Dec. 31 (UPI) — A judge in Louisiana resigned Friday after she was caught on video repeatedly using a racial slur in reference to a Black burglar earlier this month.
Lafayette City Court Judge Michelle Odinet apologized for using the “hurtful words” against an alleged burglar in the letter, which was addressed to Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice John Weimer.
“I take full responsibility for the hurtful words I used to describe the individual who burglarized the vehicles at my home,” Odinet wrote.”I am sorry for the pain that I have caused my community and ask for your forgiveness, as my words did not foster the public’s confidence and integrity for the judiciary.”
Odinet said that her resignation was effective immediately “in order to facilitate healing within the community” after taking an unpaid leave of absence and initially resisting calls to leave her post.
The video was taken in Odinet’s Bendel Gardens home and shows her narrating security footage of a man allegedly trying to break into a car in her driveway, according to The Current.
It was not immediately clear who recorded the video or how it became public before it circulated online and in the media.
In the recording, a male voice is heard saying that his mother is using the N-word before a female voice, believed to belong to Odinet, then laughs and compares the usage of the racial slur to a “roach.”
Odinet said in a statement to KATC earlier this month that she had been given a sedative and has “zero recollection” of using the racial slurs.
The judge, who previously served as an assistant district attorney in Orleans Parish, was temporarily disqualified from the bench by the state’s Supreme Court.
New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, who is Black, said in a statement last week that he had ordered his office to review all cases prosecuted by Odinet from her career as a lawyer.
“That a judge and former prosecutor so comfortably employed a racial epithet serves as a telling reminder that the attitudes which fostered mass incarceration continue to undermine our pursuit of equal justice,” Williams said.
“Moreover, the casual dehumanization displayed by JudgeOdinet raises serious questions about her impartiality and the presence of bias and discrimination in her work.”
Odinet wrote in the letter, which was forwarded to Lousiana’sSecretary of State, that she hoped a special election could be scheduled to fill her vacancy.
