N.O. too slow on arrests, court rules

Orleans Parish criminal courts must comply with the law that ensures that people are not held longer than 48 hours after arrest without a judge determining there was probable cause for the collar, the Louisiana Supreme Court said Friday.

The ruling came two weeks after several justices expressed dismay with the way that the local Magistrate Court handles the rights of those arrested without warrants. The case at hand was the June 8 arrest of Bruce Wallace, 50, booked with possession of crack cocaine. Wallace was jailed for three days before the court decided that police had made a proper arrest.

"Weekends and legal holidays are counted in the 48 hour time," the court said in an 11-page decision released Friday.

The justices dismissed the argument by the district attorney's office that the mistake was "cured" because probable cause was finally found for Wallace's arrest. When Wallace appeared before Magistrate Judge Gerard Hansen on June 11, the public defender demanded his release due to the 72-hour wait.

"Probable cause determination was made at the time that he was arrested," Hansen told the defense attorney. "Go to the Supreme Court and tell them I'm wrong."

In recent months, several other cases from Orleans Parish have shown that the court system is not providing timely probable cause reviews.

"In spite of this clear language, the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court consistently has had problems following the mandates of" state law, the court said.

Only six months ago, the same court ruled in another case that probable cause reviews must take place within 48 hours of a person's arrest.