Louisiana Supreme Court puts stay on AG Liz Murrill's indictment, arrest warrant

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill was indicted Thursday (July 2) by an Orleans Parish grand jury, accused of threatening the jobs of New Orleans city officials in letters she sent to them in May.

The very next day, the state Supreme Court put a stay on both Murrill's indictment and a warrant for her arrest in a split decision.

Murrill’s 16-count indictment includes 8 counts of malfeasance in office and 8 counts of intimidation and retaliation, according to a copy of the indictment obtained by WWNO. A warrant has been issued for her arrest, and her bond has been set at $400,000 — $25,000 for each count.

Each count is tied to the individual letters Murrill sent to City Council President J.P Morrell; City Councilmembers Aimee McCarron, Freddie King III, Jason Hughes and Matthew Willard; Mayor Helena Moreno; City Attorney Jason Williams; and retired judge Calvin Johnson.

The five council members voted in favor of a special election in November for a combined clerk of court for Orleans Parish. They — along with Moreno and Williams — argued that recently passed legislation that abolished the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position had also created a new combined clerk position that needed to be filled. The city appointed Johnson to the position on an interim basis.

In the letters, Murrill said the legislation instead named Orleans Parish Clerk of Civil Court Chelsea Richard Napoleon as the combined clerk of court, and she’d take legal action to remove the officials from office if they held the election for clerk of court, or appointed Johnson.

Moreno and the five city council members who received the letters swiftly rebuked the attorney general’s guidance in videos posted on social media.

“It is surprising that the attorney general put all of this in a letter, considering that there is a criminal law that prohibits intimidation,” Moreno said in an Instagram video at the time.

Gov. Jeff Landry responded almost immediately to Murrill’s indictment, calling it “a circus” by a “kangaroo” court in a post on social media. He also said he plans to pardon Murrill “as fast as the law allows.”

In response, Laurie White, a retired Orleans Parish criminal court judge appointed as a special prosecutor, told reporters outside the Orleans Criminal District Court building, “Good, let’s get her convicted, and then he can pardon her.”

White said she expects the case to be “very simple” and “very open and shut.”

Reporters at the scene were threatened with arrest if they entered the courtroom — despite state law that says a jury’s verdict must happen in open court. Times-Picayune reporter James Finn said at least one reporter — WWL TV’s Danny Montverde — was led away from the courthouse in handcuffs.

In a filing to the Louisiana Supreme Court, Judge Leon Roché, who presided over the case, defended the grand jury process, writing that an open court “does not mean open to the public.”

“Out of an abundance of caution for the grand jurors’ safety and anonymity, the Court admonished the media to not speak with or film any grand jurors, and then instructed deputy sheriffs to clear the courtroom when the grand jurors were entering the courtroom,” he wrote. “The court never instructed deputy sheriffs to remand or detain any members of the media.”

In a post on social media Thursday evening, Landry said he ordered the Louisiana State Police to investigate “the alleged improprieties of this grand jury and those who ran it!”

Will Snowden, a law professor at Loyola University, called that suggestion “a nightmare” in an interview with WWNO. Snowden is the director of the Juror Project, a nonprofit aimed at raising interest in and increasing diversity in juries.

“ I think all those grand jurors deserve an apology because the only thing that they did was respond to their jury summons,” he said. “They listened to evidence and information that was put in front of them, and they decided that there might be a little bit more here to warrant these charges.

“So I'm really frustrated with the ways in which these everyday New Orleanians have been described.”

Murrill released a statement hours after the indictment was initially made public, calling it “retaliatory, meritless, and unconstitutional.” She also said the information about her indictment was “illegally leaked” and chastised White and the court for handcuffing and locking out members of the media from its release.

“I will not back down. I will continue enforcing the law, fighting corruption, and doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do,” she said.

Murrill appealed the ruling to the State Supreme Court later that evening.

The court put a stay on the indictment on Friday (July 3), writing Murrill was likely to succeed in appealing the case, either due to legal merits or “apparent procedural irregularities.” Three judges dissented.

The warrant for Murrill’s arrest, however, remained active even after the stay — until Murrill successfully appealed it. The same three judges dissented in that decision, too.

One of them, Judge John Guidry, accused the majority of giving Murrill “preference and priority” by ruling on the stay “without even allowing the ink to dry on the indictment.”

“This is not supposed to be how the system works,” he wrote.

Orleans Parish officials withdrew the warrant shortly after the second ruling.

Murrill is currently seeking a dismissal of the indictments.

Legal experts are split on what comes next for the attorney general, but some believe the case may already be on its last legs.

“Given the Supreme Court’s stay language, Murrill is walking into those motions with a very strong tailwind — but the case is paused, not dead, until a court formally kills it — which will eventually happen,” said Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University law professor, in a statement to WWNO.

On Wednesday (July 8), all 12 criminal court judges in New Orleans recused themselves from Murrill’s indictment proceedings.

The justices petitioned the high court to appoint an outside judge to avoid conflicts of interest and to let the grand jury process play out.

On Thursday (July 9), the Supreme Court appointed retired judge Robert A. Chaisson to oversee the case.