A grand jury in New Orleans on Thursday indicted Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on sixteen criminal counts: eight counts of malfeasance in office, and eight counts of intimidation and retaliation.
The panel said Murrill broke the law by telling several New Orleans elected officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams, and five New Orleans City Councilmembers, that they could be removed from office for appointing Calvin Johnson as Orleans Parish Clerk of Court and calling for a special election for the position, after the state law consolidating the city's two clerk of court offices went into effect.
Rafael Goyeneche, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission, says he doesn't see how Murrill's warning rises to the level of a crime.
"Normally, public intimidation is going to be through acts of violence," said Goyeneche.
"She wrote a letter to the council saying, 'stand down. The matter is going to be decided by the supreme court,'" Goyeneche told WWL's Newell Normand. "She wrote a second letter to them saying, 'your actions may have violated a state misdemeanor law, and that misdemeanor law could result in someone's removal from office.'"
Furthermore, Goyeneche said the Louisiana Supreme Court essentially settled the matter in its ruling that clarified the law combining the two clerk's offices did not create a new position that warranted an interim appointment and special election.
The grand jury undertook the investigation on its own. New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams recused himself from the matter and former Orleans Criminal Court Judge Laurie White is handling the case as a special prosecutor.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry took to social media to decry the grand jury proceedings as a "kangaroo court."
