MAY 7, NEW ORLEANS — It’s Thursday. Calvin Duncan is working at his office at Loyola University, where he helps people access courts and case records through Light of Justice.
It’s his life’s work. It doesn’t stop just because he has experienced a topsy-turvy legal week.
Three days ago, Duncan was preparing to do his life’s work in a different way, as clerk of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, the office he won overwhelmingly in November.
“I was the clerk for three hours.” The best three hours in his life so far, he said.
But as most of New Orleans knows, it was a struggle for Duncan to make it to work that morning. Late last week, Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill, Senate Bill 256 (Act 15), to eliminate the entire criminal-court clerkship and replace it with one Orleans Parish clerk’s office run by Chelsey Richard Napoleon, clerk of Civil District Court.
Then on Sunday — the day before Duncan was slated to take office, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles at the Middle District of Louisiana federal court in Baton Rouge made it possible for Duncan to walk into the office on Monday. deGravelles scuttled the new law, by declaring it unconstitutional.
The Louisiana state constitution requires that clerks be elected, deGravelles ruled, and issued 49 pages of explanations: “Defendants keep Plaintiff from taking office by appointing Ms. Napoleon without affording 68% of Orleans Parish voters to fill that office with the candidate of their choice.”
So the voters are really part of this story. This week, we’ve made an effort to speak with voters who voted for Duncan.
Voters like Jason Elliott, who cast his vote for Duncan in the Riverbend, in the 14th Ward. Like Jamie Lovitt and Maureen Kelly, who also pushed the vote button for Duncan in their own 14th Ward precincts. Like voter Terri Zehyoue from the 3rd Ward in Mid-City.
On Monday, it wasn’t even 8 a.m. when Duncan arrived at the old Gothic courthouse on Tulane Avenue and Broad Street. He waved happily at the crowd gathered outside, dressed in black for a silent march to mark the anticipated loss of voting rights. The crowd applauded.
His predecessor, Darren Lombard, met him at the office with a friendly handshake. The two posed for photographs together.
Lombard gave him a tour of the office’s dominion: its offices on the first and second floor and the places where records and evidence are kept within the attached former Orleans Parish Prison building.
That was especially profound for Duncan to see, because he served 28 wrongful years on a murder conviction in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, waiting to get his hands on his own records so that he could be exonerated, attend law school, and become a lawyer.
The two clerks, Lombard and Duncan, spoke about elections and the computerized machines used by voters, like those who voted in Duncan.
Voters like Cheryl L. Nicks from the 9th Ward, the Lower 9. Like Michele Johnson, who voted for Duncan in primary and runoff from a firehouse on Magazine Street that serves as Ward 11, Precinct 2. Like Charlie Bini, who also voted for Duncan twice, from Ward 9, Precinct 14.
As Duncan returned to the office, where the front desk was receiving congratulatory deliveries of flowers, food, cake, and cards, the new clerk met his staff. It was a happy get-together. “I prayed for you,” said a few people. “We were rooting for you,” said others.
By then, his time was running out. By 11 a.m., he and his acting deputy clerk, Emily Ratner, had heard that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a stay. To make sure they were following the law — even as it shifted — they told the clerk’s staff that they had to leave, but that they hoped to be coming back.
The Fifth Circuit’s stay put deGravelles’ opinion on hold until a panel of judges could decide on the merits of Duncan’s rights, which deGravelles found had been violated at the state and federal constitutional levels, but which the governor’s legal team wanted instead heard by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Duncan used to be a relatively anonymous guy in town. But since he triumphed in the election, and especially since legislators have tried to eliminate his office, he is recognized across town by people who want to hug him, take selfies with him, buy him a coffee, or even FaceTime mom to tell her, “Look who I just ran into: Calvin Duncan.” Almost overnight, he became a known face. A household name. A freedom fighter.
“That’s new,” Duncan said. “But it happens everywhere I go now. I guess they’re proud of me. That’s what they tell me.” They’re also upset about what’s happening, to someone they see as a nice guy, he said, recalling a stop he made at Costco recently where a woman told him, “We don’t deserve you.”
Some also tell him that they’re sad that their will — the will of the voters — is not being followed, he said.
Voters like Deidra T. Meredith from the 6th Ward. Like Jesse Manley, who voted for Duncan from Ward 17, Precinct 11. Like Edward Johnson, who early-voted at the Algiers courthouse. And like Sidney Hill, who was out of town during the election but called his mom both times to remind her to vote for his old friend Calvin Duncan.
In a way, Duncan feels relieved not to be running back and forth to the Louisiana State Capitol to argue his case. “I’m glad all the politics are over,” he said. “You cannot beat the governor. He’s the king.”
Now everything moves to courthouses: Duncan’s comfort zone. He still believes his case will triumph there. “If you believe that the law is not being fairly applied, you turn to the courts,” he said. “Because you are all on the same playing fields before a judge. Or you should be. That’s how checks and balances are supposed to play out.”
Earlier in the day on Thursday, Chelsey Napoleon, serving in the new role of Orleans Parish Clerk of Court, appointed retired appeals-court judge Edwin Lombard, also a former clerk of criminal court and a cousin of Darren Lombard, to serve as senior deputy over daily operations at the criminal court.
Lombard’s role will help ensure “continuity” in local elections next weekend, Napoleon said.
Duncan was prepared to be that continuity when he ran for clerk. “And I won it, I did,” he said. “But the world has changed on me, that fast.”
