Community Champion Spotlight: Judge Joy Lobrano and Detective Kay Horne

To honor Human Trafficking Awareness Month, each week in January we will be highlighting 2 individuals who have gone above and beyond in the Greater New Orleans community to serve victims and survivors of human trafficking. This highlight is the “Community Champion Spotlight”. Each individual was nominated by Task Force members. Community champions represent a variety of different disciplines and perspectives from the anti-trafficking movement. 

Our third highlight features leaders who have committed years of work to the anti-trafficking movement in New Orleans. Both were nominated because of their long-term leadership, commitment to treating survivors with dignity, and dedication to collaboration specifically in the Greater NOLA community.

Thank you Detective Horne and Judge Lobrano for all you do for our community! We're so lucky to have you in the Greater New Orleans community. 

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Kay Horne

Detective, Task Force Officer

Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, New Orleans FBI Task Force

"It is a rewarding experience to work with so many people who have the common goal of keeping our community, most importantly the children, in a safe and healthy environment."

What is your role in the Greater New Orleans community?
I am a Detective with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office (JPSO) and Task Force Officer on the Violent Crimes Against Children/Human Trafficking New Orleans Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Task Force. I recover children and adults who have been trafficked for sexual or labor purposes and build an investigation from interviews, Intel and other resources to successfully locate, interview and arrest the traffickers for prosecution.

I have almost 23 years with the Sheriff's Office and almost 16 years of working Physical and Sexual abuse cases.  The last four years I have been with the FBI task force working mostly Juvenile Trafficking Cases, but other violent crimes against children and adults. 

What has been your most successful or memorable experience working in the anti-trafficking movement?
The amount of help, advice and assistance during the recovery of a juvenile trafficking victim.  Through the GNOHTTF I was able provide the juvenile victim with resources and victim services to assist her into transitioning back to a healthy, safe and protective environment, where she could thrive, finish school and successfully find employment.  Along with the arrest and prosecution of those who were trafficking her.

What has been your favorite aspect of collaborating among task force partners?
Being able to have a large network to contact for assistance during the investigation and prosecution stages.

Anything else you’d like to add?
It is a rewarding experience to work with so many people who have the common goal of keeping our community, most importantly the children, in a safe and healthy environment. 

What are Task Force members saying about Detective Horne?

“Kay is someone you can always count on to take the case”

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Judge Joy Lobrano

Judge

Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit

"[Children] are a sign of hope, a sign of life, but also a 'diagnostic' sign, a marker indicating the health of families, society and the entire world.  Wherever children are accepted, loved, cared for and protected, the family is healthy, society is more healthy and the world is more human." 

-Pope Francis, Mass in Manger Square, Bethlehem, May 2014

What is your role in the Greater New Orleans community?
I am a judge on the Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit and a 2011 founding board member of Eden House, which provides a long-term home and recovery, reentry, and restorative services and care to victims of human trafficking and is a movement to eradicate the trafficking and selling of human beings by creating systemic change.  In 2017, I was appointed by Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson to serve as her designee on the Louisiana Human Trafficking Prevention Commission and was elected Commission State Chair for 2018. I am a former First Assistant District Attorney and District Court Civil, Criminal, Family, and Juvenile Judge and a founder of the Community CARE Centers Model of Early Intervention for children and families providing resiliency-building, preventive, and protective services to vulnerable populations who are at-risk for trauma and adverse childhood experiences. I also teach 4th and 9th graders the Project LAW (Legal-thinking, Awareness, and Wellness) program, which I designed to give students tools and information needed to build resiliency and awareness to exploitation, victimization, and trauma that can disrupt their pursuit of happiness.

What has been your favorite aspect of collaborating among task force partners?
Being involved in the anti-trafficking movement affords me the opportunity to meet and collaborate with amazing individuals, including courageous and resilient survivors and compassionate and hardworking service providers, public servants, and advocates.  They all illuminate a bright light that has maintained its strength and radiance though this vicious evil wave of human trafficking.  These collaborative lights of brilliance and strength give me hope, inspiration, and certainty that the anti-trafficking movement in the greater New Orleans area lead by the NOLA HT Task Force and throughout Louisiana is strong and will reach its goal to eradicate all forms of human trafficking and replace indifference and trauma infliction with a spirit of respect for human dignity and the common good and with a collaborative movement of love and service to our most vulnerable populations and to individual who have experienced trauma.

What has been your most memorable experience working in anti-trafficking?
In 2019, Pope Francis and Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, invited me to attend the following two judges summits at the Academy in the Vatican City:  the First Pan-American Judges Summit on Social Justice and the Franciscan Doctrine and the Summit of African Women Judges and Prosecutors on Human Trafficking, Organ Trafficking, and Organized Crime.  At both summits, I met and collaborated with amazing individuals fighting human trafficking globally, especially in areas of civil unrest, which has left the vulnerable populations with little or no protection.  Despite some having far greater challenges to overcome, they all displayed the same bright light of hope that my colleagues radiant in Louisiana.  Their strength and compassion gave me continued inspiration and hope for our world. I shared the great works of the NOLA HT Task Force, the Louisiana Human Trafficking Commission, and Eden House Model of Restorative Care and the Community CARE Centers Models of Preventative and Protective Care.  These anti-trafficking and preventive initiatives were all well received, and I was again invited back to the Academy in February 2020 for a Workshop on Education: The Global Compact.  This workshop will tackle what Pope Francis calls the "globalization of indifference," which in its extreme form contributes to modern day slavery of children.  The workshop premise is that a proper education is perhaps a child's strongest barrier against poverty and trafficking and that children "are a sign of hope, a sign of life, but also a 'diagnostic' sign, a marker indicating the health of families, society and the entire world.  Wherever children are accepted, loved, cared for and protected, the family is healthy, society is more healthy and the world is more human."  Pope Francis, Mass in Manger Square, Bethlehem, May 2014.

What are Task Force members saying about Judge Lobrano?

"Judge Lobrano is unwavering in her commitment to protecting children in Louisiana."

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