In his column in your newsletter last week, Bossier Parish resident Jeff Sadow – apparently sent to discredit the Louisiana Supreme Court’s just released Annual 2025 Report showing that the Caddo Parish District Attorneys office ranked third in the state in number of criminal jury trials with 64 trials with 5 criminal court judges (Jefferson Parish was second with 68 trials by 16 judges) - without citing any source of his data- stated that “(Caddo Parish District Attorney James) Stewart is too soft on crime” as  “the total number of cases filed (under District Attorney Stewart) was about 20 percent lower than it had been a decade earlier, just before he took office.”  
 
Referred charges from law enforcement  are sometimes not filed by DAs due to issues such as redundancy,  lack of evidence for the proof beyond a reasonable doubt court standard, or pre-trial diversion programs for first time non-violent offenders.  
 
Since Sadow did not provide a source of his information, I investigated his assertion.
 
From the Caddo Parish District Attorney case management system, these are the year by year  charges referred by law enforcement to our office, and the number of charges that were filed.

The late Charles Scott and First Assistant Dale Cox were the Caddo Parish District Attorneys in 2015.   After a special election following the death of DA Scott, James Stewart became District Attorney December 1, 2015.  As you can plainly see, in 2025 our office filed 87% of referred charges, versus 79% a decade ago.
 
Good try Mr. Sadow.
 
Sadow’s next column should explain why his own Bossier Parish “tough on crime” District Attorney Schuyler Marvin, and his own conservative “tough on crime” retired Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Scott Crichton - both men with extensive criminal court experience  - support District Attorney Stewart.  
 
Wilbert Pryor
Caddo Parish Chief Deputy District Attorney