Two sitting judges on Orleans Parish Criminal District Court are running against each other for the same seat this fall, a direct result of a Louisiana Legislature decision to shrink the bench. Kimya Holmes, currently the judge in Section D, and Simone Levine, currently the judge in Section A, face off on Tuesday, November 3, with voters choosing between two very different approaches to running a courtroom.
The race exists because lawmakers reduced Orleans Parish Criminal District Court from 12 judges to nine, eliminating three seats including Levine's, effective January 1, 2027. According to NOLA.com, both Holmes, 52, and Levine, 51, are Democrats completing their first terms and are now competing against each other rather than for separate courtrooms. Statewide legislative records reviewed by Hoodline confirm the structural change: present law had called for 12 Criminal District Court judgeships in Orleans Parish, and the Louisiana Legislature reduced that number to nine. A related legislative filing adds that the reduction and new nine-division structure take effect January 1, 2027, though that particular document should be read cautiously given its limited detail.
Statewide, the shakeup is reshaping more than just one seat. As reported by FOX 8, six candidates in total are running for three judgeships at the court after the Legislature eliminated three seats, leaving nine divisions where there used to be 12.
Two Paths to the Bench
Holmes, a Ninth Ward native, began her legal career as a prosecutor under then-Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, per NOLA.com. She later spent 12 years as a senior staff attorney for the Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana, representing people accused in death penalty cases, before winning her Section D seat. She now also serves as deputy chief judge of Criminal District Court and runs one of the court's four felony drug court programs, presiding over a docket that includes defendants with severe addiction problems. Holmes is a graduate of Eleanor McMain Magnet School, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of New Orleans, and graduated from Southern University Law Center in 2000.
Levine, who was born in New York, began her career as a criminal defense attorney in New York City in 2001 before moving to New Orleans in 2011 to join the Office of the Independent Police Monitor, where she served as deputy to Susan Hutson, who later was elected sheriff, according to NOLA.com. She went on to lead Court Watch NOLA, an organization that enlists volunteers to monitor criminal courtrooms, for seven years, and joined District Attorney Jason Williams' office as a prosecutor in 2022. She won the unexpired Section A seat in a runoff against Leon Roche in April 2023, and has worked in criminal justice for 25 years.
Competing Claims on Trial Volume
Holmes says trial volume and docket discipline define her record. She told NOLA.com she has directed more than 100 trials overall. According to Verite News, Holmes said, “I've presided over more than 100 jury trials in Section D.” She has also claimed she presided over more criminal jury trials than any judge in the State of Louisiana in both 2024 and 2025. Verite News reports her approach centers on setting firm schedules, closely tracking older cases, limiting unnecessary continuances and moving cases to trial when they are ready.
Levine frames her tenure differently, emphasizing trauma-informed practices and discovery compliance over sheer case throughput. She told Verite News her courtroom has dedicated adjournment dates just for discovery compliance and does not move cases until discovery is completed, and she said she runs the first trauma-informed court at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. The same outlet notes Levine said the court's immediate challenge going forward is distributing cases across nine judges rather than 12.
That trauma-focused model has drawn separate attention. WDSU reports Levine's courtroom includes a dedicated private victim room where survivors can watch proceedings through a camera feed and participate remotely, and that she has kept Zoom hearings available to the public as a long-term transparency tool. NOLA.com notes Levine runs the court's only trauma-focused section and has said the model gives people a voice and a fair hearing, while discipline and calm help her remain composed and earn public respect.
What the Numbers Show — and Where They Clash
Performance data from 2024 generally favored Holmes. In the commission's full rankings for that year, Holmes placed fifth in judicial efficiency while Levine tied for sixth.
More recent aggregate rankings tell a more mixed story. A separate Metropolitan Crime Commission analysis covering 2024 and 2025 data placed Holmes tied with Leon Roche for fourth in overall efficiency, while finding Levine, along with another judge, had slightly higher caseloads than average and landed lower in the rankings — NOLA.com reports Levine tied for seventh in that overall efficiency measure. Separately, the commission found that despite a 21% jump in the average number of open cases courtwide, from 171 to 207, the median time to clear cases held level at seven months in 2025, while the share of cases open longer than a year actually fell from 36% to 31%.
The court's overall workload itself is a matter of dispute between two official sources. The Louisiana Illuminator reported that a weighted-caseload filing with the Louisiana Supreme Court counted 4,109 filings for the court in 2025, while the Orleans Parish clerk's own data showed 7,556 filings — and a separate clerk's report put total defendants processed at 8,009. The gap traces to differing definitions: Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Clerk Darren Lombard said the clerk's report counts all court defendants starting from shortly after arrest, including appearances in the court's magistrate division, while the Supreme Court's figures reflect cases only after the district attorney has formally accepted charges. The clerk's and Supreme Court's felony and misdemeanor counts also differed. Despite the discrepancy, the Illuminator reported criminal court judges handled 137 trials in 2025, nearly one trial per judge per month.
Backstories That Shaped Their Views on Crime
Both candidates' personal histories inform how they talk about the job. NOLA.com reports that Holmes was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by armed gunmen during a robbery in New Orleans' 7th Ward at age 22, the day after the city hosted the 1997 Super Bowl. She later watched hearings for the two men convicted of raping her, which she has said changed her outlook on criminal law. Holmes also testified as a prosecution witness at the trial of a man who shot her 33-year-old niece, Johnshane Powell, 19 times in 2023. She has said she wants people to leave Section D better than they arrived.
Holmes's personal life has also intersected with a federal case. NOLA.com reports that Arthur Allen Jr. transferred to Holmes his stake in a five-bedroom house in English Turn in December 2025; Allen was indicted on federal fraud charges involving Paycheck Protection Program loans, and U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey sentenced him to two years in federal prison in August 2026, noting the timing of the property transfer. Holmes has said she and Allen were engaged the previous year and that she sold her home to move in with him, and that she was unaware of his criminal activity while they lived together.
Endorsements, Money and a Campaign-Rules Dispute
The two campaigns have drawn support from opposite ends of the local political spectrum. NOLA.com reports the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee endorsed Holmes, while the Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee endorsed Levine. Holmes raised about $117,000 for her campaign, including $75,000 in self-loans, according to state campaign filings. Levine entered election season with nearly $52,000 after lending herself $30,000, then raised another $100,000 from supporters, including Charles Rosner Bronfman, the Seagram co-founder and Canadian billionaire, per campaign filings cited by NOLA.com.
Levine also faced a campaign-materials dispute in the lead-up to the election. NOLA.com reports that on October 7, she agreed with the Louisiana judicial oversight committee to stop using campaign materials calling her campaign a 're-elect' effort for Section D, and agreed to modify her social media pages and remove 're-elect' yard signs referencing that seat — a distinction that matters given she currently holds Section A, not Section D.
