Louisiana judge closed courtroom for AG Murrill's grand jury indictment; deputies handcuffed objecting reporter and attorney

On July 2, 2026, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Leon Roche ordered his courtroom sealed just before a grand jury returned an indictment against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, giving no explanation for the closure. Louisiana law requires grand jury indictments to be "returned in open court." WWL-TV reporter Danny Monteverde, waiting in the hallway with other journalists, called First Amendment attorney Elana Beiser, who arrived with a written motion to reopen the courtroom and quoted the state law requiring open proceedings.

Roche did not reopen the courtroom. About a dozen Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office deputies then moved into the hallway and ordered reporters away from the door. As Beiser tried to hand her motion to court staff, deputies began detaining people; one deputy told a Times-Picayune reporter, "I'm gonna start cuffing people if y'all don't move." Monteverde and Beiser were handcuffed and held for roughly 20 minutes before being released without charges. A Times-Picayune reporter who left the building was later refused re-entry.

In an August 5, 2026 letter to Orleans Criminal District Court Chief Judge Juana Marine-Lombard, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press's Virginia Hamrick called the closure and detentions "an egregious affront to the First Amendment right of the press and public to access court proceedings," warning they sent "a chilling message" to the press and public, and urged the court to ensure future access and to stop detaining reporters or counsel for asserting their rights.

The closure and detentions are distinct from Murrill's own separate May 2026 dispute with New Orleans officials over a court clerk fight, which the archive already records — this entry concerns the court's own conduct toward press covering Murrill's indictment, not an act by Murrill herself.

Updates

2026-07-03 — LA Supreme Court stayed Murrill's indictment, found Roche violated the law; Roche defended the closure [3][4][5][6]

The Louisiana Supreme Court issued an emergency stay of the criminal proceedings against Attorney General Liz Murrill pending its review of her motion to dismiss on conflict-of-interest grounds, writing that "by all public accounts" the court had violated state law requiring grand jury returns to occur "in open court." In filings the same afternoon, Roche defended the closure, writing that "open court" means only that a judge is present on the bench and that clearing the courtroom protects grand juror anonymity and safety, and that "there can be no suggestion that members of the public or media have a right to be present" for that part of the proceeding.