At least five patrons at Sammy's Grill told East Baton Rouge sheriff's deputies they didn't hear state district judge Mike Erwin direct a racial slur toward a black woman at the bar, a word that the judge said Tuesday he's never used.
The woman, Kaneitra Johnson, has alleged that Erwin at least twice called her a "n****r" in an argument over a bar stool at the popular Highland Road restaurant. The judge has been banned from the eatery since the Feb. 3 incident, although the restaurant's owner has declined to comment on Johnson's specific allegations.
State District Judge Mike Erwin has been banned from Sammy's Grill, a popular local eatery a…
In a Sheriff's Office report released Tuesday, Det. John Johnson wrote that he didn't come up with anyone who could corroborate Johnson's allegations.
However, reports filed by two deputies who responded to Sammy's Grill on the night of the incident both state that another patron at the bar — whose name, along with the names of all other witnesses, is redacted — said he'd seen the altercation and said Erwin treated Johnson "like a dog." In one version, the man told a deputy that Erwin used "racist language."
Det. John Johnson's subsequent report seems to indicate the man later denied ever making those comments to the original investigating deputies and said he was 15 to 20 feet away from Erwin when he witnessed the apparent argument.
Erwin also responded to the allegations for the first time on Tuesday. In a written statement provided just after the Sheriff's Office released the detective's report on the incident, Erwin said, "Now that the Sheriff's department has issued the report — which does not find one single witness that corroborates the original allegation — I can finally defend my actions and my record as a judge."
"I never have, never would and never will utter the language I was accused of saying," the judge said.
A sheriff spokeswoman has said since Kaneitra Johnson went public with her allegations against Erwin that what was described did not amount to a crime. The detective's supplemental investigation said he looked further into what happened at Sammy's Grill after responding to complaints from the judge's office about harassing phone calls demanding that the judge address the allegations. Det. John Johnson concluded those calls were not threatening.
Representatives for Kaneitra Johnson have said they filed a complaint about the judge with the Louisiana Judiciary Commission, saying his use of a racial slur shows bias.
Court records indicate Erwin was assigned a 2010 traffic case against Kaneitra Johnson, though Johnson told both deputies and The Advocate that she didn't know or recognize the judge.
According to the original incident report filed by deputies who responded to a complaint on Feb. 3, a man who said he witnessed the argument between Erwin and Kaneitra Johnson approached deputies in the bar after they'd interviewed Erwin and the judge's companion, motioning with his head to the officers to go speak outside.
"I don't know who that old white guy is, but he had no right to talk to those girls the way he did," the man said outside the restaurant, according to one deputy. "I was sitting right next to them and heard/saw the entire incident with my wife and he talked to those girls like they were dogs using racist language."
He added that Erwin, whom he didn't refer to by name, was clearly "someone of importance" because workers and managers at the restaurant did nothing to intervene.
"I'm from Houma, La., and I'm white," the man added, according to a deputy, "but right is right and wrong is wrong and that old man was wrong." The report also mentions that Johnson's sister, also an off-duty sheriff's deputy, showed up at the scene when the man was talking to deputies.
The second deputy at Sammy's that night wrote in his report that a witness, who appears to be the same man, told him that Erwin appeared to be talking down to Johnson and "treating her like a dog" but that he couldn't make out what the judge was saying. The final report by Det. John Johnson noted that one male witness originally said the judge directed "racial language" toward a woman, but later denied making those comments to investigating deputies.
Because names were removed from reports provided to The Advocate, it's not possible to conclusively say whether that witness was in fact the same person. A Sheriff's Office spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for clarification Tuesday.
The detective's report also includes statements from several patrons at the bar who said Johnson and her group were being "boisterous" and blocking the walkway between the bar area and the restrooms.
Another patron, described as a regular at Sammy's Grill, told deputies that Erwin remained polite despite Johnson and her party acting in what he described as a "very vocal and aggressive" manner. The patron said that the judge remained "polite, yet stern and clear" during the argument over a bar stool. He alleged that someone in Johnson's group referred to Erwin as an "drunk a** old f***ing white man" during the argument.
A different man told deputies he stepped between Erwin and the woman, telling Erwin not to "lower yourself to their level" since the judge has "more to lose than they do." That man also said he never heard Erwin used a racial slur during the incident.
According to the report, deputies examined surveillance footage from the restaurant to identify others near Erwin and Johnson during the altercation.
Erwin told deputies he got in a dispute with Johnson after she sat in a stool he was trying to save for a friend, the report says. Erwin said she retorted that seating was "first come, first serve" and said they argued but the judge denied using racial slurs during the conversation.
Johnson did not respond to a message left seeking comment on the report and the judge's statement. An attorney representing Johnson, Erin Rigsby, said she hadn't viewed those documents and therefore couldn't respond.
A woman who has alleged that Mike Erwin, a Baton Rouge state district court judge, directed …
The Rev. Reginald Pitcher, who denounced the judge as racist during a news conference in front of the 19th Judicial District Courthouse Monday afternoon, called the Sheriff's Office findings "a cover-up" and said the restaurant wouldn't have banned Erwin without good cause.
"I'm going to say they're in cahoots with the judge to try to save his behind," Pitcher said. "This time around, we're not going to accept that. The young lady has no reason to lie."
Advocate staff writer Joe Gyan contributed to this report.