Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Wednesday warned New Orleans’ mayor, district attorney and five City Council members that she would seek their removal from office if the local leaders do not “officially retract” support for holding an election for a new court clerk position, a dramatic escalation in a raging dispute over that role.
Murrill’s letter to Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams and five City Council members who voted to call the election warns they are at risk of violating state law over the council’s vote this week to hold an election for New Orleans’ freshly-merged clerk’s office.
The letter argues the vote “usurped” the office of Chelsey Napoleon, the former Civil District Court Clerk who Murrill argues is the rightful holder of the new office under state legislation that moved the criminal clerk’s duties beneath the civil clerk’s office.
Former Criminal District Court Judge Calvin Johnson, who was appointed as an interim clerk by the council’s vote, also received the letter, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Times-Picayune.
Murrill said Johnson could face “imprisonment” even as she said he “appears to be an innocent bystander” to the dispute.
“To avoid further litigation and the statutory consequences,” Murrill wrote, “you should officially retract your support for this usurpation of (Civil Clerk) Chelsey Richard Napoleon’s office and take no further action supporting or recognizing the fictional new office or Judge Johnson’s appointment to it.”
The officials named in the letter were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.
Calvin Duncan was elected as New Orleans criminal court clerk but his position was swiftly eliminated by Gov. Jeff Landry and GOP lawmakers.
The letter from Murrill, a Republican, to the Democratic local officials sharply intensifies a legal and political battle raging between state and municipal leaders. The debate ignited earlier this month after the Republican-controlled state Legislature voted to eliminate New Orleans’ criminal clerkship and turn its duties over to the separate civil clerk’s office.
New Orleans have called the move a thinly veiled bid to bar Calvin Duncan, a formerly incarcerated lawyer released from prison after a judge ruled him innocent of a 1982 murder, from taking the criminal clerk’s office this spring after he won the position last fall with nearly 70% of the vote.
Duncan won that election despite opposition from Murrill, who at one point wrote to Duncan’s campaign ordering him to cease-and-desist calling himself “exonerated.” In an open letter, dozens of attorneys responded that the court record left no doubt of Duncan’s innocence under the law.
He was set to take office this month. Instead, the Legislature approved the bill eliminating his job and Gov. Jeff Landry signed it days before his start date. Supporters of the legislation said merging the offices represented a needed reform to New Orleans’ court system — the only one in Louisiana with distinct courts for criminal and civil matters.
Moreno and Williams responded by calling for the new election, arguing that transferring one clerk’s duties to another created a new position that must be filled by voters. Murrill, Landry and the civil clerk, Chelsey Napoleon, furiously pushed back, arguing that the Legislature had merely mashed the offices together without creating a new one.
The council voted anyway on Monday to call a special election for the new position and tappedJohnson as its interim holder. Murrill sent her letter Wednesday morning. A tangle of lawsuits are pending, with questions lingering about who is in charge of the clerk’s functions.
City Council members who received Murrill’s letter Wednesday voted in favor of triggering the special election. They are Council President JP Morrell, Council Vice President Matthew Willard, District A Councilmember Aimee McCarron, District C Councilmember Freddie King and District E Councilmember Jason Hughes.
Council members Lesli Harris and Eugene Green, who voted against calling the election, did not receive the letter.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
