*A Louisiana judge is facing calls to resign after a racist video circulated online following an attempted burglary at her home over the weekend.
Lafayette City Court Judge Michelle Odinet claims she had taken a sedative at the time the video was made and does not remember her and her family using the racist slurs heard in the clip (see below).
Here’s more from Complex:
In the video, Odinet and her family gathered to watch home security footage of an armed burglary that took place Saturday in their driveway. A voice can be heard saying, “And mom’s yelling n****r n****r,” to which a female voice answered: “We have a n****r, It’s a n****r, like a roach.”
“When the suspect observed the victim arrive, the suspect attempted to flee on foot but was quickly caught by the victim,” police wrote in their report. “Victim held the suspect down until officers arrived. Footage in the security video captures the events, as two people tackle what appears to be the suspect.”
A Black man, 59, was arrested after the burglary and charged with two counts of simple burglary of an automobile.
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This is DISGUSTING! Judge Michelle Odinet is captured on video using racial slurs while reviewing home security footage. People’s lives are in HER HANDS on a daily basis. This level of hate & racial bias should not be in our courtrooms! She needs to RESIGN! pic.twitter.com/TVny8kcaUZ
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) December 15, 2021
Odinet addressed the video in a statement on Tuesday, local news station KLFY reports.
“My children and I were the victim of an armed burglary at our home,” Odinet said. “The police were called and the assailant was arrested. The incident shook me to my core and my mental state was fragile. I was a wreck and am still unable to sleep.”
Odinet continued, “I was given a sedative at the time of the video. I have zero recollection of the video and the disturbing language used during it. Anyone who knows me and my husband, knows this is contrary to the way we live our lives. I am deeply sorry and ask for your forgiveness and understanding as my family and I deal with the emotional aftermath of this armed burglary.”
One Twitter user responded to the video, “Someone in the family actually recorded this & shared it like it was a totally normal thing to refer to Black people using a racial slur. Now she is blaming a sedative despite sounding wide awake while joking with her family about capturing the burglar.”
The president of the Lafayette Chapter of the NAACP, Michael Toussaint, called for Odinet’s resignation.
“I have never met Judge Odinet, only heard her voice in campaign adds. But because she has confirmed that the video was in fact taken inside her home, one would think that as a sitting judge, a mother, a community leader, a person in position of authority, that she would have stepped up and taken a stand against that type of language in her own home,” Toussaint said in a statement to Lafayette news outlets.
The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus also wants Odinet to resign.
“In the event she doesn’t resign, we request that the Louisiana Judiciary Commission Immediately appoint an ad hoc judge to hear cases in her division, investigate this incident and ultimately remove her,” the group said in a news release.
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