Rotarian of the day, Chesney Chandler, introduced her guest speaker for Winnfield Rotary’s July 24, meeting, Eight Judicial District Court Judge Anastasia Wiley. Judge Wiley, who was Winnfield’s City Judge before assuming the district court bench in January 2021, considers her job to be one of community service, and she continually strives to help more people as best she can.

While acknowledging that 2020 was a bad year, Judge Wiley told the group of positive changes in court procedures that resulted from the need for social distancing with the advent of COVID-19. Holding conferences with attorneys and the parties to cases via Zoom or other electronic video means is now standard procedure. This eliminates travel as well as the time previously spent in court waiting for one’s case to be called up. It also avoids the need for parties to see each other in person in contentious cases. Training sessions for court personnel are also via video communication.

Another positive change was the use of a staggered docket, scheduling sets of cases at separate times, rather than every case being set at the beginning of the day. This, too, is more efficient because the fewer cases set at one time means fewer people who must appear and wait for other matters to be handled before theirs.

Judge Wiley is the vice current president of the Judicial College, which is the educational arm of the Louisiana Supreme Court. The College teaches judges how to do their job, what they should know and how they should act. As a member of the City Judges Association and the Juvenile Courts’ Association, Judge Wiley brings a rural perspective to these groups instead of the only viewpoint being that of judges from the cities in Louisiana. 

According to Wiley, Louisiana’s legislature has passed several laws this year with significant impact on the courts and law enforcement, including requiring that all 17-year-olds be charged as adults, the imposition of more severe sentencing and penalty provisions, and requiring that all those convicted of crime serve at least 85% of their sentence, an increase from 35%.

As judge in one of the nine judicial districts in Louisiana which do not have drug courts, Wiley anticipates soon receiving funds from the legislature and from the opioid settlement allowing her to implement some aspects of the drug court model in her court. She also has appointed a juvenile facilitator who will connect with the district attorney’s families in need of services officer and a contact person at each school in the parish to deal with truancy, as well as juvenile offenders. 

In conclusion, Judge Wiley emphasized her commitment to helping all people in the community as our district judge.

Rotary’s president adjourned the meeting with the Rotary motto, Service Above Self!