[StBernard] Louisiana Supreme Court mulling fine against St. Bernard Parish Judge Jacques Sanborn for tardy finance disclosure

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu Oct 21 22:02:24 EDT 2010


Louisiana Supreme Court mulling fine against St. Bernard Parish Judge
Jacques Sanborn for tardy finance disclosure

Published: Thursday, October 21, 2010, 6:57 PM Updated: Thursday,
October 21, 2010, 6:57 PM

Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune

The Louisiana Supreme Court will decide whether to impose $3,228 in fines on
St. Bernard Parish Judge Jacques Sanborn for failure to file his 2008
personal financial disclosure forms on time.

The 2008 disclosure statement, required for all elected officials and other
state administrators, was supposed to be filed by May 15, 2009. There were
extensions to the deadline because Sanborn had filed for an extension of his
federal income tax return, but he did not file the disclosure form until
Feb. 17, 2010.

That filing came after Sanborn had not responded in time to a delinquency
notice sent by the judicial administrator of the Louisiana Supreme Court,
which administers the financial disclosure rules for judges.

The Louisiana Judiciary Commission recommended to the Supreme Court that
Sanborn be fined $2,400 - $100 per day - for the 24 days between the
deadline outlined in a delinquency notice and the time he responded, in late
January 2010. The commission also recommended he pay $828 in costs incurred
by the Judiciary Commission.

A hearing in front of the Supreme Court was held this week, though a
decision is not expected for at least a month.

According to documents from the Judiciary Commission, Sanborn admitted to
commission members that he should have known that he could incur penalties
by not responding to the notices he had been sent about the late filing.

He told the commission that he had not responded in writing, but that he had
called the judicial administrator's office to explain the delay due to
similar delays with filing the income taxes.

Sanborn testified to the commission, "I didn't want to send in an incorrect
form or a form that didn't include all my income. And I didn't know whether
that was going to be income or not ... I thought it was more of a problem
sending an incorrect form than sending it in tardy."

He later noted that he should have responded in writing to explain why the
forms would be late. "We did make a call both in, like I said, in December
and January. I did not put it in

writing," Sanborn told the commission.







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