Meanwhile, over in New Orleans, they not only continue to deal with the post-“Thing” difficulties, they’re still stuck with residual insanity from the past. Like this:
The same system that locked up Sims in August 2005, on a year-old charge that she had offered oral sex to an undercover cop on Tulane Avenue for $20, let Sims and her case languish.
Sims was charged with solicitation of crime against nature, a felony instead of the misdemeanor crime of prostitution, and has been in jail since Aug. 7, 2005. Prostitution, which defendants like her typically are charged with, carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
[snip]
“Crime against nature” is a charge leveled against suspected prostitutes, although the law is written to apply to anyone, male or female, who engages in “unnatural carnal copulation” with a person or an animal. Solicitation is spelled out in the law as well. Punishment is up to five years in prison.
Ummmm…. time-out here for a sec. Assuming we’re all adults here, they’re charging this woman with a felony “crime against nature” for what????? Get a grip!
Onward (my emphasis):
In 2004, Jordan’s office did not formally charge Sims in the time period the law demands, 60 days after her arrest, and she was released after serving two months in Parish Prison.
[snip]
There is no full police report on file, however, only an “incident report” with a couple of sentences to detail what police said Sims was doing that night in April 2004 along the 4000 block of Tulane Avenue.
[snip]
But prosecutors did not formally charge her in the case until May 2, 2005, when Sims was arrested again, this time on a public drunkenness charge. After her Aug. 18 hearing in Marullo’s court, when she was found incompetent, she did not have another court date until attorneys from the Tulane Law Clinic revived the case and got it dismissed Friday.
Okay, let’s see if I’ve got this right.
The woman was arrested in April 2004. She wasn’t formally charged with that until May 2005 (when she was arrested for public drunkenness). Then, she didn’t have a hearing until Aug. 18, when she was found incompetent…. and then came Katrina……
And she’s been languishing in jail, without a lawyer or trial, until this past Friday.
Have I mentioned that the Criminal Justice system in New Orleans is absolutely abysmal?
Oh. Yes, I see that I have.