Recusal of DA sought by defendant

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• River Parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 8, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

A defense attorney for a former Assumption Parish assistant jail warden has asked a state District Court to order the recusal of Lafourche Parish District Attorney Camille A. “Cam” Morvant II from further investigation of his client, court filings say.

Michael Brown, a former lieutenant with the parish Sheriff’s Office terminated June 30, is a target of an Assumption Parish grand jury probe, an Oct. 27 letter from Morvant to Brown says.

The grand jury is looking into the circumstances surrounding the unsupervised trip by two Assumption Parish Jail trusties to pick up auto parts Oct. 2, 2008, in neighboring Lafourche Parish, Morvant has said.

Filed last week with the Assumption Parish Clerk of Court, the motion by Brown’s defense attorney, Marvin Gros,  alleges the district attorney is “fishing buddies” with Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack.

Gros claims that relationship impairs Morvant’s investigative impartiality. Supplied in the motion is a copy of a picture of Morvant, Waguespack and two others on a Labor Day fishing trip near Grand Isle this year.

In the picture, published in October in Louisiana Sportsman, Morvant, Waguespack and the others hold aloft a 74-pound, 10-ounce cobia that Morvant caught.

Gros’ motion notes that the fishing trip happened two weeks after Judge Ralph Tureau of the 23rd Judicial District Court ordered Morvant to investigate the case Aug. 17.

Citing conflicts of interest, District Attorney Ricky Babin of the 23rd Judicial District had earlier recused his office. The 23rd District is comprised of Assumption, St. James and Ascension parishes.

In an opposing motion, Morvant rejected the claim he could not be impartial as “disingenuous at best” and called the assertion of a relationship with Waguespack a “red herring.”

“There is no relationship between the parties other than that professional and social relationship common to many political personages in neighboring parishes,” Morvant’s motion says.

Morvant wrote that he has been fishing with Waguespack twice in seven years, one of which was for a political event.

They also have met socially about a half-dozen times this year, mostly through political events, and never discussed the case at the meetings, Morvant wrote.

Set for a hearing Nov. 25 in Assumption Parish, the recusal motion delayed a grand jury proceeding that had been scheduled for this past Wednesday, Morvant and Gros said.