Court rules secret Murphy Painter audio is public record Murphy Painter (Source: WAFB) By WAFB Staff | December 10, 2020 at 1:35 PM CST - Updated December 10 at 1:35 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The full contents of a secretly-recorded audio tape about Ascension Parish politics was handed over by prosecutors Wednesday, despite lengthy legal challenges to prevent its release.
The First Circuit Court of Appeal this week declined to hear the case.
In doing so, the court essentially sided with a lower court’s ruling that the secret recording, used as evidence in a grand jury hearing, is “not protected” and, therefore, is indeed public record. The recording is of a nearly one hour meeting in 2019 between former Ascension Parish President candidate Murphy Painter and Gonzales insurance agent Dustin Clouatre. Painter sued to have the full tape publicly released. His attorney was provided with a copy of the recording Wednesday.