Judge orders sheriff's deputies to find last-minute jurors from around courthouse

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After a rape trial in St. Tammany Parish fell short of the required number of jurors on Wednesday due an extremely low jury duty turnout, the judge in the case ordered sheriff's deputies to round up people from in and around the courthouse to potentially serve on the jury.

Judge Ellen Creel of the 22nd J.D.C. ordered St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputies to collect 24 potential jurors "from surrounding areas of the courthouse for jury duty," court minutes show.

The sheriff's office says it picked up 26 people from inside and outside the parish's courthouse in Covington, including people on its steps and nearby sidewalk, before Creel called them off.

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The move is legal but seldom used. Article 785 of Louisiana's code of criminal procedure allows judges outside New Orleans to summon "tales jurors," as they are called, from "among the bystanders or persons in or about the courthouse."

"It's extremely rare," said Covington-based attorney Roy Burns, who has been practicing law on the northshore for over 50 years. “It’s not happened very much in St. Tammany Parish."

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