NEW ORLEANS — A lawyer for Louisiana's Judiciary Commission said Tuesday the panel wouldn't have sought to remove an East Baton Rouge Parish judge from the bench if she had just been open and honest as the panel looked into complaints that she had lied to voters and police.

At a hearing before the Louisiana Supreme Court, the commission said Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts engaged in a "pervasive pattern" of lying as investigators examined her 2020 campaign materials and an insurance claim made following a car burglary. 

Watch the full hearing here:

The judge's lawyer, Steve Irving, said Foxworth-Roberts was under a lot of stress during her campaign, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and as her mother fought Stage IV cancer. He also said the judge was confused when an examiner asked her compound questions.

"If you look at what happened, it seems like she just buried herself in not being forthcoming," Chief Justice John Weimer said during arguments. "If she hadn't obfuscated, would we be here today?"

"We likely wouldn't be," said Michelle Andrina Beaty-Gullage, a lawyer for the panel. She later added, "This is a case that merits removal because you cannot teach a judge to be honest. We shouldn't have to teach a judge to be honest."

No decision was reached Tuesday; the court gave no timetable for when it will decide the case.

The most serious complaint was that Foxworth-Roberts claimed to have been a captain in the Army, which she highlighted in campaign ads and in media coverage. The panel said that not only did she not attain captaincy, she failed to reach the rank twice and was required to leave the Army Reserves as a 1st Lieutenant.

Foxworth-Roberts ultimately told the commission's investigators that she was 16 when the Desert Storm campaign began but that she served its troops as they were being demobilized. Irving said that would give the judge a valid reason to argue she was a Desert Storm veteran, but Justice Jay McCallum was skeptical.

"Is it your logical proposition that if a naval or Army surgeon today performed surgery on a Korean War veteran, that he served in the Korean War?" he asked.

Foxworth-Roberts took office Jan. 1, 2021, and the Judiciary Commission received a complaint within five months. In addition to seeking the judge's removal, the panel wants her to pay $9,449.83 to cover the cost of the investigation.

Also, she is accused of misleading police about a car burglary. She told officers the car was in her driveway when it was actually several miles away. According to the panel, the judge told police she didn't file a claim with her auto insurer, but didn't disclose that she filed a claim against her homeowner's insurance.

"What I don't understand is that there's a quadrupling down on what could have been explained," Justice Cade Cole said. "It seems like there's a reasonable explanation. Why didn't she give it?"

Other justices, too, suggested Foxworth-Roberts could have avoided trouble with the panel by just answering questions truthfully.

"Has she ever said, 'I'm sorry?' We've heard a lot of explanations this morning, but I haven't heard a lot of remorse," McCallum said.

Irving also said Foxworth-Roberts became a potential victim of an extortion plot following the car burglary and that she wasn't thinking straight as investigators began asking questions.

"Are you suggesting that we should forgive that because of the outside circumstances of what is going on in her life? Justice Piper Griffin asked.

"I'm suggesting you should understand that. How much you forgive is your prerogative," Irving said. He suggested a temporary suspension from the bench rather than a full removal.

McCallum sought to draw parallels to last year's case involving East Baton Rouge Parish Judge Eboni Johnson Rose, who was suspended after misapplying the law in significant cases. Without invoking Rose's name, the justice said Rose's case seemed worse.

"I just wish you would have given us this hammer six months ago. You missed the opportunity," he said. "The other judge directly impacted the lives of people in the courtroom, whose lives and liberty hung in the balance. ... That judge coming out of the same judicial district got an eight-month paid vacation."

Justice John Michael Guidry noted, however, that Rose and the panel had negotiated discipline after the judge acknowledged mistakes. "You all had agreed on ... the recommendation" for punishment, Guidry said. In Foxworth-Roberts' case, no pre-hearing settlement was reached.