La. Court of Appeal reverses Ortego’s ruling in Tate case

The Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal has reversed Judge Gary Ortego’s ruling in the State’s case against Ville Platte business owner Joseph “Greg” Tate.
Tate was arrested in October of 2011 after being accused of hiring Herman Vidrine to beat up one of the candidates that ran against him in the 2011 Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court race.
The defendant, who has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated second degree battery, appeared in Ortego’s courtroom on the morning of January 19, 2016 for a Motion in Limine hearing, which is a motion made to keep certain evidence from being introduced during a trial.
During the hearing, Tate’s attorney Jacob Fusilier requested that the court exclude the introduction of any tape or video recordings and that the State of Louisiana’s witness, Nathaniel Savoy, not be allowed to testify or present evidence as to the alleged statements acquired from their now deceased witness, Herman Vidrine.
At the hearing, Ortego ruled that any tape or video recordings would be inadmissible during the trial due to the fact that “the constitution guarantees that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right to confront their accuser.” However, in this instance “the only witness who was present at the time of the recording, Herman Vidrine, is now deceased.”
Ortego then had to rule on whether Savoy, who is now a convicted felon, would be allowed to testify.
The judge ruled that because Savoy, who appeared to have shown up late for the January 19th hearing, was not present at the time of the supposed video recording of a confession and due to the witness’s unavailability, Savoy’s testimony would not be allowed in court.
Following the hearing, the State, who is being represented by Marty White, appealed Ortego’s rulings to the La. Third Circuit Court of Appeal.
On May 19, 2016, the court of appeals, according to their judgement, determined that “Savoy was subpoenaed to appear in court on January 19, 2016, at 1:30 p.m.,” and “as a result, the trial court’s ruling addressing Savoy’s credibility and finding him absent or unavailable for a hearing held on that date at 9:00 a.m was flawed.”
For this reason, the court of appeals ruled that “the trial court’s ruling granting the defendant’s Motion in Limine is vacated.”
The judgement went on to read that “the denial of the right to cross-examine Herman Vidrine violated the defendant’s fundamental and constitutional right to face his accusers and prepare for his own defense was also improper.” The court’s reasoning as to why this was improper was because “the issue was not raised by the defendant in his motion and was previously addressed by this court.”
Following the appellate court’s decision, the State filed a motion to recuse, or remove, Ortego from hearing this matter.
No motion hearing was held concerning this due to the fact the on September 13, 2016 Ortego officially recused himself from being the judge in the State’s case against Tate.