Thanks for joining us for this edition of the hot seat. I'm Travis Mackle. We are continuing our debates and we're focused on *** judge race in Saint Tammany Parish. It deals with Saint Tammany Parish court division. *** two people have qualified to run. One of them is here in studio to talk about the issues. That person is current State Representative Friedman, Mr Friedman. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Travis. Glad to be here. All right, we also do want to point out that we did invite your opponent Allen Black. He has respectfully declined our invitation to participate. So therefore, State Representative Friedman, you are it today. So thanks for coming. Once again, we do have some questions about uh the court system in Saint Tammany Parish and why you feel you would be the best judge. But before we get to the questions, we are gonna give you *** chance to make an opening statement as we always do. So you have 60 seconds to make an opening statement. Well, thank you, Travers and I am State Representative Larry Freeman. I represent Saint Tammany Washington and Tang Parishes in the legislature for the past four years. But now I'm asking to be the next judicial candidate for division *** in the 22nd judicial district court. I've been *** practicing attorney for 30 years. I've handled over 1300 cases in my career. I've tried cases in all the federal courts, all the state district courts and all the work workers compensation courts in the state of Louisiana. I've also argued over 50 times at the, all of the state appellate courts and successfully on multiple occasions at the Louisiana Supreme Court. So my experience is very broad and vast across the state, which is very important for this position because I know what works in other jurisdictions and what doesn't work in other jurisdictions. And I'd love to take the things that work and bring them to Saint Tammany Parish and make our court system even better. We do have *** good court system travers but everything can always be improved. And I think the type of experience that I bring the right experience I bring will help our court system to move forward. Let me ask you this because we do want to get into your mind here. I know that you are prevented from commenting uh on certain cases. And we don't want to ask you, we want to respect the laws and you could possibly be *** judge here. But there will be death penalty cases in Saint Tammany Parish, the D *** there does seek the death penalty. It could possibly be sought in the Mark Spicer case or the Antonio Tyson case. And we're not going to ask you to comment on either one of those cases. But what are your thoughts if you have to handle *** death penalty case? How would you handle that as *** judge in Saint Tammany picking *** jury and handling *** trial that involves the death penalty? Well, Travers again, you're right. I cannot comment on that and nor can I even comment on how it would work. But I can tell you what, I th th this in the past four years in the legislature, I have led the fight to defeat bills that have come in to try to eliminate the death penalty. So obviously, I am *** proponent of the death penalty. I think it's important in this last session in the 2023 there was *** bill that came into the Civil Law Committee, which I'm *** member and we were able to defeat that bill that was going to eliminate the death penalty in, in Louisiana. So I think the death penalty is important for our state. Um Even though we're not executing people, which they say because we can't get the proper medication, which I don't necessarily believe that when Texas is doing it, maybe we ought to just go get it from Texas and use it in Louisiana. But it does have ***, it does have *** purpose for the very heinous crimes that we've seen and you've mentioned *** couple of them and, uh, that is very important for us to keep that death penalty provision in our law really quickly. I know, I know, I know you can't get into the specifics and we're not asking about *** specific case. Would you screen potential jurors? Because it's not *** case where it's an armed robbery where somebody would just get jail time. Potentially you would then because obviously in Louisiana, it's the jury who decides if somebody dies by lethal injection, would the screening process be you when you pick jurors be different than *** normal case? Well, Travis and Voir Dire, which is the process of picking *** jury. The lawyers asked mo mainly ask the questions and there it's up to them to ferret out whether *** potential juror is *** proponent or opponent of the death penalty and *** death penalty case. And they have the ability to strike jurors based upon cause. Um, and that could be one of one of the potential causes or they would they have other peremptory strikes that they can use to eliminate jurors. So really that kind of falls in, in the, in the last of the, the attorneys trying the case. All right, let's talk about this in Saint Tammany because it's *** question. We've done *** couple of judicial debates here and how would you balance if you are elected as *** judge? How would you balance the right to somebody getting *** fair trial as well as running *** rocket docket if you will because people want things to move properly. But then as *** judge, you have to also make sure that they're getting the right to get evidence and interview witnesses. So how do you balance those two to keep your docket moving? Well, first and foremost, is the right to *** fair trial that we have to respect everyone's constitutional rights. That is first and foremost, moving the docket in an efficient manner is secondary. But I think you can do both and the way you do that is to have good systems in place. Um where you put, keep the, keep the attorneys responsible and, and, and hold them accountable for moving their cases forward. But also, as I said, the constitutional rights of our citizens is the utmost importance. And as the judge, I have to make sure that their constitutional rights are protected no matter how fast or how slow these dockets move. That is the number one thing that has to be done from my perspective, as *** judge is protecting their constitutional rights. Well, how would you incorporate new technology? You know, we've asked this to people running for different judge positions in various parishes including here in New Orleans. What are your goals? And what is your plan for incorporating new technology? And when I say that I think that none of us want to go back to COVID and Zoom, but it does have *** benefit for people who may not be able to be here. So what would your plan be for incorporating new technology, either Zoom or letting people do things remotely if they can't make it to your court system? Well, I'm, I'm glad you asked that question because in the t, in the 22nd judicial district court I think we're lacking behind in our tech technological capabilities. I've tried cases in the 24th in Jefferson Parish. They are light years ahead of us in their ability to have uh technology he used in the courtroom and used outside the courtroom. So it is my goal if I get elected to try to bring us further along at the 22nd and getting that type of technology that we see in Jefferson Parish and, and my good friend, Judge Schlegel has been very instrumental in doing that. And I think it's very important for uh lawyers as well as litigants to have that ability to present your case in *** more efficient manner. Uh present evidence more efficiently through technology than the old shuffling of papers. It, it makes these cases go smoothly and much more efficiently which then moves cases through your docket *** lot quicker. You mentioned Scott Schlegel. He actually just got *** promotion. He is an appellate court judge when it comes to civil filings. Would you try to help the system along when it comes to electronic filings? Or is there anything that you have *** plan for to try to speed that process, process up? Because we do know we live in *** litigious world right now and there are lots of electronic filings. Do you have *** plan when it comes to civil filings? And how that docket is managed to try to let people file things electronically and speed the system up? Well, as ***, as *** civil lawyer, I've been practicing for 30 years as we see technology advance, I think we have to advance that same technology in the 22nd. I mean, online filings, uh uh uh you know, the computerized thing, uh, documentation and all the things that we see in other jurisdictions. We have to make sure that our jurisdiction is up to par with the rest. We have one of the richest parishes in the state. There's no reason for the 22nd J DC to be second to any other district court in our state. So we have to make these efforts to move this forward to help both on the criminal docket as well as the civil docket. So let me ask you something and it's somewhat, I don't wanna say personal to us here in the media. What is your stance in about 60 seconds on cameras in the courtroom? Louisiana is now one of only *** handful of states that doesn't allow cameras in the courtroom. And I think that people watching this get accustomed to it. You know, we're all, we've seen stuff in, in States like South Carolina and even Alabama and Florida where people who are voters now voting for, you can see what happens in *** courtroom. What is your stance in allowing cameras in the courtroom? In the state of Louisiana? Well, that's the first time I've been presented with that question, Travers and to be honest, um, I never thought *** lot about it but my off the cuff answer would be, uh, I, I would love to be *** transparent judge. I think transparency is important. The process needs to be transparent. So unless it's *** case that *** juvenile or something that can't be open to the public, I don't see any reason why the public cannot view for online or at home just like they could if they came to the, to the, uh courtroom itself and sat in the courtroom and view the process. I think judges need to be held accountable for their actions, accountable for their decisions and accountable for the type of sentences they hand out. And that's one way to keep the judges much more accountable to the people. Does your work as *** state lawmaker in Baton Rouge? Have any conflict with you running for judge? I asked that are there any bills that could come up in the past or any votes that you made that feel could possibly be *** conflict if you are elected to this position? No, I don't think there's any conflict, but what I think it does, it gives me an advantage. And the reason is, is that I now have been *** pro *** part of the process of making laws and understand how laws are made. And the legislative intent of laws is really important. When you start interpreting laws, you have to interpret them and take in consideration the legislative intent of that law and as being part of the process, I think that gives me an advantage over anyone else in this race who's never been *** part of that. So I think it makes me *** much more viable and much more valuable candidate for judge. We could probably go on and on, but I feel like we've hit the, the, the bullet points here. So we are gonna give you *** chance to make ***, *** closing statement. Once again, we do want to point out we are doing this debate on the race for division. *** Saint Tammany Parish judge. Two people are running state representative, Larry Larry Friedman and Allen Black. We just want to point out we did invite Mr Black. He respectfully declined our invitation. So we are gonna wrap up here with you, Mr Friedman. You get to make *** quick closing statement in about 60 seconds. Well, thank you, Travers. Uh my opponent on *** recent uh radio interview had said that he was put into the race by some, some lawyers and that he is the anointed candidate in this race. He was *** close associate of the former district attorney, Walter Reed and Sheriff. Um, Jack Strain. Those are the kind of people that are anointing him. We cannot go back to the past in the dark days of Saint Tammany Parish. I am the future of Saint Tammany. I am the bright future of Saint Tammany. I'm gonna move our parish forward and not bring us back to that past. So I'm asking the people out here in Saint Tammany and Washington parishes for their support, their vote in this race because I am the candidate that will bring us forward, that will help to concur any potential problems we have with crime. And as I said before, I am, I've been endorsed by *** number of elected officials and four chiefs of police that all believe that I'm the bright guy for the job. So again, I'm asking for your support and I'm asking you for your vote on October 14th. All right, state representative Larry Freeman, we do appreciate your time and just to point this out, we did invite Alan Black, Mr Black, respectfully declined. Thanks again for being here. Obviously, election day is coming up on Saturday and thanks for watching this edition of the W DS U hot seats.