Douglas Gonzales

Douglas Marion Gonzales, Sr. (born December 11, 1935),^[1] is a retired judge from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

From 1972 to 1976, Gonzales, a Republican,^[2] was the U.S. Attorney for the newly established United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.^[3] From 1976^[4] to 1990, he was the judge of the Louisiana 19th Judicial District Court, based in East Baton Rouge Parish. He joined the circuit court in 1991 and ran without opposition in 1992 to succeed the retiring Judge Steve A. Alford, Jr., on the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Circuit Court of Appeal for the First Circuit, Second District, Division B.^[5] Judge Gonzales retired on August 1, 2002, after more than eleven years on the circuit court, which has jurisdiction over sixteen parishes,^[6][7]

Background

Gonzales received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959 from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and his L.L.B. from the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge. He was admitted to the bar in 1963.^[8]

Gonzales and his wife, Gail W. Gonzales (born November 20, 1938), reside in Baton Rouge.^[9] The couple has at least one son, Dr. Douglas Gonzales, Jr. (born April 16, 1967).^[10]

Selected legal cases

Early in his judicial career, Judge Gonzales issued arrest warrants in the case of George W. D'Artois, the Shreveport public safety commissioner under the city commission government who was charged in the assassination in Baton Rouge in July 1976 of public relations specialist Jim Leslie, D'Artois's former campaign consultant from Shreveport. D'Artois was soon released pending lack of evidence but was later indicted for murder. He died in 1977 during heart surgery before he could face a jury, and the Leslie case remains legally unsolved.^[4]

In the fall of 1979, Judge Gonzales heard the case Fitzmorris v. Lambert in the Baton Rouge district court. Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris, a Democrat from New Orleans, sued to obtain a runoff berth in the 1979 Louisiana gubernatorial election. Republican candidate David C. Treen, then a U.S. representative from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, led the primary with 297,674 votes. Fitzmorris at first appeared headed into the general election with Treen, with 280,490 votes. Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Louis Lambert had 279,014. Lambert correctly predicted that "there will be changes in the final results." Paul J. Hardy finished fourth with 225,058 votes, while Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives E. L. "Bubba" Henry, then of Jonesboro in Jackson Parish, and State Senator Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr., of Lafayette trailed with 135,299 and 123,126, respectively. The official results switched the positions of Fitzmorris and Lambert: Fitzmorris polled 280,760 votes; Lambert, 283,266. Lambert hence went into the general election by a margin of 2,506 votes over Fitzmorris's final tablulation.^[11]

Fitzmorris claimed an incorrect counting of the primary ballots had placed Lambert, a member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission from Baton Rouge and later a long-term state senator, into the second round of balloting with Treen. Judge Gonzales threw out three hundred Lambert votes in three precincts in St. Helena Parish, because Lambert's total in each precinct increased by one hundred votes between election night, October 27, and the release of the final tabulation on October 30.^[12] However, Gonzales dismissed the suit. He somberly told Fitzmorris, "You have proven your courage and integrity, but the facts have not proven your case."^[12] Gonzales added that he took his action "with a sad heart."^[12] After attempts at appeal, Fitzmorris told the media: "I am now more convinced than ever that this election was stolen from Jimmy Fitzmorris."^[12] The Fitzmorris-Lambert rivalry aided Treen in securing Democratic support in the general election against Lambert. The dispute created a major issue of the governor's race: election reform. Treen went on to become the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.^[13]

On March 10, 1980, Gonzales administered the oath of office to Governor Treen and gave him a Bible inscribed, "Dave, Upon this good book, you took your oath of office. Please keep it close so it can serve as a constant reminder of your solemn commitment to the people of this great state ..."^[14]

Four years later, Judge Gonzales heard another disputed election case, Dumas v. Jetson, in which Walter Dumas claimed that he had lost a contest by 213 votes for the District 61 seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives in Baton Rouge to Louis Jetson because of "fraud, voting by unqualified voters, improper assistance of voters by election commissioners, improper campaigning in polling places, and improper conduct in polling places."^[15] As in the Fitzmorris case, Gonzales ruled that Dumas had not proved his case of election fraud and ordered the payment of court costs and legal fees to Jetson.^[15] Coincidentally, Jetson died shortly after taking his oath of office as a state representative.^[16]

In another case, Malina v. Gonzales, the judge, while on the 19th Judicial District Court, was himself sued in 1988 regarding a highway incident with Thomas Martin Malina (born June 1957) of Baton Rouge. Malina signaled Judge Gonzales, not knowing his identity, for allegedly driving at a slower rate in the "fast lane" of a highway and motioned for the driver to move into the left lane. Gonzales apparently became irritated at Malina and turned on his flashing light and told Malina that he had the authority to arrest him, but Malina fled the scene. Judge Gonzales then sent a police officer privately to Malina's home to request that Malina appear the next day in court. Gonzales told Malina that he had arrest authority and charged him with multiple counts, "fleeing to allude," "resisting an officer," "public endangerment," "disobeying an officer," "reckless driving," and "leaving the scene." Malina said that he questioned the flashing light from an unmarked vehicle. Gonzales cited Malina for contempt of court. Malina was handcuffed, fingerprinted, photographed, and jailed for five hours. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans held on appeal in 1993 that Judge Gonzales lacked legal authority to arrest Malina but did have qualified immunity from Malina's suit and the legal power to charge Malina with contempt and to hold him for five hours.^[17][18]

References