The cats and dogs who come to Lee County are in very good condition or very poor condition. A cat brought in as one of the last rescues is covered in some sort of oily goop that mattes her entire coat from the shoulders down. Despite her terror, she’s ravenous, eating an entire can of wet food once safe in a cage.

New Orleans attorney Derwyn Bunton -- who spoke on behalf of the legal team for the remaining five defendants -- said they had been hopeful a decision would be made Friday. Yet, they said they were pleased to have their case heard before a judge they feel will carefully consider their motion.

Mauffray "has proven through his testimony that he does harbor prejudice and prejudgment in these cases," said Derwyn Bunton, an attorney for Theodore Shaw. "We want a fair trial with a fair judge, and the hearing illustrated we cannot have that with Judge Mauffray."

“It disturbs me that a parent would feel she is being threatened by the director of the facility charged with her son’s care,” Megan Faunce of JJPL wrote Simon Gonsoulin, who at the time headed the Office of Youth Development, which oversees Jetson.

Amid the flies and roaches that had taken up residence, Hector Linares found more than a half-dozen Thai workers living in the dark, narrow hallways. When he entered, the workers were huddled around a propane stove, trying to prepare a meager meal in a single pot using contaminated water. They weren't there by choice. They were imprisoned by human traffickers, who had taken them to New Orleans at gunpoint and forced them to gut buildings damaged in the storm.

“Standing there talking with that kid, it struck me so deeply that we were it for him, ” says Derwyn Bunton ’98, associate director of the New Orleans-based Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, who met Paul a month after his ordeal.