[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish district attorney candidates get heated during candidate forum

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish district attorney candidates get heated during candidate
forum
Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on September 30, 2014 at 9:08 PM

In the St. Bernard Parish district attorney race, the gloves came off
Tuesday evening (Sept. 30) during a packed parish Chamber of Commerce-hosted
candidate forum.

The night had passed calmly until the three district attorney's candidates
took the stage at the close of the forum. Then the heat turned up, with
audience members laughing, applauding and jeering.

For the first time in more than three decades, St. Bernard this fall will
elect a new district attorney as incumbent Jack Rowley did not sign up for
the Nov. 4 race. Former Judge Perry Nicosia, D-eastern St. Bernard, and two
parish assistant district attorneys, Glenn E. Diaz, Other-Arabi, and Michael
Gorbaty, R-Arabi, are facing off in that race. Nicosia resigned from his
judicial post in August in order to quality.

Nicosia said the district attorney's office over the past several years has
had extreme dismissal rates of serious felony cases.

"I resigned my job to tell this story," he said.

He pointed to the prosecution of sex crimes and said too few of those cases
currently make it to trial.

Gorbaty said he recently reviewed many of those cases after Nicosia mailers
had referred to them, and that most of them had been dismissed at the
request of the victim or the victim's family, and others were dismissed
because the defendants pleaded to other charges.

"How can the people of the parish trust you when you mislead them with
misinformation?" Gorbaty asked Nicosia.

Nicosia stood by his accusations.

In part, Nicosia discussed creating a system wherein victims feel more
comfortable and are more informed about the criminal process.

"...Don't blame a victim who was not even called until the day before
trial," Nicosia said.

During the back-and-forth, Diaz and Gorbaty - the two assistant district
attorney in the race - often teamed up against Nicosia, the former judge.

Diaz, who has served as the chief prosecutor in Rowley's office since 1979,
at first pointed to his own experience.

"The best deterrent against crime is experience," Diaz said. "The people of
St. Bernard need the best criminal lawyer, with a track record and the
ability to win."

Then, as the evening progressed, more and more, he pointed toward Nicosia.

"You have no skills as a DA," Diaz said to Nicosia. "You have no skills as a
trial lawyer."

Diaz questioned why, if so much is wrong with the district attorney's
office, that Nicosia had never filed a complaint against the office.

Finally, Diaz said that Nicosia's accusations "erodes confidence in this
parish. ... That is just wrong. It is foolish. It is reckless."

In his own concluding remarks, Nicosia said his four years on bench had
shown him problems in the district attorney's office and that he resigned
his judicial post so that he could change that office.

"St. Bernard deserves better leaders," he said. "...I want you to be upset
too," he told the viewing audience.

While Gorbaty sided with Diaz in the more heated arguments, he often kept
more of a distance, attempting to tread a line between his two opponents.

"The district attorney is a powerful position and you have to fill it with
someone that you can trust," Gorbaty said. "My entire adult life, I have
worked hard to earn your trust."

Gorbaty pointed to his 22-year military career "where I made tough decisions
every day on critical programs that were important for our national
security."

And, Gorbaty also highlighted his time as an assistant district attorney,
"following Mr. Rowley's lead."