NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is being investigated by an Orleans Parish grand jury over alleged threats against New Orleans mayor Helena Moreno and other city officials, sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to Fox 8.
The sources said the probe of alleged intimidation involves letters Murrill sent on May 13 that seemed to threaten the removal from office of Moreno, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and five New Orleans City Council members.
Murrill and Moreno declined comment on the grand jury activity Tuesday evening (June 30).
A source told Fox 8 that retired Criminal District Court Judge Laurie A. White has been appointed as a special prosecutor to oversee the grand jury’s inquiry. The court’s judicial administrator Rob Kazik would only say that White had been appointed as special prosecutor on a particular matter.
Murrill’s letters were sent at the peak of their dispute over the state legislature’s move to eliminate the job of newly elected Criminal District Court clerk Calvin Duncan, after the New Orleans council passed resolutions calling for a special election and appointing retired judge Calvin Johnson to serve as an interim clerk of the merged Orleans Parish Civil and Criminal District courts.
The Louisiana Supreme Court later struck down those resolutions, barring the council from calling the special election and ordering Chelsey Richard Napoleon to serve as the consolidated clerk, as dictated by the newly passed Act 15.
Murrill threatens legal action against New Orleans leaders over court clerk dispute
Murrill’s letters warned the New Orleans officials with “serious consequences” under the state’s usurper laws, including their possible removal from office.
Moreno responded with a video posted to her social media pages in which she said she “will not be intimidated or threatened by the state Attorney General.”
Moreno added, “I will also say that it is surprising that the Attorney General put all of this in a letter, considering that there is a criminal law ... that prohibits intimidating or threatening a public official in an effort to try to influence a decision or change their position.”
Council president J.P. Morrell defended the council’s moves that day as necessary under the law, joining Williams’ legal interpretation of Act 15 that later was overturned by the state Supreme Court. New Orleans’ city attorney is seeking to have that decision revisited by the state high court.
Murrill said the New Orleans’ leaders interpretation of their required response was incorrect, based on the “false narrative that Act 15 created a new, vacant office.”
She also warned Morrell that “you, four of your colleagues, the district attorney and the mayor have put your own offices in jeopardy” and could face forfeiture of their offices if they are determined to have usurped state law.
“I specifically asked the council to wait for the Louisiana Supreme Court to weigh in,” Murrill said last month. “Instead, they knowingly refused and moved forward with resolutions that attempt to displace Chelsey Richard Napoleon from her lawful office as Clerk of Court for Orleans Parish.
“There is no vacancy, and no public official should recognize this fictional office or Judge Calvin Johnson’s purported appointment to it. Louisiana’s usurper laws carry serious consequences, and I will enforce them.”
A usurper law refers to the unlawful exercise of power or authority without legal right. Murrill called upon the council to immediately rescind its resolutions and for Moreno and Williams to “retract any support for the attempted usurpation.”
