A special prosecutor dismissed all felony criminal charges against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Wednesday, ending a case that began with a New Orleans grand jury indictment and had already been put on hold by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
The dismissal came a day after New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, Democratic Mayor Helena Moreno and five City Council members sent a letter asking Laurie White to drop the case. Orleans Parish court records show White submitted those letters to a judge before dismissing each count, and the case was then ordered closed.
The indictment had accused Murrill of threatening the jobs of New Orleans officials who fought a Republican-led overhaul of courts in the heavily Democratic city. The initial 16-count indictment handed up on July 2 by a New Orleans grand jury accused her of intimidation and malfeasance, a charge sheet that broadened the dispute beyond a simple political fight over language and into claims that she had used her office to pressure local officials.
The Louisiana Supreme Court said the local court and the special prosecutor did not follow the procedures surrounding the July 2 indictment, which is why the case was frozen almost immediately after it was filed. The exact procedural missteps were not laid out in the record provided, but the court’s intervention was enough to stop the case before it could move forward in the usual way.
White said she had performed her lawful duty as a special prosecutor and noted that a grand jury brought the indictment, but she also said there had been extraordinary interference in the matter. “Extraordinary interference in this situation has been truly unfortunate, and we should all hope that it doesn’t set a precedent,” she said, even as she dismissed every count after the elected city officials pressed for the case to end.
Murrill, the state’s first female attorney general, said, “What I did was not a crime, it was never a crime,” and called the case a “malicious prosecution.” Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said he would welcome state and federal investigations, adding, “I think the feds need to come in,” and the dismissal now leaves that demand hanging over a case that has already shifted from courtroom fight to political rupture.
That rupture has been building for months, as Louisiana Republicans and New Orleans officials clashed over a new law that abolished a court clerk office won by Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison. The law consolidated that job with another clerk’s office, and Republican supporters said the change would make the local judicial system more efficient. White’s decision closes the prosecution, but it does not settle the fight over how the indictment was handled or who will answer for it next.
