AG threatens 8 New Orleans leaders with removal from office in court clerk battle

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Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Wednesday warned New Orleans' mayor, district attorney and five City Council members that she would seek their removal from office if the local leaders do not "officially retract" support for holding an election for a new court clerk position, a dramatic escalation in a raging dispute over that role.

Murrill’s letter to Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams and five City Council members who voted to call the election warns they are at risk of violating state law over the council’s vote this week to hold an election for New Orleans’ freshly-merged clerk’s office.

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The letter argues the vote “usurped” the office of Chelsey Napoleon, the former Civil District Court Clerk who Murrill argues is the rightful holder of the new office under state legislation that moved the criminal clerk’s duties beneath the civil clerk’s office.

Former Criminal District Court Judge Calvin Johnson, who was appointed as an interim clerk by the council’s vote, also received the letter, according to a copy of the document obtained by The Times-Picayune.

Murrill said Johnson could face “imprisonment” even as she said he “appears to be an innocent bystander” to the dispute.

"To avoid further litigation and the statutory consequences," Murrill wrote, "you should officially retract your support for this usurpation of (Civil Clerk) Chelsey Richard Napoleon’s office and take no further action supporting or recognizing the fictional new office or Judge Johnson’s appointment to it."

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RS 42:71 - Usurpation of office; punishment

Any person who assumes or pretends to be a public officer without the authority of an election, or without the authority of a commission from the governor when a commission is required; or who has been duly addressed out of an office that he held, in the manner provided by Article IX, Section 3, of the Constitution of Louisiana, or who has been removed from such an office by impeachment or recall, is a usurper.

Any usurper who attempts to exercise the functions of a public officer or office, and who interferes with any public officer in the discharge of his duties; or refuses to vacate an office, after having been removed therefrom in the manner provided by Article IX, Section 3, of the Constitution of Louisiana, or by impeachment or recall, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Each day's action by a usurper shall constitute a separate offense.

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