Hutson's chaotic day in court

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Former Orleans Parish Sheriff, Susan Hudson's arraignment today turned into one of the most chaotic and unusual court scenes I've seen in years. Hudson and her former CFO, Bianca Brown, are facing a 50-count indictment tied to last year's massive New Orleans jail escape, including malfeasance [music] and obstruction charges. And today's hearing, well, from a legal perspective, nothing actually happened. But from an everything else perspective, it was wild. First, Hudson, a Democrat who ran on criminal justice reform, was surrounded by Nation of Islam [music] security guards in suits and bow ties.

[00:00:34]Then the prosecutor, a former Republican judicial candidate, showed up nearly 25 minutes late and tried to argue with a judge about when his court [music] starts. And moments later, the judge recused himself from the case entirely, raising fresh questions about who can even hear this politically charged prosecution. Now, back outside court, I tried to ask Hudson about one of the key allegations in the case, that the Sheriff's office had millions available to maintain the jail [music] before 10 inmates escaped last year.

[00:01:03]Sheriff, what do you have to say to the Do you knew you had plenty of money and you didn't fix the jail? No answer this time, but Hudson and Brown have promised to fight [music] the charges. So, follow me at David Hammer WWL, click the link in the comments for the full story, and [music] watch it on the WWL app.

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