Being a public defender in New Orleans

Not long ago, I met a cool woman in a bar in my neighborhood. She didn't want her name used in this posting, so I'll call her Jane. Jane is a public defender here in New Orleans. She grew up in nearby Lafayette, but she'd been living in New York for the past few years, and actually moved down here around the same time I did. Although, as she puts it, she moved into the bosom of her family, which I did not.
Anyway, Jane called me around 10 tonight to ask if she could come over for a quick visit. As we sat on my stoop, she told me that a judge here, Karen Herman, had issued an arrest warrant for her today. The reason was that Jane was unwilling to go to trial today because she hadn't gotten discovery from the DA's office. That is, the DA hadn't shared with Jane the information they had related to the case that could affect the outcome.
The case was about a purse snatching on Bourbon Street, and the DA's office had a surveillance video. The video was given to Jane today when she arrived in court, and the judge insisted that Jane and her client watch it in the judge's chambers immediately. The honorable judge Herman insisted that jury selection begin as soon as the viewing had ended. Jane protested. She also had other motions in other court rooms, and so, after the video screening, she went to attend to those other matters. While she was in another court room with a motion, a bailiff approached and told Jane that she was subject to an arrest warrant. At that point, Jane burst into tears.
When she returned to courtroom I and Judge Herman, Jane's bosses were there to help negotiate with the judge. This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened. In fact, one of Jane's colleagues had his ribs broken by bailiffs last fall when a judge had him arrested for contempt of court. It is clearly a way for the judges to show who's the boss. The thing is that people's lives hang in the balance.
Jane is diligent and prepares for her trials. She also is a seasoned veteran with 15 years of experience as a criminal lawyer. Yet the judge can push when she or he wants to, as happened today, potentially putting someone behind bars wrongfully.
I haven't been here long, and I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what happens around these things in other parts of the country, but it does seem to me like the courts here are fiefdoms where judges and clerks make and break people's cases. And ribs. I think that threatening to jail a public defender for trying to do her job faithfully is too much.