BATON ROUGE — Attorney General Liz Murrill has requested that a judge be removed from a case involving allegations of fraud and corruption within the Capital Area Transit System.

Court documents show Murrill asks that Judge Gail Horne Ray be recused from a case against former CATS Chief Administrator Pearlina Thomas, contractor Jay Colar and Baton Rouge Councilman Cleve Dunn. The three are accused of running a scheme to defraud CATS of thousands of dollars. 

According to the recusal motion, Murrill filed to remove Ray because she is one of three judges in an active lawsuit against the attorney general concerning the alterations of judicial subdistricts. Due to the suit, Murrill requested that the judges be recused from all state government-related cases, meaning the three would need to step away from nearly 100 cases in the 19th Judicial District. 

Lester Duhé, spokesperson for AG Murrill, said the recusal in the CATS case was asked for shortly after the other recusal was granted. 

“Because of how high-profile this case was, we wanted to move quickly. But after the May 21 hearing with Judge Castle, who ruled that Chief Judge Don Johnson, Judge Ron Johnson, and Judge Gail Horne Ray needed to recuse from the vast majority of the other cases in which the Attorney General was enrolled, it became clear to us that recusal would be needed here as well, notwithstanding our desire to move these important cases quickly," he said. 

According to Murrill, it is illegal for her to have to argue in cases being presided over by a judge who is simultaneously her adversary in federal court.