Changes

In 2011, Judge Self upheld the 90-day suspension of Phillip Vernon, a Bossier City police officer who escorted to jail the Bossier-Webster assistant district attorney, Charles Sherburne "Sherb" Sentell, III (born July 1966) of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], a maternal great-nephew of former Governor [[Robert F. Kennon]], after another officer in 2009 arrested Sentell for having manhandled Sentell's wife at a [[casino]]. Vernon accused Sentell of hurling profanity at him and threatening the officer's job during the trip to jail. Thereafter, Vernon was dismissed from the force after an internal police investigation concluded that Sentell did not make the threat. The municipal civil service board overturned Vernon's dismissal but upheld the suspension, and Judge Self concurred with that finding.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ktbs.com/news/judge-won-t-clear-officer-s-record/article_81e0475c-b6a0-5b5e-8087-c6df684fc2b8.html|title=Judge Won't Clear Officer's Record|publisher=KTBS-TV|date=January 4, 2011|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref>

In 2011, Judge Self upheld the 90-day suspension of Phillip Vernon, a Bossier City police officer who escorted to jail the Bossier-Webster assistant district attorney, Charles Sherburne "Sherb" Sentell, III (born July 1966) of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], a maternal great-nephew of former Governor [[Robert F. Kennon]], after another officer in 2009 arrested Sentell for having manhandled Sentell's wife at a [[casino]]. Vernon accused Sentell of hurling profanity at him and threatening the officer's job during the trip to jail. Thereafter, Vernon was dismissed from the force after an internal police investigation concluded that Sentell did not make the threat. The municipal civil service board overturned Vernon's dismissal but upheld the suspension, and Judge Self concurred with that finding.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ktbs.com/news/judge-won-t-clear-officer-s-record/article_81e0475c-b6a0-5b5e-8087-c6df684fc2b8.html|title=Judge Won't Clear Officer's Record|publisher=KTBS-TV|date=January 4, 2011|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref>

In 2013, Judge Self handled a case of workplace violence turned deadly when a 54-year-old fired maintenance man, Robert Earl Walter, was tried in the 26th Judicial District Court for the murder in the second degree of April Ann Thomas Fulghum (1979-2012of Greenwood in south Caddo Parish, a married mother of two children<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Fulghum&GSfn=April&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=98657858&df=all&|title=April Ann Thomas Fulghum|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=June 11, 2017}]</ref> who was shot to death in her office at a Bossier City apartment complex on October 10, 2012. Police said that Walter fled the scene of the crime in a pickup truck but soon surrendered to Shreveport police.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ksla.com/story/21591247/fired-maintenance-man-found-fit-to-stand-trial-in-deadly-apartment-shooting|title=Fired maintenance man found fit to stand trial in deadly apartment shooting|publisher=KSLA-TV|date=June 20, 2013|author=Carolyn Roy|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> He was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict of second degree murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspended sentence, and failed in his appeal before the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit. Walter had based his challenge on allegedly insufficient evidence of second-degree murder and proposed that the charge against him should have been manslaughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cases.justia.com/louisiana/second-circuit-court-of-appeal/2014-49-051-ka.pdf?ts=1403719827|title=''State of Louisiana v. Robert Earl Walter|publisher=Justia.com|date=June 25, 2014|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref>

In 2013, Judge Self handled a case of workplace violence turned deadly when a 54-year-old fired maintenance man, Robert Earl Walter, was tried in the 26th Judicial District Court for the murder in the second degree of April Ann Thomas Fulghum (1979-2012) of Greenwood in south Caddo Parish, a married mother of two children<ref>{{cite web|url=https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Fulghum&GSfn=April&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=98657858&df=all&|title=April Ann Thomas Fulghum|publisher=Findagrave.com|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> who was shot to death in her office at a Bossier City apartment complex on October 10, 2012. Police said that Walter fled the scene of the crime in a pickup truck but soon surrendered to Shreveport police.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ksla.com/story/21591247/fired-maintenance-man-found-fit-to-stand-trial-in-deadly-apartment-shooting|title=Fired maintenance man found fit to stand trial in deadly apartment shooting|publisher=KSLA-TV|date=June 20, 2013|author=Carolyn Roy|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref> He was convicted by a unanimous jury verdict of second degree murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor without the possibility of probation, parole, or suspended sentence, and failed in his appeal before the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit. Walter had based his challenge on allegedly insufficient evidence of second-degree murder and proposed that the charge against him should have been manslaughter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cases.justia.com/louisiana/second-circuit-court-of-appeal/2014-49-051-ka.pdf?ts=1403719827|title=''State of Louisiana v. Robert Earl Walter|publisher=Justia.com|date=June 25, 2014|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref>

 

 

In 2017,  [[plaintiff]]s James Wheat and Danny Brinson after their arrests in Bossier City for violating a state statute forbidding panhandling, filled a [[class action]] lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Curtis Whittington and all judges of the 26th Judicial District Court, including Chief Judge Self. The two men allege that Bossier Parish unjustly jails defendants who cannot pay for [[bail]] or a required $40 fee to the office of the [[public defender]]. Nor does Bossier Parish permit defendants to seek a lowering of the bail amount, which is  automatically set by the court. The suit claims that the parish has for years violated a "bedrock principle of our legal system that a person cannot be detained or imprisoned solely for their inability to pay a fee. Such an [[incarceration]] violates the [[substantive due process]] and [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection]] clauses of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]].”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/03/21/lawsuit-claims-violation-constitutional-rights-impoverished/99467604/|title=Lawsuit: Bossier Parish routinely violates rights of poor|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Sarah Crawford|date=March 21, 2017|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=

In 2017,  [[plaintiff]]s James Wheat and Danny Brinson after their arrests in Bossier City for violating a state statute forbidding panhandling, filled a [[class action]] lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Curtis Whittington and all judges of the 26th Judicial District Court, including Chief Judge Self. The two men allege that Bossier Parish unjustly jails defendants who cannot pay for [[bail]] or a required $40 fee to the office of the [[public defender]]. Nor does Bossier Parish permit defendants to seek a lowering of the bail amount, which is  automatically set by the court. The suit claims that the parish has for years violated a "bedrock principle of our legal system that a person cannot be detained or imprisoned solely for their inability to pay a fee. Such an [[incarceration]] violates the [[substantive due process]] and [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection]] clauses of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]].”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/03/21/lawsuit-claims-violation-constitutional-rights-impoverished/99467604/|title=Lawsuit: Bossier Parish routinely violates rights of poor|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Sarah Crawford|date=March 21, 2017|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=