I-TEAM: Attorney General wants judge removed from hearing city corruption cases, cites WAFB reporting
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Prosecutors working for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill are asking for Judge Gail Horne Ray to be recused from presiding over the corruption cases against Councilman Cleve Dunn, Pearlina Thomas, a former CATS administrator, and contractor Jay Colar, citing reports by the WAFB I-TEAM. The recusal motion was filed this week, claiming because Ray’s attorney Steven Irving told WAFB last month, “three 19th Judicial District Court judges, including Ray, are suing Governor Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill and Secretary of State Nancy Landry over voting rights,” Ray should be recused. The lawsuit Irving was talking about last month is not new, but this motion to reopen the 1980’s federal voting rights case is. In addition to the judges, numerous other plaintiffs are attached to the same case number that corresponds to this case filing. It replaced it with two subdistricts and a new at-large seat, all without seeking approval from the federal court that established the original consent decree.
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Scoop News DeskBaton Rouge, Louisiana · Published Updated
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At the time, Irving told WAFB, Judges Don Johnson, Ron Johnson and Gail Horne Ray are involved. “Although your Honor is not formally listed as a movant, Your Honor’s own lawyer thus publicly attributed the renewed Clark litigation to you,” the motion reads. “That disclosure created a new and more serious recusal problem.” The motion to have Ray removed says, “No reasonable observer therefore could conclude that Your Honor can now fairly preside over a case in which the Attorney General appears through the undersigned counsel.” Irving issued the following statement in response to the Attorney General’s push to get Ray removed. “There is a motion to reopen the Clark case to which Judge Ray is not a party and a separate declaratory judgment suit filed in February by three judges, one of whom was Judge Ray.
