"Justice delayed is justice denied, and today, justice was unequivocally denied to those who deserve it most," Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement after a judge abruptly recused himself from the rape trial of a 93-year-old Catholic priest on what was supposed to be the first day of jury selection. The move further delays the trial of Lawrence Hecker, which Judge Ben Willard had overseen for more than a year, the Guardian reports.
- The DA's office had 11 witnesses set to testify, including the alleged victim, who said he was a high school student when Hecker choked him unconscious and raped him in a church in 1975.
- The witnesses, including several others who said Hecker molested them, "had to go through the sordid details of these abuses at the hand of this pedophile priest" as the DA's office prepared them for the trial, said Rafael Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans criminal justice watchdog group. "Everyone walked into court expecting that this is the day of justice, only to find out that the judge, without any advance warning, decided to transfer the case."