The Louisiana Attorney General has filed litigation against the Caddo Commission and seven Caddo Commissioners in the First Judicial District Court which is in Shreveport.
James Silvio and others have filed suit against Caddo Commissioner Chris Kracman in his individual capacity in the same court.
The Caddo Commission owns the Caddo courthouse and pays for all the maintenance and improvements to this building. It is expected that all the Caddo district court judges will recuse themselves from these two cases, citing conflict of interest. Assuming this has happened/will happen then the Louisiana Supreme Court will appoint a judge(s) to hear these two cases.
In instances such as this, the Supreme Court has in the past generally appointed a judge from the 26th Judicial Court, which sits in Benton and Minden, to hear Caddo cases. Many legal eagles have anticipated this will be the case in these two cases.
However, there is some speculation that retired Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Scott Crichton may be interested in presiding over one or both of these highly publicized cases.
A hearing has been scheduled in the AG case for Oct. 27 of next month. Thus, it is anticipated that the identity of the hearing judge(s) will be known no later than Oct. 1. The reality that one or both of these cases may end up in the Supreme Court on appeal presents some interesting hot stove conversation topics on judicial ethics and the appearance of judicial neutrality.