A judge has denied a Lafayette woman's attempt to appeal the disqualification of her candidacy.
Last week, Judge Valerie Gotch Garrett ruled that Priscilla Gonzalez did not me the legal requirements to run for Mayor-President. Under Louisiana law, Gonzalez had 24 hours to file her paperwork to appeal the ruling - with legal holidays that worked out to be noon on Monday.
Gonzalez did file a motion - but not until after 1 p.m. on Monday, court records show.
In her denial, the judge stated that Gonzalez had until noon to file the document, and it was stamped as received by the clerk at 1:12 p.m. The judge also noted that some of the documents Gonzalez attached had not been entered into evidence during Friday's hearing, and ordered that they be removed from the record.
As we reported earlier today, we checked with the clerk after noon and found that no documents had been filed. We reached out to Gonzalez, who represented herself during Friday's hearing. She said "the appeal has been entered into the record, it is up to the courts now to decide."
We spoke to the clerk's attorney again, who told us that it had been filed after 1 p.m. and thus after the deadline.
Last week, a Lafayette resident filed a challenge to Gonzalez' candidacy, saying she didn't meet the requirements that she had lived in Lafayette for the past year, and that she had filed state and federal taxes for the past five years.
Gonzalez said she had lived in Lafayette, since November 2020 and that she had filed her taxes and/or had filed extensions for those tax returns.
But after a Friday hearing, 15th District Court Judge Valerie Gotch Garrett ruled that Gonzalez did not meet residency requirements. To read her ruling, scroll down.
Gonzalez qualified to run for the post last week. The petition questioning her qualification as a candidate was filed Wednesday in 15th Judicial District Court.
Also running for the post are Monique Blanco Boulet, incumbent Mayor-President Josh Guillory and Jan Swift.
To read our story on the challenge, and to read the documents for yourself, click here.
Here's the Judgment from Friday's decision:
