Opinion Number

Dear Chief Deville:

Your request for an opinion concerning a mayor's court's power to sentence a defendant has been forwarded to me for research and reply. Specifically, you have asked the following question:

May a city magistrate sentence a defendant, who twice failed to appear in court pursuant to a traffic violation, to jail time without the defendant ever appearing before the court?

Apart from any Constitutional issues of due process that this question may raise, our Legislature in the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure has spoken-directly on the issue of a defendant's presence during both…