Page 44 - 2021AprilBOG

Statement

The Baton Rouge Bar Association is honored to nominate Judge Anthony “Tony”
Marabella, Jr., (Ret.) for the Louisiana State Bar Association Catherine D. Kimball
Award for the Administration of Justice. He is a native of Baton Rouge, a retired judge,
husband and father whose character and career embody all the characteristics required for
a recipient of this award. Judge Marabella is compassionate, fair, well prepared and
professional, having earned the respect of his peers while a practicing attorney, as a
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District Judge at the 19 Judicial District Court and now on the Louisiana Pardon Board
and Committee on Parole. He approaches each endeavor with three “h’s” – humanity,
humility and humor.

Judge Tony Marabella’s passion for social justice and his work with the marginalized in
our community has been evident throughout forty plus year career. As a criminal defense
lawyer, Marabella provided his clients with reasonable access to the justice system by his
thorough and dedicated representation. He represented both private citizens and high
profile clients including Gary Plauché, who was accused of the Baton Rouge airport
shooting of a man who had molested his son and Carlos Quintero Cruz, who was the
alleged triggerman in the Barry Seal murder case. His appointment to represent Frank
Ford Cosey, who allegedly committed a heinous crime, was recorded in State v. Cosey.

For much of his career, Judge Marabella served the Baton Rouge community as a public
servant. Upon admittance to practice law in 1973, he became an Assistant Parish
Attorney, serving for two years until becoming an Assistant District Attorney under Ossie
Brown in 1975. Marabella left the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office in
1978 to become an Assistant Public Defender for the parish. In 1980, he entered the full-
time practice of law devoted primarily to criminal defense, a practice he maintained for
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23 years until his election to the 19 Judicial District Court in 2003. Throughout his
career at the 19th JDC, Marabella served as Chief Judge, Chief Criminal Judge, Criminal
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Court Judge for Section I, and Judge of the Drug Court. As a judicial officer at the 19
Judicial District Court, he took on “extra duty” in addition to his regular criminal docket
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to preside over its Drug Court for 14 years. The 19 JDC Drug Court provided criminal
offenders arrested on a drug-related charge an opportunity to change their lives through
substance abuse treatment and intensive judicial supervision in lieu of incarceration.
Presiding over Drug Court proved to be one of the more difficult jobs of his career but
also one of the most rewarding. He was a leader among the Louisiana Drug Court
programs and a major contributor to the Drug Court movement in our state. While on the
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19 JDC bench, he earned a reputation of being well prepared, decisive, compassionate
and fair.

Since his retirement from the 19th JDC in 2018, he has served as an ad hoc judge for the
Court and has been appointed to the Pardon Board and the Committee on Parole. His
work on the Pardon Board and the Committee on Parole is just one more example of his
dedication to the administration of justice. When asked to describe his work, Judge
Marabella responded: