Orleans sheriff says she missed campaign report deadline because her attorney was in jail

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Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson successfully argued Friday that she shouldn’t have to pay the full fine for missing a campaign reporting deadline because her attorney was incarcerated at the time.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics voted to reduce Hutson’s fine for filing the annual report for the Orleans Jedi Guardian political action committee, where she is the chairperson, three weeks late earlier this year.

Her original fine was $2,800, but the board lowered it to $500. The ethics board staff had recommended that the fine, at a minimum, be reduced to $2,000, according to board documents.

The board was apparently swayed by Hutson’s explanation that she didn’t realize the PAC’s attorney, Jimmy Burland, was behind bars and couldn’t file the paperwork on time. The report was due Feb. 18 but but wasn’t filed until March 11.“

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A longtime Louisiana lobbyist, Burland pled guilty to federal charges of possessing child pornography in November 2024, three months before Hutson’s PAC’s campaign report was due. Both his conviction and a federal raid on his office in downtown Baton Rouge, which took place in April 2024, were well-publicized.

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The PAC only took in one donation during the entirety of 2024 — $275 from Hutson herself — and only had $97 available in its account at the end of last year, according to campaign finance documents.

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