BATON ROUGE — East Baton Rouge Parish School Superintendent LaMont Cole has asked a court to throw out his indictment on the grounds that the attorney general did not have proper authority to bring charges against him.
The motion, filed Friday, claims that state Attorney General Liz Murrill has the authority to investigate crimes but doesn’t have the authority to preside over grand juries or bring charges unless the district attorney in a jurisdiction makes a specific request.
It also asked that, if the court is not willing to outright toss out the indictments, that the court should examine the paper trail to see if the grand jury investigation was properly handled.
Cole, who is accused of getting kickbacks on government contracts he allegedly helped steer to longtime friend Terral Jackson, has denied wrongdoing in the case. The allegations date back to when Cole was a member of the Metro Council. None of the alleged improper conduct is connected to his role as school system superintendent.
Jackson joined Cole in the motion to have the indictments invalidated on behalf of himself and his wife Erica Jackson. They were indicted along with Cole. The Jacksons have also been indicted in a separate case involving Metro Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr.
Through a spokesman, Murrill said her office had no comment.
“The evidence speaks more loudly than anything I could say,” she said.
Moore said he believes the case was handled correctly.
“My office is not involved in the investigation of these matters, however was involved in the selection of this grand jury and approved the request of the Attorney General to present matters before this grand jury. I believe the selection and authority of this grand jury are legal and proper as to the process employed by my office, the Attorney General and the Court,” Moore said.
Cole was indicted Aug. 5 on two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit public bribery, malfeasance in office, and money laundering of $20,000 or more. He was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Aug. 6. He was released on $15,000 bond and declined to comment on his indictment.
The cases are part of a sweeping corruption probe that has targeted Baton Rouge officials, generally accusing them of being involved in fraud, bribery and malfeasance. Several Metro Council members and former Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome have been called before grand juries conducting the investigations. It began as a federal investigation, but no federal charges were filed and investigators handed over the evidence they had gathered to Murrill’s office.
Current Mayor-President Sid Edwards is not part of the probe.
In Cole’s motion, his attorneys contend that only the district attorney has the power to initiate prosecutions or delegate that power to the attorney general, and that the court record does not indicate that District Attorney Hillar Moore or anyone on his staff did so in this case.
The DA’s office did ask a judge to convene a special grand jury, the records show, but not that the attorney general had the clearance to initiate charges.
Cole’s attorneys say that the grand jury indictment form was only signed by the foreman of the grand jury and an assistant attorney general without anyone in the district attorney’s office. That suggests that the AG’s office exceeded its authority, the motion says.
Cole also said Murrill’s office “isolated and took innocent text messages between Mr. Cole and Mr. Jackson out of context, weaponized them, wrapped them in a garment of a criminal narrative” and indicted him more than two years after the federal probe sent FBI agents to the school where he was principal to question him.
Cole’s arrest warrant included text messages between Cole and Jackson, including one that said “he knows I’m getting a kickback from both of you and he plans to expose us.”
The warrant also cited a text from Cole to Jackson that said “just took care of you in a MAJOR way which means I just took care of us.”
Cole is scheduled for arraignment Oct. 29.
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