Accused!

Louisiana's AG says she was wrongfully accused of a crime. New Orleans officials supported Calvin Duncan, who was wrongfully accused of a crime. Can't they all just get along? ....Well, no.

“If they come to your house and try to burn your house down, and your family is in it, they’re in the house — that’s the threat of putting me in jail. I have four children. I have a grandchild on the way.”

—Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, in an interview published July 24 by The Times-Picayune

NEW ORLEANS — Now that Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has had the experience of facing dubious criminal charges, you’d think she would be a little more sympathetic to New Orleans.

After all, people here voted overwhelmingly to make Calvin Duncan — who spent nearly 30 years in prison after a wrongful conviction — the clerk of our criminal court system. And city officials tried their best to make sure he was able to serve.

But, Murrill isn’t sounding sympathetic at all.

“You can’t be friends with someone who wants to put you in jail for 80 years,” Murrill, who has no sense of irony, said at a news conference last week after city officials successfully urged that criminal charges against her be dropped.

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO STEAL AN ELECTION

Duncan was wrongly convicted of murder in 1981 and spent nearly 30 years in prison while learning the law behind bars and fighting his conviction.

He eventually won his freedom, earned a law degree and ran for clerk of criminal court to help make sure the system worked for others convicted unjustly. Remember that point.

He got 68 percent of the vote despite public attacks from, among others, Murrill, who said he had not been exonerated when he clearly had been.

But after the November election, and before Duncan could take office, the Republican dominated Louisiana Legislature passed a bill eliminating the job of New Orleans’ criminal clerk of court and shifting that office’s duties to that of another elective position, the clerk of civil court.

Jeff Landry — Louisiana’s governor, Donald Trump’s emissary to Greenland and Murrill’s political ally — eagerly signed the bill.

Suddenly, the votes of 38,681 New Orleans residents didn’t count any more.

It was all apparently legal but it kind of felt like a theft.

THE CITY COUNCIL ACTS

Duncan and others challenged the legislative action in court. Meanwhile, the New Orleans City Council took a different approach.

Reasoning that the new law effectively created a new, unfilled office, they voted to call an election to fill it and appointed a former judge to fill the post in the interim.

The clerk of civil court, not wanting to lose her job and face a new election, challenged that action in court. Duncan would eventually lose in a 4-3 decision at the state Supreme Court. But not before …

A COUP UNDER COLOR OF LAW?

Murrill went a step farther. She fired off letters telling Mayor Helena Moreno, five council members and District Attorney Jason Williams, telling them they could lose their elected positions and be replaced by appointees of Landry if they went forward with their plan. She also told the former judge, Calvin Johnson, he could face prison time were he to assume the interim clerk’s position.

Murrill’s letter was a muscle flex meant to scare the council off a reasonable interpretation of the new law that she didn’t like. Perhaps more importantly, it was her chance to take part in a time-honored pastime at the Capitol: bashing New Orleans to score political points.

There was also an odor of racism, with Murrill, part of the white Republican power structure at the Capitol threatening action that could remove from elective office five members of the City Council (four of them Black) Mayor Helena Moreno (Hispanic) and District Attorney Jason Williams (Black).

Clearly, the issues were being sorted out in court. There was no need for Murrill to threaten what would effectively be a bloodless coup under color of law that would give Landry control of the city council and the mayor’s office.

TABLES TURNED

Did Murrill’s letters amount to a criminal attempt to intimidate? Apparently, a grand jury in New Orleans thought so.

When I read about how that grand jury indicted Murrill on 16 felony counts, I have to admit I laughed out loud with righteous vengeful glee was a little concerned.

For one thing, grand jury indictments are supposed to be returned in open court and reporters were shut out. One reporter and an attorney were handcuffed, according to The Times-Picayune.

That doesn’t inspire confidence.

And it’s not clear what or who prompted the grand jury to act.

What has become clear is that the escalating fight isn’t good for New Orleans. Moreno, who inherited a financial mess when she took office, canceled a request to the state bond commission for the city to be allowed to issue $110 million in bonds to help with the recovery.

“I made the decision to withdraw our application before next week’s Bond Commission meeting because it had become clear that denial was imminent,” Moreno said in a statement, adding, “we are hearing warnings that some state leaders may pursue separate efforts to target the City’s finances ….”

The special prosecutor appointed to pursue the case against Murrill dropped the charges — at the request of city officials who apparently hope to tamp down the controversy.

Escalation continues, however. Murrill is demanding state and federal investigations into how the indictment happened.

In an interview with The Times-Picayune last week Murrill described the case as a malicious prosecution and said she wants to make sure others aren’t falsely prosecuted.

Does that sound familiar?