Following the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision not to consider an appeal in a long-running lawsuit involving the Ascension Parish president, his attorney says the case against his client “is over.”
Filed in 2020, the lawsuit stemmed from the 2019 parish president race between Murphy Painter and Clint Cointment, who won the race. Painter alleged Cointment and others conspired to publish misleading quotes from a secret recording to undermine his campaign.
In late 2023, Judge Ad Hoc Ashly Bruce Simpson dismissed Cointment from the case “with prejudice.” The First Circuit Court of Appeal upheld that verdict 3-0 in late December. And on Tuesday, the state Supreme Court stated it would not consider an application to consider the judgment on procedural grounds, as it was not filed timely.
Louisiana law 30 days for an application to be filed.Â
Painter’s attorney, Kim Landry, wrote in an email that she plans to file a request for rehearing after she couldn’t log into her account with the Clerk of Court’s Office. She attempted to file it after normal business hours but before midnight on the due date, but had to get IT department help from the Clerk of Court’s Office the next day, she added.
“The inability to log into the account was of no fault of the Applicant,” Landry wrote. “And the denial of the Court to consider the Application does not address the merits of the case.”
In a statement to The Advocate, Cointment's attorney, Tim Pujol, said the rejected application ended the case specifically against his client.
“The District Court, First Circuit Appellate Court and now the Louisiana Supreme Court have found that there is no evidence that Mr. Cointment had anything to do with the taping of Painter or the editing or publication of that tape,” he wrote.
Portions of the case remain pending
Painter, a former Ascension chief sheriff's deputy and former commissioner of the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, also accused Dustin Clouatre; Clouatre’s employer, Hughes Insurance; The Pelican Post and its editor, Wade Petite; and District Attorney Ricky Babin of collaborating with Cointment.
Judge Simpson dismissed claims against Babin in 2021 and granted a motion to dismiss the case against Hughes Insurance last year.
According to the First Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision in December, Painter alleged Clouatre secretly recorded him in 2019 and sent the recording to Petite, who published it online in an opinion piece that implied the cover-up of five child rapes.
“According to Painter, the purpose of the conspiracy was to get him to withdraw from the election so that Cointment would be elected unopposed and Clouatre's employer, Hughes Insurance Services, L.L.C., would be awarded the parish insurance business by Cointment,” the Dec. 30 decision stated.
Cointment testified in a deposition that he was “never involved in any conspiracy with anyone to defame Painter,” the decision said.
The case against Clouatre, Petite and The Pelican Post remains pending.
Petite did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Clouatre’s attorney, Scott Kaiser, was out of the office.