Mayor Helena Moreno and New Orleans City Council members on Tuesday asked special prosecutor Laurie White to dismiss charges against Attorney General Liz Murrill, citing escalating tensions between the state and city and a series of funding cuts to New Orleans.
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In a letter to White, officials said that the “continuing conflicts” emerging from the July 2 charges “distract from the important work before us.”
“The request is not driven by fear, politics, or personal interest,” wrote Moreno and five of the City Council’s seven members. “It is driven by our belief that the public interest is now better served by moving forward rather than by prolonging litigation.”
White did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Gov. Jeff Landry’s and Murrill’s offices also did not respond to a request for comment.
The request to drop the indictment comes after Landry vetoed more than $33 million in state funding lawmakers intended to send to New Orleans and after Moreno withdrew her request for State Bond Commission approval of a $110 million bond sale, citing warnings that Landry and Murrill would not support it.
The withdrawal prompted a war of words between Landry and Moreno in which Landry said that Louisiana is “tired” of New Orleans thinking it’s "so special.” In an interview, Moreno said that New Orleans “is unlike any other city in Louisiana” and is “the economic engine of this state.” Requests by Moreno for a meeting with Landry have gone unmet.
The indictment, brought by an Orleans Parish grand jury, saddled Murrill with 16 felony counts of malfeasance in office and intimidation over letters she sent in May to several New Orleans officials threatening their positions after they opposed a new state law consolidating the city’s criminal and district clerks of court. Murrill called the indictment “corrupt” and Landry vowed to pardon her.
Moreno and council members have said that they had no knowledge of the indictment, which accused the Republican attorney of malfeasance and intimidation, before it was issued.
Moreno and City Council members JP Morrell, Matthew Willard, Aimee McCarron, Freddie King and Jason Hughes said in their letter that the indictment has bred a toxic environment that has resulted in losses for New Orleans.
“Since the legislative session concluded, important priorities, Lincoln Beach, major drainage investments, the Municipal Auditorium, Behrman Stadium, and other initiatives have already experienced cuts,” the local officials said. “Regardless of the cause, extended and escalating conflict carries real consequences for the people we serve.”
The roughly $33 million would have funded those priorities, as well as a design for a new City Hall Civic Complex, support for organizations that work to reduce homelessness and that work to improve recreation and public safety. Money for housing, resilience and health care infrastructure projects was also cut.
Though the indictment alleges intimidation, it should be dismissed, the mayor and council members said, because “we were not intimidated.”
“While the correspondence at issue contained threatening language directed toward public officials, we never believed those threats could lawfully or practically be carried out,” they said.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams also issued a public letter on Tuesday to White. While stopping short of asking White to drop the charges against Murrill, Williams urged caution over the case and said that the indictment “jeopardizes” the partnership between his and Murrill’s offices to prosecute violent crime in the city.
In a separate letter, retired Judge Calvin Johnson also asked White to dismiss the charges.
Williams and White have also landed in a as Murrill and her attorneys attempt to prove misconduct in the lead-up to the indictment. Murrill’s lawyers are preparing to ask a judge to quash the indictment.
Prosecution of the charges has been paused since the Louisiana Supreme Court issued an the day after the indictment was filed.