City judge: Relationships make a difference

Kim Stansbury was about to speak to an Aug. 7 meeting of the East St. Mary Kiwanis and the Rotary Club of Morgan City. But first, Stansbury spent a moment with his cellphone outside the entrance to the Petroleum Club’s meeting room.
Stansbury had announced his retirement as Morgan City Court judge in May, but had stayed on until a replacement could be named. The office is on the ballot for the Nov. 3 election, but for the first two days of qualifying, no one signed up to run for city judge.
Then, just before his speech to the Kiwanis and Rotarians, the word came: Local attorney Paul T. Landry qualified. At the end of the day, the last day of qualifying, Landry was unopposed and would be the next city judge.
Then it was time for Stansbury’s talk, an exclamation point at the end of his nearly three decades on the city bench.
He had a legal practice in Morgan City in the mid-1990s. He and wife Pat had children in elementary and high school, and he was concerned about a lack of juvenile services in the city system. He became city judge in 1997.
Stansbury is still concerned about obtaining services for people who come before the court.
“I was kind of a lock ’em up guy,” Stansbury said. “But I changed because of what I saw.”
What he saw was a cycle of arrest, court and more arrests. He saw the need for services aimed at helping offenders break out of the cycle.
In his talk, Stansbury stressed the importance of relationships in obtaining services. Those relationships can be with agencies like the Office of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Family and Children’s Services and the Department of Education. The same goes for other judges.
He pointed to one example: A juvenile with a rifle was arrested at the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival two years ago — not a case where a teen can be released to the custody of his parents. Stansbury said another area judge was helpful in finding a scarce juvenile detention bed.
The city judge also lavished praise on his staff and the city marshal staff for making the system run. A photo appears on Page 14.
In 2025, Stansbury told the service club members, the city court handled:
—4,203 traffic cases.
—109 juvenile cases. Stansbury praised the work of the Morgan City Youth Center, which provides activities for latch-key kids. “The impact it’s having on these kids is tremendous,” Stansbury said.
A $20 court fee made possible the purchase of a building as a new home for the court’s juvenile services.
—1,956 criminal cases involving crimes such as driving while intoxicated, disturbing the peace and marijuana possession.
“It’s been a journey,” Stansbury said after the meeting. “But it’s been a good journey.”