LA AG Murrill tells House Speaker Shexnayder to historic artifact that's missing

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Find it and give it back.

That was Attorney General Liz Murrill’s message Tuesday for former House Speaker Clay Schexnayder regarding an ancient cypress board that was displayed at the State Capitol for decades but disappeared last year after being in Schexnayder’s district legislative office in Gonzales.

“I will confer with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office and will take any action that may be appropriate under the circumstances,” Murrill said in reply to a request for help from Julius Mullins, a retired Baton Rouge doctor whose grandfather Walter Stebbins donated the board to the state in the 1950s.

“Schexnayder knew he had it, he knew that it was in his office and he was responsible as the custodian of state property,” Murrill added. “I think he’s responsible for it regardless of how it came to be present in his district office. He needs to return it.”

As was reported last week, the board was last seen 18 months ago in Schexnayder’s district office. Schexnayder said he doesn’t know of its current whereabouts.

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The board’s disappearance has frustrated Stebbins’ grandchildren, with Mullins acting as the family’s lead sleuth to find it.

“Would it be possible for you to help my family find this valuable piece of history which has gone missing and return it to the Capitol?” Mullins asked in separate emails to Murrill and the current House speaker, Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice.

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The board – which measures about six feet by 20 feet and has words engraved of its origin into it – came from a tree that was estimated to be 1,264 years old when it was cut down in 1936. Wording on the board indicates that it was given to the state in 1955 and hung on the wall in the breezeway on the ground floor of the Capitol until about 10 years ago.

Schexnayder said then-Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, asked him in 2013 to put the board in his district office because it came from a tree in Ascension Parish. Kleckley, however, doesn’t recall giving it to Schexnayder, saying such a request by him involving a historic state artifact would have been inappropriate.

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“When I turned in the keys, that’s the last I seen it, that’s the last I know,” Schexnayder said Tuesday. “The last I know is the board was in the office when I left.”

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Schexnayder said someone at his request notified someone from the state that he had the board as he was leaving office. He wouldn’t identify either person.

“I’m not going to go and start blurting out names,” Schexnayder said. “That’s not who I am.”

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