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Disgraced judge has his record expunged

Section: Community

Gwen Filosa

C. Hunter King, the disgraced Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge who in 2001 forced his employees to sell $250 fundraising tickets or risk losing their jobs, now has a clean record.

Having admitted in May to conspiracy to commit public payroll fraud, King was granted expungement of his criminal arrest and conviction after successfully completing six months of probation. He's also had his guilty plea "set aside," a legal move equal to an acquittal under Louisiana law.
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY ELLIS LUCIAOrleans Parish Judge C. Hunter King appeared before the Louisiana Supreme Court Sept. 10, 2003.

On Dec. 3, King appeared in criminal court to file the dual motions, which Judge Julian Parker granted as the final part of a plea bargain crafted by King's defense team and then-District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who resigned Oct. 30.

Instead of facing trial on fraud and perjury charges, King was allowed to plead guilty to both public salary extortion and conspiracy to commit public payroll fraud. The deal also allowed for the expungement.

During the May hearing when the plea deal was approved, Parker told King that he had been a victim of racism and set up by state investigators.

"I'm not saying what you did was right; it was wrong," Parker said from the bench. "But you got set up. .¤.¤. They set up President Clinton."

Parker also reminded King of the saying, "When a black man scores a touchdown, they change the rules."

Both Parker and King are black.

Expungement is fairly common at the courthouse on Tulane Avenue, where defense attorneys encourage their clients to plunk down the $275 needed to clean their records.

But the rank-and-file convict seeking expungement is more likely to have been caught smoking marijuana than conspiring to commit public payroll fraud.

"The law allows them to legally state they have no convictions," said Robert Jenkins, a criminal defense attorney in New Orleans for the past 20 years. "It gives them a second chance at life."

Parker has ordered the state police, the New Orleans Police Department, the clerk of court and the district attorney's office to expunge King's arrest and conviction.

But King's legal troubles persist.

The Louisiana Supreme Court in June suspended him from practicing law. King, a lawyer since 1990, is under investigation by the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, an inquiry launched because of his criminal case.

Neither his attorneys at the local firm of Martzell & Bickford nor the assistant district attorney who handled the former judge's case returned calls seeking comment for this report.

Reached on his cell phone Thursday evening, King didn't respond to questions about the expungement.

"Happy New Year," King said, after a strained pause, before ending the call.

King gave his employees a sales quota of 20 tickets each, at $250 a pop, and suspended all court work for one week in October 2001 so his staff could collect the money and hand-deliver tickets.

His court reporter-turned-whistle-blower, Barbara Wallace, had recorded meetings during which King said he would find people who were "enthusiastic" about selling the tickets if his staff didn't succeed in doing so.

Wallace e-mailed a complaint to the state judiciary commission in late 2001, and also sent along the tapes. When questioned in 2002, King lied to investigators. But when faced with the recordings six months later, the judge confessed to everything and agreed not to fight the allegations any longer.

Wallace maintained that King fired her for not selling the tickets, but King always said she resigned.

Parker called the Wallace recordings "clandestine," and viewed them as proof of a "set-up." But the judiciary commission's attorneys considered the recordings hard proof that contradicted King's repeated denials of any wrongdoing.

The state Supreme Court ousted King from the bench in October 2003, which triggered the criminal prosecution. The justices focused largely on King's lies under oath in rendering its decision.

"Honesty is a minimum qualification expected of every judge," the court said in a unanimous decision to remove King from the bench.