Louisiana court halts criminal indictment against state attorney general

Republican Liz Murrill was indicted for the alleged intimidation of New Orleans elected officials

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Louisiana’s highest court has granted a stay of the proceedings in a criminal indictment targeting the state’s attorney general, in the latest twist of a high-stakes political battle between Republican state leaders and Democrats who govern its most famous city, New Orleans .

Liz Murrill, a Republican who is Louisiana ’s first female attorney general, was slapped with a 16-count indictment on Thursday by a New Orleans grand jury charging her with intimidation and malfeasance. The charges effectively accused her of trying to intimidate New Orleans officials who fought a law passed by Republican legislators to overhaul the city’s courts.

Murrill quickly moved for a stay on Thursday. And the Louisiana supreme court granted it early on Friday, finding she made “a compelling argument concerning the disturbing defects in the grand jury proceedings and in the trial court’s handling of those proceedings”.

The attorney general had also called the charges against her “retaliatory, meritless and unconstitutional”, writing on X that she would continue “doing the job the people of Louisiana elected me to do”.

Separately, the state’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, has promised a swift pardon, saying Murrill would not have her reputation tarnished by a “kangaroo court”.

The supreme court order resulting in Friday’s stay says the case was meant to allow Murrill to “assert any and all necessary defensive pleadings, including motions to quash”.

“This stay shall not prevent the filing of a response to any pleadings filed by the attorney general,” the order also said.

The stay came a day after the announcement of the grand jury indictment that was shrouded in secrecy. News media members awaiting in the courtroom of the New Orleans Judge Leon Roche to hear the potential extraordinary return of the indictment against Murrill were escorted out after he ordered the room sealed.

The public has the legal right to access court proceedings. And Louisiana law requires grand jury returns to be made in open court. So news outlet WWL Louisiana , a Guardian reporting partner, protested against the closure to try to maintain access to the courtroom in the event of an indictment against Murrill.

An investigative producer for the station, Danny Monteverde, and the outlet’s attorney, Elana Beiser, were subsequently handcuffed after the courtroom was emptied and locked. The pair, along with other media who were not handcuffed, had protested deputies’ orders to leave the courthouse entirely.

Roche at the time did not explain why he had sealed the courtroom, local newspaper the Times-Picayune reported . Later, a statement from a court spokesperson said grand jurors must be physically present when indictments are returned – and that confidentiality ensures their identities are protected so that they can deliberate “freely, objectively and without fear of public exposure”.

Nonetheless, Friday’s stay said that – “by all accounts” – the New Orleans court “violated express provisions of state law requiring that grand jury returns occur in the public eye, in open court”.

Roche on Friday replied to the supreme court stay with a filing which asserted he was justified in clearing his courtroom to preserve grand jurors’ anonymity – and that he didn’t order anyone to be handcuffed.

“The court never instructed [deputies] to remand or detain any members of the media,” Roche’s reply said. “No members of the media were handcuffed inside the courtroom or in the court’s presence.”

The sheriff’s office, which provides security at the courthouse, said in a statement on Friday that its deputies “acted in accordance with the directives they received” to protect grand jurors and other participants in the proceedings.

A statement from WWL Louisiana’s president and general manager, Tod Smith, said Monteverde was “fulfilling his responsibility to inform the public on a matter of significant community interest” at the time of his handcuffing.

“At no point should a journalist be detained for seeking transparency or asking questions about access to a courtroom, particularly when state law provides for proceedings to occur in open court,” said Smith’s statement, which also alluded to the free press rights as guaranteed by the US constitution’s first amendment.

Political tensions for months have intensified between Louisiana state Republicans and Democratic New Orleans officials over a new law that abolished a court clerk office won by Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly three decades in prison in connection to a murder that he was exonerated of having committed.

Murrill at one point told eight New Orleans officials – including Helena Moreno, the mayor, and Jason Williams, the district attorney – that they could face removal from their jobs because they opposed the law eliminating Duncan’s position.

Duncan has said he believes state officials were retaliating against him by eliminating the job that he won in November with 68% of the votes cast. Murrill and Landry have long refused to acknowledge Duncan as exonerated, though he’s listed on the National Registry of Exonerations.

Among other things, Murrill’s successful motion for a stay of her indictment raised concerns that the special prosecutor who obtained the charges – former judge Laurie White – previously served as an attorney for Duncan.

Murrill’s office furthermore represented White in a state lawsuit in which it was alleged that White gave an employee sexy lingerie at a Christmas party, the Times-Picayune reported . The state lawsuit and one in federal court were dismissed.

The state supreme court on Friday noted that its stay shall also “not prevent the filing of motions for the recusal of either the special prosecutor or the trial judge, or responses thereto”.