In the Big Easy, Maybe It’s the Humidity That Makes Keeping It Clean So Hard

Louisiana has always been one of my favorite places, filled as it is – and to the brim – with characters and charm. But even that easy-going land of alligators, charming charlatans, and melodious accents has been shifting back to the right side of the political spectrum after so many decades spent firmly in the Democratic camp.

A couple of years ago, there was tons of turmoil in New Orleans surrounding former mayor Latoya Cantrell and her uniformed boytoy from the local NOLA PD, among her other professional failings. That was SO New Orleans, though. I haven’t had a chance to do much with it lately, because, well…TRUMP!!

HAH!

See what I did there?

Plus, as I said, the state itself has gone pretty dang red, and New Orleans just was kind of stewing in its own juices in the heat. Best I could do in the meantime was a Cajun ‘drunk meets alligator story.’

This weekend though, kee-yaw! It sounds like New Orleans has been up to its old tricks.

Let me introduce a main character here. Liz Murrill is the Republican Attorney General of the state. She was born in New Orleans and raised in Lafayette, so she’s a home girl. From all accounts, Murrill’s been pretty darn effective in cleaning up the entrenched corruption, especially in New Orleans and Orleans Parish.

NOLA officials don’t like her for nuthin’, which is totally unsurprising. Too much attention from uncorruptible law enforcement ruins the bon temps.

This is what caught my eye this weekend:

https://t.co/SpmZutWlWH

— Qᴀɢɢ.ɴᴇᴡꜱ (@qaggnews) July 3, 2026

One doesn’t often see the state AG indicted by local officials.

And, true to form, it’s a Big Easy, big soggy mess.

In May, the LA state legislature passed a bill, Act 15, which merged the Orleans Parish criminal and civil courts.

…After the state Legislature passed a bill merging Orleans Parish criminal and civil courts, elected Clerk of Court Calvin Duncan was ousted. In response, Orleans Parish officials appointed Judge Calvin Johnson as interim clerk and called for a special election.

This is where it gets sticky. Calvin Duncan, the elected but now ousted Clerk of Court, hadn’t been seated yet and is a pretty famous individual in his own right.

New Orleans officials took exception to what the legislature had done, and worked themselves up a workaround.

…The charges are the latest move in a long and convoluted conflict between left-leaning New Orleans and Louisiana’s conservative state leaders who have sought to exert their power over the city, most recently with sweeping changes to its judicial system. The overhaul included merging the separate elected offices of the criminal and civil court clerks into a single role.

The reconfiguration of the clerk’s office, in particular, struck a nerve in New Orleans because the city had recently elected Calvin Duncan, an acclaimed jailhouse lawyer and criminal justice advocate who had been exonerated after 28 years in prison on a murder conviction. State officials rushed to enact the changes before Mr. Duncan could take office in May.

State lawmakers said the merger eliminated the criminal clerk’s office, shifting its responsibilities and funding to the civil court clerk. But New Orleans officials argued that the state had, in fact, created an entirely new office: the clerk of courts. In May, the City Council appointed a retired judge to the post and called a special election, all while the sitting civil court clerk continued to serve.

Now, recall that Act 15’s provisions took effect before Duncan took office, so all of these machinations on  the part of the locals were null and void and directly in conflict with the state.

So Liz Murrill, when she got wind of what they had planned, sent off one of those AG letters to all pertinent parties, reminding them of the statutes and saying, “Don’t do this. It’s unlawful.’

…Ms. Murrill responded by sending letters in May to eight elected officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno; Jason Williams, the district attorney for New Orleans; Judge Calvin Johnson, the interim clerk appointed by the city; and five City Council members who had voted in favor of appointing Judge Johnson.

In the letters, Ms. Murrill asserted that the city’s actions “trigger serious consequences under Louisiana’s usurper statutes, including the possible forfeiture of your own office.” She said the officials had “put your own offices in jeopardy” and that Gov. Jeff Landry had the power to appoint replacements.

The New Orleans mayor, Helena Moreno, chose to lose her crawdad pickin’ mind, and claimed the letters were intimidation, and constituted a threat.

The locals called in a retired judge to investigate and impanel a grand jury, who this past Thursday returned a 16-count indictment against the state AG, for being a bully, among other things. 

And they issued an arrest warrant.

A New Orleans grand jury returned a 16-count felony indictment Thursday against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, charging her with malfeasance and intimidation, adding criminal allegations to an already-raging legal and political battle between the Republican state official and Democratic local leaders.

The grand jury handed up the indictment at New Orleans’ criminal courthouse after meeting for weeks to weigh bringing criminal charges against Murrill. The attorney general faces eight counts of malfeasance and another eight counts of intimidation.

Former Judge Laurie White, appointed as a special prosecutor in the case, confirmed the charges against Murrill in a press briefing outside of the courthouse. Orleans Criminal District Judge Leon Roche issued a warrant for Murrill’s arrest, setting bond at $400,000.

The grand jurors reviewed evidence about whether the state attorney general sought to intimidate local New Orleans public officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams, White confirmed. Murrill told the officials in May that they had imperiled their jobs by pushing back on a new law to combine the city’s criminal and district clerks of court.

Not that the grand jury decision and release weren’t without their own healthy scooping of questionable NOLA flair – arrested journalists, chaos, and locked doors on procedures that, again, state law requires be open to the public.

While a grand jury returned a criminal indictment Thursday against Louisiana’s attorney general in a closed New Orleans courtroom, chaos erupted in the hallway as security officers placed a news reporter and an attorney in handcuffs after they questioned why a judge booted onlookers from the proceeding.

The episode ended with combative, dueling press conferences on the courthouse steps. The special prosecutor assigned to the probe lamented that she had taken the case; defense lawyers for Attorney General Liz Murrill decried a system of “kangaroo courts” in New Orleans.

…Around 2:45 p.m., Roche ordered the room sealed so the grand jury could make its returns in secret — though he didn’t explain his reasons for ushering spectators out. Louisiana law says grand jury indictments handed up in state courts “shall be returned in open court.”

…A half-dozen or so news reporters there to cover the indictment waited in the hallway for Roche to reopen the proceeding. WWL-TV reporter Danny Monteverde called a First Amendment lawyer, Elana M. Beiser.

Beiser arrived minutes later with what she titled a “motion to open courtroom for return of indictment” and banged on the door. The document quoted the state law that says grand jury returns must occur in open court.

Roche, however, did not reopen his courtroom.

Half an hour after he shuttered the proceedings, about a dozen Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies flooded the hallway. They shouted at reporters to walk away from the door and stand at the end of the hall.

This chick is cranky.

Former Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White says AG Liz Murrill faces a $400,000 bond in the 16-count indictment and the case is “now a criminal matter.”

White was brought on as a special prosecutor. pic.twitter.com/GkTL3G3JEg

— WWL-TV (@WWLTV) July 2, 2026

And this is the Xweet that caught my eye about it.

Didn’t they also detain reporters who attempted to observe and report on what is statutorily supposed to be an open proceeding, the grand jury indictment?

— Ignatius Coullion (@hitdingers504) July 3, 2026

Like, wowsahs. That’s some wild stuff.

A reporter asked Murrill if she was shocked to find she had been under investigation, and she said, no.

When the reporter asked, ‘Why,’ Murrill gave the slightest shrug and said:

I mean, I just, I can’t explain why they do things in New Orleans the way they do them.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill made her first public comments about the news reported Tuesday that a New Orleans grand jury is investigating threats she made against Mayor Helena Moreno and other area officials.

Read more here: https://t.co/BXwcJajxND pic.twitter.com/pbSsU0dx9Q

— NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) July 1, 2026

In any event, Murrill naturally went straight to the top to try to put the kibosh on the NOLA arrest warrant and the indictments, and she was successful on both counts.

Late Friday night, the Louisiana Supreme Court stepped in and pulled back the arrest warrant for Attorney General Liz Murrill.

Earlier that day, the court had already put her Orleans Parish grand jury indictment on hold.

Saturday morning, Murrill issued the following statement:

“Another WIN – Louisiana Supreme Court BLOCKS New Orleans special prosecutor’s refusal to remove the arrest warrant. She is ORDERED to comply.”

The court noted that the “Attorney General makes a compelling argument concerning the disturbing defects in the grand jury proceedings and in the trial court’s handling of those proceedings.”

The Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, had Murrill’s back, calling the proceedings a ‘kangaroo court,’ and flat-out saying he had a pardon for Murrill in his pocket.

The good people of Louisiana love her. She’s done a great job going after pedophiles and Medicaid cheats.

— Baldguy Handicapper (@BaldguyH) July 2, 2026

Murrill has been busy – there’s no doubt.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the arrests of 21 people in a Medicaid fraud operation tied to allegations of false billing, false public records, and abuse involving vulnerable people. https://t.co/mE7cy2hFUw pic.twitter.com/P374MzF38T

— WAFB (@WAFB) July 1, 2026

So that’s where it stands right now.

What a mess. And the locals in NOLA might really be in some serious deep doodoo voodoo with the grand jury stunt, because they just brought a ton of eyeballs back on them that had been looking elsewhere for a long time.

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