NEW IBERIA (Daily Advertiser)- One by one, Judge Lori Landry took up the motions Thursday prosecutors filed to remove her from criminal cases.

Judge Lori Landry (Photo: 16th Judicial District Court)

As another judge from the 16th Judicial District Court that serves Iberia, St. Mary and St. Martin parishes delayed hearings to remove Landry from the cases, the African American judge sat nearby in her courtroom forcing prosecutors to speak to the latest of more than 300 motions they’ve filed against her.

Filed in the criminal cases randomly assigned to her and in some cases where there was a conviction, the motions argue Landry is biased, unfair and hostile. Prosecutors say Landry can’t be a neutral arbiter in cases when she’s accused them of unjustly applying the law against black defendants, so they want her off the cases.

“There’s no specificity other than the general allegations, which are out of context,” Landry said Thursday as prosecutors continued filing motions to remove her from cases.

In the hundreds of criminal cases assigned to Landry, prosecutors filed the identical motion to remove her.

When a motion asking a judge to remove themselves from a case comes up, the judge can step down or ask another judge to make the decision. In response to motions that came before her Thursday, Landry asked for another judge to step in and decide whether she should be removed.

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