A peaceful cause

Tim Causey looks back on his 20 plus years as the constable for Ward 4 of Evangeline Parish
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The Founding Fathers of the United States created a government with three separate branches that each have powers distinct from each other to create a system of checks and balances. One of these branches is the judiciary system that ranges from the top with the United States Supreme Court to the bottom with different types of small claims courts.
One of these small claims courts is the justice of the peace courts where justices of the peace act as the judge who hear the cases and render a decision. These justices of the peace are assisted by constables who act as a type of sheriff for their jurisdiction.
Tim Causey serves as the constable for Ward 4 here in Evangeline Parish and was recognized for his service last year by receiving the 20 Year Service Award from Attorney General Jeff Landry. “It was an honor,” said the humbled Causey. “I felt very honored by it to be able to serve that long.”
Causey was first elected to the office of constable in 1995 and explained that politics was never one of his ambitions. “It never was my thing,” he said. “Hunting was pretty much what I liked to do because I grew up in the woods. After I injured my leg, I had taken a job driving a school bus at Pine Prairie High School, and some council members and some local politicians asked me to run. I said that I would think about it, and I decided to run.”
“There were three candidates, and we all split the vote,” he continued. “I’ve had an opponent four times since then, and it seems my vote percentage increased every time. People tell me that I do my job and that they don’t see any reason to change anything.”
Causey then described some of the challenges he experienced during his first years as constable. “When I first was elected, there was a training course statewide every year,” he said. “Back then, I was driving a school bus and hardly got to go to the training because I didn’t have any subs, but eventually the state made it mandatory that we had to go. By that time, I was able to get a sub.”
The latest round of training for constables and justices of the peace are slated for this weekend in Marksville with over 800 people attending. “Since the training has become mandatory, it made our jobs better because we are all on the same page,” Causey explained. “We are more knowledgeable of our duties.”
The duties of a constable, according to Causey, range differently from country to country and from state to state. However, as he said, “in the state of Louisiana, the duties are the same.” He added, “It’s just that different parishes do things differently with their constables because some of the larger parishes have more revenue to do different things.”
Although constables act as sheriff, they do not have the expense fund that a sheriff has which limits the roles of the constable. “All elected officials have a salary, but the only other revenue we get is from the civil cases that we do, so it’s hard to do a lot of law enforcement” said Causey.
He continued, “We’re more like a peace officer. It’s still our duty to go if people call when neighbors are having a feud, if a dog gets on somebody’s property, or if someone is trespassing on someone else’s property. I’ve had several of those kinds when I went out and talked to them to try to keep the peace.”
This peace officer aspect of the role of constable has led Causey to become more of a negotiator. “It’s pretty hostile sometimes when there is an eviction because the tenant either did some damage to the property or didn’t pay the rent,” he said. “I kind of have to be a negotiator even though I have to do my job at the end of the day. I try to maybe get the tenants another day in the house or work with their family members to find them another place to live. I’ve had success in doing that, so I feel like I’m doing a good thing.”
Aside from acting as a peace officer, Causey has other roles within the justice of the peace court. He said, “I go out and serve the papers, and I open the court and swear in any witnesses.”
Causey is serving as constable for his third justice of the peace, and that post now belongs to Wade Riley. “He’s been the most consistent justice of the peace that I had,” said the constable. “We’ve been consistent since he’s taken the position.”
Also since Riley has been the justice of the peace, Causey explained that the people’s attitudes about the job has changed. “It’s gotten gradually better because people are gradually learning more about what we do,” he said. “Before, people didn’t depend on it. They didn’t realize the services we could do, and they’re gradually depending on it more.”
It is the people of Ward 4 that Causey serves that is the most rewarding part of his job as constable. “I really think this ward has some of the best people anywhere,” he stated. “I know it isn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t think there was a better place to be a constable than here.”
He concluded, “I live at the most northern end of the ward, and, actually, there is a small poll where I live in Lake Cove, but it’s the smallest one in the ward. Yet, the people elect me every four years. It’s like they don’t show any partiality in this ward. I just feel blessed to stay in here this long.”