinary actions that all happened in 2025. Um you know, but I I it didn't matter what my thoughts were because no one was listening to me. Uh now this election cycle, it matters because now they're listening. Um it's it's such um you're you're I I can't say it any other way. As a voter, your only power in that situation is to vote. Without it, uh unfortunately you're just relying on you know the Louisiana Supreme Court to hopefully make the right call. Whether they did in that case that you were talking about, um, I'm not sure. Um I think the more recent case, I think they got it right.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Oh, uh yeah, I think so. But it it led everyone to question why did she receive this discipline and she didn't.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

I don't know. That's the thing. And and I think it left a lot of people out there going, What? Who is who is doing this? And and I guess that's that's the the negative side of being self-regulated.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yeah, yeah. Um I think both cases called for dismissal. Yeah, personally. Because look, we have the police Brady list, right? Yeah. And and if a you know, if a cop gets on the stand and lies or does something, he's that's it. I mean, forever, you you guys are always gonna bring that up. Why aren't judges held to the stand of scrutiny? You if you I mean if you if you charge someone with a fake law, I mean that's not even a real law. People don't understand misdemeanor malfeasance doesn't exist. A judge charged a police officer with that. That should be the end right there. Like your credibility's out the window, you know. But that wasn't the case, and now that person is uh potentially hearing a case for Drew, right? Didn't you say that?

SPEAKER_03 35:04

Why are we bringing this up?

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Nothing, not you facing that her in the court. But but anyway, it's it's just that that should be an absolute black and white. You should be a hundred percent you you can't, especially maybe on your on your rulings and your sentencing, not so much, but on the law, right? Yeah, it should be black and white.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

We live in a world of Google. Yeah, even a judge could Google that and go, hey, I don't think that really exists.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah, I mean, uh just keep chat GPT up, right? The chat bot is permanently on the voice version, you know. Yeah, exactly. It can listen to everything. I think it already does.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Now, on the on the flip side, she's probably gonna win her next election because she was mentioned on the Savicate several times, and you just can't buy that kind of publicity. So anytime someone Googles her, our articles come up first. But righteously so, that was absolute abysmal, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Yeah, it really was. Um, and I you know, obviously the judiciary committee, I guess, who investigated it, uh felt very strongly about um and their recommendation was removal. Uh and so that's the other thing is that um even their decision didn't really have much sway in that situation. Ultimately, it's the Louisiana Supreme Court, and now in November, it's up to the residents, uh the voters in Louisiana to make that call.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Are all are all 19th JDC judges um being voted on? Is that election this year? All 50. It's all okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

So you got a you got a good job. You work for a uh I'll say a pretty good law firm.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

Uh you imply they're a bad law firm? On the plaintiff's side, I've never had a problem working with them. That's what you want. We don't have to be yelling and screaming at each other uh to to to to be adversarial. Um your partner there. Yep. Life's pretty good. Doing all right. Why are you running for judge?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

You know, you sound exactly like my my managing partner. Uh have you been in contact with?

SPEAKER_02 36:57

Uh no, that was your spouse that texted me and she said, What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 37:02

What what an idiot.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

Um, well, because I've always had this idea that um, and I guess it started because I worked for plaintiffs before, I was able to help people, and that kind of fulfilled an internal need for me, a desire to to promote, I guess, the community through the law. And um even now as a defense attorney, I still represent individuals. I have a lovely lady that I represent now who got in a minor parking lot accident, and and it's it's turned her whole life upside down because of litigation, and I'm just trying, constantly trying to reassure her and try to help her ultimately get out from under what may be an anvil coming down. Um helping people individually has been a great opportunity for me. I don't want to take it to the next step. I want to take that service to the community to something that's a little grander than the adversarial system that we have. Um being able not only to work on a criminal side but also the civil side to help promote the law and an orderly community. Um you know, I I lived in Baton Rouge for many years uh and in um the St. George area. The reason we moved out to Central is because we got robbed three times. Uh and I just like I can't. I mean, we put up every safeguard we could. I had them all on camera. Um, and like as you talked about earlier, the the five five to eight percent of the population that the officers one of the officers looked at the camera and goes, I know him.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

I was like in a city this size, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

I know that guy. We got and I was like, Oh, do you need his fingerprint? Nope, know him. Positive ID already. Um and so it's just crazy. But we moved out to Central in hopes that we could avoid that. And we haven't been robbed since we moved out there, so that's good. Um but I just feel like I have this opportunity to start giving back more to the community, have this opportunity to really serve my community uh through the law, something that I love to do. Uh it's just taking it to the next level.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Yeah, and then people don't I don't I think the public as a whole doesn't understand how important judges are in that process until something happens where they release an attempted murderer on a no bond or a low bond, and then oh, it makes the headlines. Well, only five percent showed up to vote in the election that elected that judge.

unknown 39:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

That's why we have that judge.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

You know, the uh I think I've had this conversation so many times. The the importance of the judicial elections is not heard in the amongst the populace. Uh I mean this these are these are not just politicians up there making some laws and trying to get laws passed. I mean, the this is real life hands-on. We're out here trying to police these laws and make sure they're getting applied at you know as they should to for the betterment of the community. I mean, this is the the application. It's I mean, the police are out there enforcing the laws. We're out there trying to, you know, police the police sometimes whenever it comes to these things. But it's the judiciary is so important, making sure you have the right people in place to make sure this runs smoothly, because without them, you're taking away half of the equation when it comes to, especially on the criminal side of things. And if you're a if you're a you know in a civil law situation, whether it's uh personal injury or contracts dispute, having your case heard in a timely manner is so important. Uh, you know, and you don't realize that until you get it. How many times have I talked to uh plaintiff's attorneys and said I just had to spend you know 30 minutes on the phone with my client talking them down because we got a trial date in 2027 and we've already been through everything. There's nothing else to do in this case, so we gotta sit on our hands for the next year and just do nothing because we have this one minor little dispute we can't work out. Uh when a case goes to trial these days, it's because something's very wrong and it needs to be decided by the judiciary, and then having to wait in line for a year to get that heard. Especially if you're really, you know, you're really injured or you're really suffering, and you know, I'm not out here as a defense attorney to deny anybody what they have. We just need to make sure you get the right amount, if it's a judgment amount, if it's or in a contract dispute that the right person gets the you know what's supposed to come to them. There's a dispute. We need the judges, we need the juries to make these decisions. And if you know justice delayed, justice denied, I know that's kind of a banner thing, but it really is true uh on the civil side of things. People are like, oh, well, it's just a it's just a personal injury case, or it's just a contract dispute. These people don't well that contract dispute may be holding up this person's business and they may go under while waiting for a decision. I mean, how sad is that? You have a perfectly good business that needs input from the judiciary and they end up bankrupt.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

Look, we had judge that's been removed, so I don't have to pretend to like or not like this judge. Uh case sat in her her office for over two years, and both me and defense counsel had gone in and said, no, no, we're ready to go. We everything is done. We we need to go. And we kept getting roadblock after roadblock after roadblock. And you're exactly right. Your clients are mad, your clients are spending time and money. Uh, you know, what might be one case for us is their life, and it consumes their life until they get a resolution, and you can't all you gotta do is well, I don't know, it's in the judge's office somewhere, and they just don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

You know, waste in the judiciary is uh is a big issue of mine, you know. Um, and it's sometimes it's the smallest little thing. Uh you know, uh in my conversations with Jess over uh the last few months, one of the things that kept popping up is you got to do the little things right. And one of those is showing up on time as a judge. Uh I I sat recently through a um a delay in because the judge didn't make it to the bench on time. The hearing was set for nine. The judge didn't make it to the bench until 10.30. So I counted up the number of attorneys, multiplied that times my 1.5 times my hourly rate. Yep. And it was insane. Astonishing. I was like, we just wasted about$16,000, you know, between the travel time, the wait for an hour and a half, because there was there was probably 42 attorneys in that courtroom waiting to go. 42.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Go back to explain to your client, hey, I thought you said this was a five minute hearing. Yep. Well, the hearing part was everything that went into the sit and wait was not.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

How easy is it for a judge to say, are there any uncontested matters that we can take up quickly? Save the save the uh well and and this is another, I guess, a soapbox moment. But um it used to be, and Drew you probably know this, there used to be a an order to these oral arguments. You get about five minutes, you do your opening, you do your direct, you do the cross, and then you do a little redirect. Um now I I I sat through an an oral argument the other day at the 19th, where the the the mover just sat there talking for like 25 minutes, and then the other side comes up and they just talk for like 20 minutes, then he comes back and says like 15 minutes worth of stuff, and then he goes, I was like, what is happening? And then we're about five cases into it, and it's 11 o'clock at this point. We're two hours into the hearing, and we're all just still sitting there, you know, like I'm I'm losing my mind. And there's no good cell reception in there if you have Verizon. So, you know, Facebook's not kind of off the bench, you know, it's not working. Uh you can't listen to any podcasts, unfortunately, unless you downloaded them ahead of time. Can't even check the weather.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Which you can't with the thing. The Savicate doesn't load in 19th JDC.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

Nothing loads in 19th JDC. Nothing. I think that was a Judge Fields technique to make sure we couldn't access our phones. He would seriously have your device confiscated and you get it at the end of the day and pay a fine. And I saw him take an attorney's uh uh tablet. Oh, he gets and then Fields Judge Fields calls him up for argument, and the guy gets up there and he's like, Well, Judge, I that was my I use all my arguments are off my tablet. I don't I don't print anything anymore. And your bailiff took it like an hour ago, so I have no idea. And even then Judge Fields was reluctant to let him have it.

unknown 45:43

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

But also not surprised.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

No, not at all. Not at all. No, not at all. So will you will you go down and talk to the juries uh every week like Judge Fields did to give them a pep talk about being good jurors, which I actually thought was my favorite Judge Fields thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

I I I was uh had jury duty um in November, I think, last year, and he came down and I enjoyed it. And all the rest of the jurors enjoyed it. He was very he was like a very good uh host.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

I tried to get him to recuse himself once because he's a Steelers fan and I'm a Cowboys fan. I thought that should be enough.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

It should be enough.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

And he he looked at me, he goes, Normally I'd agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

Well, I didn't rely on it.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Did you win the case? Hey, Steelers fan, big Steelers fan. Did you win the case?

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Uh I don't remember, probably.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

I should have.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

I'll tell you this. So to piggyback off of what you said, my mother-in-law had jury duty uh last year, and he went and talked to her, and she came home, she goes, Do you know uh Judge Fields? I was like, Yeah. Uh and she goes, he came and talked to us, and she loved it. She was like, he was telling us about our duty, and I was like, Well, he's had a lot of practice talking to people about it. I mean, he does that regularly. She felt great about it. She loved it. No, it was it was great.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

He did a little QA and like talked everyone through the in fact that the judge from the case, I can't remember the case, came down and like every hour he was briefing, it's ended up being thrown out. But but Fields came down and talked for probably 45 minutes, and it was fantastic. It really was. I think I emailed him and told him how how great it was. Not from a Sadvocate email address, but you missed an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Yeah, you missed it. No, so God, is that a great thing? I mean, uh yeah, as many times as I've disagreed with his rulings, it's not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

No, it's really it's really like I said, there are things that that even judges I may not have uh the same leanings as can agree on. I thought that was always a positive.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

Well, how about the transparency that that created?

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

You know, uh you may, as a juror, you you kind of feel like especially trapped down in that room, like what's happening, what's going on. Uh at least they put some uh some some really ratty books down there for you to go read.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Uh I like the movie I had the time I got the guy called. I was like, no, I don't want to be released yet. I got half an hour left. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Come on. It's like whenever you land at the airport, you know, halfway through the movie that you're watching, oh, what am I gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 48:05

No, no, I'm good. I'll just connect and go wherever you're going next.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Yeah, wherever you want to go.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

So um how can people find your campaign to donate or to follow you uh or to see what you're all about who don't know you?

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Sure. Well, we're we're we have a big Facebook presence. They can go check out the page there, read a little bit about me on the bio. We are uh working on a website, it's justindelon.com. Uh I think the splash page is up right now, and uh pretty soon it will be a very informative um uh page that'll, you know, any and of course also includes my email address. If they need to, they can email me directly. My phone number is on there if they wanted to call, talk to me about anything, about any topics. Uh, and it's and it's my real number.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

If you get elected, is it gonna stay up there?

SPEAKER_01 48:51

Absolutely. You know, everybody everybody think that. Everybody has my number anyway. I've learned this recently. I was like, you know, why do I keep getting these calls to my cell phone? They were like, oh, well, you know, we just we we we changed your number from your direct line, your direct office line to your cell phone number in our system. I was like, so everybody at Dudley DeBozure has my personal cell phone number? They were like, Yeah. I was like, all right. Um, well, it's not too late to change.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

I've had it for 20 years, so we're gonna have to edit that Dudley DeBozure free plug out.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Oh, oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

Yeah, no Dudley DeBozure here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But to edit them out, period. I can send them a bill for that, but they'll never pay it. Sorry, Steve. Sorry, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Yeah. But uh the website's gonna be the best way to go. Yeah. I have some uh great business cards that also have a QR code on the back. They can scan them quickly. Go. The website will be a good place to for them to go make um, I guess, electronic donations, but also give them information as to how if they prefer paper checks, how to get those done, get those into us and support us. And of course, it'll also include links to Facebook and the events that we're gonna have if they want to come out to an actual campaign event.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:01

Um, anybody who's in the central area this weekend, they have central cooks. Um you could be out there. I'm gonna be out there.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

See you out there.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

Um I did find out though, I was a little I was gonna do the Jambalaya competition cook. I'm from Gonzalez, it's the Jambalaya Capital.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

You should win by default.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

Yeah, easy. But uh, but they said it was a one-gallon pot.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Yeah, it was a mini pot. I was like, I don't understand. I mean, I don't even I don't even wake up for that.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

Yeah, I was like, so do I cook this in my wife's like you know, stovetop pot? I what do I cook this in? And I so I go to the uh near nearby hardware store, you know, Sullivan's hardware, and they had the little mini pots, and I was like, that's really expensive. Yeah, like it's smaller. How does it cost more?

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Uh but it sounds like a Wade Evans deal. That's a definitely he probably shrunk the pots down for he probably got a kickback or something.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

He shrunk the pot. Yeah, left them in the oven too long, they shrunk down.

SPEAKER_00 50:56

Is he gonna be out there this? Is he gonna be the MC this weekend?

SPEAKER_01 50:59

I don't know about the MC, he's gonna be out there though.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

He's everywhere. We gotta go.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Yeah, with his vans. I love I'm a big Vans guy, I wear them all the time because they're comfortable. And he I went to his little campaign kickoff event and he walks out in a you know, the jacket, the button-up shirt, a pair of vans. I was like, I like this guy.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Could you sentence a guy? Would you be willing to sentence a guy to carry a tuba around for a period of time as part of a sentence so they can truly understand that's cruel and unusual punishment. A trombone, I can see a tuba's just too much.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

But here's the problem is if I sentence them to carry a tuba around, then the secret will get out that it's actually really cool to be a tuba player.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

And it's really a secret.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

It's gonna be a benefit, you know. And you know, all the ladies they'll get, you know, the the the job offers just out of nowhere. Do you want to be the CEO of Google because you're out here with a tuba?

SPEAKER_00 51:55

You could do a campaign ad where you're playing a tuba, like a little a little demonstration. So you're that's a great, you know, great normal musician here. Nothing, nothing fancy about this guy.

SPEAKER_01 52:04

I'd probably go back and find I have some recordings of my college days, uh, where I was a lot better then. Uh so maybe I have I still have the recordings, but uh I don't know if any of them are cool enough necessarily for me to just if you played neck.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Did you do a campaign ad with Tuba? Is it Tuba Kent? Is that the guy?

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Yeah, I I love that guy.

SPEAKER_02 52:24

Yeah, bring him in.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

So I actually um had talked to Jess about that exact same thing. I was like, you know, this guy is part of the brotherhood, you know, uh that doesn't necessarily exist anymore. Uh, but uh we're still out there, uh Jumas. Uh but um and I'll get a plug somewhere for saying that. So it's gonna set off some satellites somewhere. Uh some servers are gonna pop up. Sure. But um no, I I think he's great. I love the stories that came out about that. And I was telling my wife, I was like, you remember we had um a woman who came and played with us. Uh she was the older sister of one of the tuba players, had was in graduate school and came back to play in Tiger Band because we needed a few more tuba players. It was just a shortage that year. Uh, and we used to call her Mama Jana because she was like 25, and we're all like 20 and 21. And this guy's in his 60s out there playing.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

I was like, 25 Mama.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

Yeah, I know. We were Mama and Jana.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Perspective is different.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

And and yeah, it was crazy. Uh, it was like, yeah, she's so old, you know. It's like, what do you do? Do you have do you have to dye your hair now? And then you got tubacant coming in as a retirement thing to play to. I was like, that guy. Because I know I remember what those Augusts were like with that with that horn on.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

I mean, it is it's hot down on that field, huh?

SPEAKER_01 53:49

I mean, because you're out there in the morning. That's the worst part. When you're on the field, the field's still wet, and now it's steaming up off of you. Oh man. I mean, you're drenched. I used to bring two changes of clothes.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Uh just for just for a the one day of practice. I mean, laundry was nuts in August.

SPEAKER_02 54:07

So when is the election?

SPEAKER_01 54:09

November 3rd.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

November 3rd. And qualifying is January.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

I'm sorry, January, July 29th through the 31st.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

Um, I have one last question. Yeah. If you win, and I we hope you do, you seem to be a great guy. Is there any chance of us getting a Sadvocate VIP section in your courtroom with a access card and parking? I'm not parking on the street because we could probably get a whole lot of material from just this courtroom without a wait for the news to me.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

He can promise you a VIP seat. Well, I'm not talking about that seat. I don't want the dependent seat. You get a front row seat.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

I don't want that seat. Yeah, I was about to say there's like a there's like a big metal door in the courtroom, and on the other side you hear a bunch of chains on that side. No, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

I want to come in the cool back door. Okay. When you come in the back door, I want to come in the back door with out of back door, and I want to have a seat right next to you. Not like in the jury pool, but just my own seat where I can because I feel like that's the best way to get content is right there.

SPEAKER_02 55:06

You know, a great way to go get a front row seat to a court is to serve on a jury. I've done that. And be a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

The freedom to walk up in his courtroom and just with my phone and and just and gather content.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

I can tell you this.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

Uh it's not a bad deal.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

If anybody was wondering, there's this whole section of the courtroom where they have like church pews. Anybody can go in there.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Anytime.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

At any time.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

As long as the door's unlocked.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

Yeah, as long as the door is unlocked, yeah, that's true. Which usually sometimes doesn't happen until like three seconds before you gotta go to the room.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

This would be one of those irritations with court starting late.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:47

When you win, we'll discuss that further. I like to have a little VIP section.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

And you know, we can have, you know how sometimes you have just like the kind of ghost emblem where it's not as prevalent, like it's like black on like matte black. I can have like that kind of like a little sticker where it says the Savvy. Where it's not so obvious, but you know, and we know. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 56:08

And I didn't I didn't give you a black tumbler that's gonna match your robe that was not an accident. It's like a nice compliment to your your robe.

SPEAKER_01 56:17

Well, that's the idea.

SPEAKER_02 56:19

Well, Mr. Uh when I appear at his court, what I'm gonna do is bring my black Savicate to sit on the table.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

And the opposing counsel is gonna settling up the signal.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

What is he doing? What is he doing?

SPEAKER_00 56:30

What's I do?

SPEAKER_01 56:31

Why does he keep winking at the judge?

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Well, Justin DeLon, we have enjoyed having you on the podcast. Thank you so much. Um, maybe we'll have you back before the election, man.

SPEAKER_01 56:42

Absolutely, yeah. Uh one thing I wanted to add. Um, so as the parish wide seat, if you're living an EBR, I will be on your ballot, no matter where you live in the parish. But also for everybody else, my family outside, people who my my friends and church members who live in Livingston and Ascension, there is something you can do. Not only spread the word to your folks who do live in Bat Rouge, but coming May 16th, there is an election. Part of that election is um there are four amendments on that ballot. One of them is to increase the age, the qualification age for sitting judges from 70 to 75.

unknown 57:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Let me take this one from you.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

You don't have to make a position on it because I'm not running. Uh do you want an 80, 82-year-old judge sitting on the bench? As someone who suffered through this not that long ago, the answer is no. You don't. There needs to be some turnover in the judiciary. And we're talking about a job where they can serve, they can run at 69 and serve a full term. You don't set anything beyond 75's too old. I I'm not being ageist. It's just it's time to do something else. Uh, a lot of these judges wind up being ad hoc judges after that. I don't like that either.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

Wow. That's my position. How many old judges are gonna hear this? And when you come up in there, well, if it's that's a bold position, Andrew.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

And now Drew needs this to pass. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

Plug, plug, plug, plug.

SPEAKER_00 58:22

Well, yeah, we'll definitely look for that one on the ballot. But again, we we're uh we're glad you came out and talked to us this morning.

SPEAKER_01 58:26

Hey, what's happening in absolute wonderful opportunity and we got an article here?

SPEAKER_00 58:31

It's like um lawmakers are moving to be able to remove judges. Um you could decide in a proposed constitutional amendment if lawmakers, and I don't know the inner workings or how long it takes or what the process is, but ultimately lawmakers would be able to have the power to remove judges. I'm assuming it meant district court of judges.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

I would I would assume that's what they I mean. Obviously, they can't remove federal judges or the Supreme Court, you know.

SPEAKER_00 58:59

No, no, no, no. Obviously districts. So uh yeah, that's a slippery slope.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

I believe they would be attempting to remove that power from the judiciary branch, which currently regulates judges on its own. Ah, I uh and and also recently removed a judge or two, and and they've removed judges periodically. We just don't hear about it because it's not here. Uh, but they do. They remove a lot of Justice of the Peace judges and uh things like that. But I don't know if I want uh the legislative branch doing that.

SPEAKER_00 59:31

The Sadvocate absolutely wants that.

SPEAKER_02 59:33

Of course you do.

SPEAKER_00 59:34

Dave, I'm not real sure if that is a power I think I think we have to we've got to absolutely trust the system. And and like we talked about earlier, the there's there's uh what do you call them? Um there's uh a process in place for removing judges. There is, there is a job.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

Why why fool with that? Or they do they feel like that that's not um it's not working?

SPEAKER_02 59:58

I think a lot of times in the law we have the mechanism in place, we just don't we have a flaw in enforcement. Either the per people don't want to enforce it, or the enforcement mechanism isn't what we want it to be. And I I think that's the issue here.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

I don't know. It it leaves too much room for abuse when it comes to elected officials. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:20

That's just so years ago, I went through this with a piece of legislation when I was working at a state agency, and I had warned, and that was the theory. Their theory was we'll always be in power, we'll never have this problem. We're gonna do this. And I said, You better be careful. That's not how it works. And sure enough, we went through eight years of the other, and then they rethought what they had what they had done to themselves. Um, and you gotta be careful with that. I I don't know if I want uh to give that up.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

No, plenty of look, plenty of good content if this passes, not good, though. Don't like it. Don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:55

Don't worry. The Savagate will still make fun of judges. I won't, because I love them, but Dave will. Promise.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

Um, some more political news. Uh so apparently the House is voting to crack down on drivers, and I quote, swerving past other cars at red light.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

Very specific. I feel like that piece of legislation is from a moment in time.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

I'm about to say there must be a representative who was out with his family one night, sitting at a red light, somebody comes, probably Nissan Ultima, swerving around him at a red light, and instead of going, hey, that's illegal because that's a shoulder, that's a red light, that's improper lane usage, that's careless operation. How about another law about this?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

I like how quickly you rattled off six miles.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

But I mean, what's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

Like, you know, it's Saturday night at the red light at abs. Unfortunately, I think 90% of all proposed legislation is from that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

I totally agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

You know, grandma got rear ended by somebody who must have been texting while driving.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:58

Or a big donor says, I can't believe this happened. You know what? I gave$2,500 or so and said, let me call him up.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:03

Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

But you ain't gonna believe what happened. Don't tell me someone swerved past you had a red light. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

I used to say this in law school, and I had a friend of mine would be like, hey, why is couldn't wrap a head their head around a concept? Why did they do this? And I'd say, some asshole. What? Yeah, some asshole. Some asshole stole some crawfish, and some legislator took that to we should have a law that specifically addresses theft of crawfish. And that's how it happens. They didn't just wake up that day and go, hey, you know what we're missing. You know, feeling like no, something happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:39

You know, I also feel like, of course, I'm no attorney, but I do know one. I feel like the definition of swerving could be very loose.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

Swerve is a dance, is it not?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:51

If so, I mean, like, is swerve if you're coming up behind someone and you don't look up till it's too late and they're stopped at a red light and you swerve to avoid hitting them and pass them, did you just break the law?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

Well, see, what if you'd been in the shoulder for about half a mile and you didn't swerve at all?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:07

Way before the red light.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:08

Doesn't affect them, you'd already been swerving.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:10

Yeah, yeah. And they got to prove you swerve, you could have just been riding the shoulder. I don't see those some passing, but again, good.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:16

I like I like the acuity of your legal mind. Yeah, well, I think you're right. You you, sir, have no place in the legislature at all. Yeah, yeah. Not for you. Uh what else we got, Dave?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:29

Um we got a couple texts this week. Um tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:33

How wait if you want to text us, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:35

You can uh you can text us at 225-255-2480 anytime 247.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

If you're an insomniac and you're up at three o'clock in the morning and you have nothing to do, rest assured, you can text the Savage.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:47

At 24-7 Access is really because we don't answer it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:51

Right. And we're not up. We're not when we do get up, we will read the text and I'll put it on the show sheet and we will absolutely read it on the air. If you don't like the text, you can always eat it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:59

You know what you could do? Let's take this a step further. So it's two or three in the morning, you've had a little bit much, you're a little overserved, and you're thinking, I'm going to text my ex dot dot dot. You could put the Savagate text number in as your ex's phone number in your phone and text us what you were gonna text that person.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:24

Yeah, and there's there's no there's no uh risk of blowback. No risk.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:29

We don't care, no harm. We will absolutely 100% read that on the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

I almost anonymously. So if you so even put your name, we're gonna read it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

Don't get me look, try not to be too graphic. She wouldn't have wanted that anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:42

We'll filter it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:42

We will definitely edit it out, make some new words.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

Um, and if you're not the texting type, you can always email us at podcast at thesadvocate.com. We would love to hear from you. Uh, we will re read your comments on the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

Oh, it's like this one.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:55

Um, yeah, so we got a text. The Sadvocate is doing political ads now. I saw some site this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:03

We are?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:04

You are?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:04

Yes, thesadvocate.com has political ads from Mr. Rick Edmonds.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

Uh all-time favorite.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:12

Yes, and uh Dr. John Fleming. Uh both who are running for uh John Fleming is running for Senate.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:18

That is correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:19

And uh Mr. Edmonds is running for Julia Letlow's House of Representatives.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

And running for Congress.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

Yes, so yes, this advocate has some political ads.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

So if if would it be better for Dr. John Fleming if he could play an instrument and he could just parallel himself is a is a Dr. John Fleming. We should have Dr. John Fleming on the show and ask him, and maybe he can have his Bill Clinton moment. Not that he would ever have that moment. Uh but he A lot of moments. A lot of a lot of moments. He could play. This whatever instrument that is, we'll say a saxophone. You can play for us and and show us the well-rounded Dr. John Fleming.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:06

He definitely, he definitely, uh his team said he would come on the show. So um we will definitely uh hold that question for him.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

And then Rick Edmonds, of course, uh wonderful. Love Rick Edmonds.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:15

He's definitely coming on.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:16

Uh I would like to have his wife on. Cindy.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:22

She's wonderful. And sings like Barbara Mandrell.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:24

Does she? Only kill two birds with one stone. Ah the have the Edmonds an hour. We can even invite Richie through the whole family.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

No, no Richie. No Richie.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:33

Oh, Richie?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

No, just Rick and just Rick and Cindy.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:37

Let's not go too far down the family tree. Phillip.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

I tried, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:42

You put you put two Edmonds males on a show at the same time. We're not going to talk again.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:47

That's a good point. Good point. But yes, uh, political ads on the Savagate, non-intrusive. They don't pop up. They don't install spyware. They're very um they're not even moving. They're just images. They're just images. It's there.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

Just hanging out.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

Just in the corner.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

Well, thank you for noticing. I'm glad you did notice. Now I know that people are seeing them.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:03

Hey, more importantly, the people placing those ads know that they're being seen.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:07

Hear that? Correct. They do work.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

They work. They work.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

Um we got one more text. Are the Cassidy attacks paid or free? Must be the same person.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:16

No. Cassidy. Why are you attacking me?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:20

Well, Bill, um, actually, I do the attack ads for free. And I wouldn't call them attack ads. No. We are absolutely just making fun of Mr. Cassidy. And let's face it. Um, what was it? Collard Greens and Gumbo?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:35

Yeah. I mean, it it can't be.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

I have to hand it to him because I think someone put him up to posting that, and it did its job because the Cassidy name was everywhere for that 24 hours.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:46

Well, that, but you know, the the the problem, Louisiana voters, which you run into with Louisiana folks, is it's all fun and games, and bad publicity is still good publicity, and still you until you mess up a recipe. Whether it's an A2Fae, a gumbo, gumbo in particular, for whatever reason, the rest of the world's got some other, and I'm not from here originally, so I don't know as much about it. But I do know the rest of the world does not know how to make gumbo. And every time they attempt it and put it out there, it is wrong.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:18

That's true. And he was he was in Shreveport, and he even put up in Shreveport, and someone told me that collard greens and gumbo were great, and it was, and he took a picture of it, and I have to commend him. I think that was a troll moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:29

I have to hand it to him. Of course, we trolled back and accused uh we said that his campaign manager quit because she found it. He also put Kale in his A2Fae. It was a great article.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

It was good.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:40

Um did really, really well. But no, we do not get paid to um write articles against candidates. But we would absolutely accept some money if you have some ideas, so please email us.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:49

Oh yeah. And if you want to email us, where do you do that at?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:52

Podcast at thesadvocate.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

Hey, what we really need, uh I need somebody to requ somebody should request equal time from us. We need some candidates to want to get on the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:03

We're not bound by those laws, though, right? We're not at all. We could we could honor the request.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:07

But all of a sudden we become media, I finally get my press pass back.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:11

We have plenty of room on the subvocate.com for some more ads.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

Oh, come and get it. Come and get it. Season is hot.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:17

But if you call to inquire about that, don't be a jackass and hang up on us. It's not a good look.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:23

Oh, I didn't I didn't know you wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:25

Not that anyone would do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

I didn't know you did that. I didn't know you wanted to talk about that. I thought you you were being sensitive about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:31

All right. If you were calling on behalf of your candidate, inquiring about advertising with this advocate, we would love to speak to you about it. But probably if we don't give you the answer you want, hanging up on us probably is not a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:43

You know, the the the the the the website and the Facebook page that makes the memes that make fun of people is probably not the best place to do for bad customer service.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:53

Absolutely not. Terrible idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:55

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:56

So but we would love to um we would love to speak to any candidates who want to advertise with us or just uh have us write an article about them. Email us, please.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:03

There you go. And so that's another Savagant podcast. We'll be back again next week or sooner.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:08

No guests, it's just you and I next podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:11

Oh, those are the best ones. We don't get bogged down in guest problems.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:14

I have a lot of fun with that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Yeah, I feel like it's a therapy couch when Wade Evans comes on. Just kidding. Kidding. All right, another podcast coming up. Uh, you can download it, uh, subscribe to it, like it, review it, all those things would really help us out. Uh, anywhere podcaster found, thank you. This has been the Savagate Podcast.