GONZALES — A former candidate for Ascension Parish president who filed a civil lawsuit over a secretly-recorded conversation took the stand Tuesday, The Advocate reported.

Murphy Painter Sr.'s lawsuit centers on a February 2019 conversation he had with local businessman Dustin Clouatre.

Painter said that a recording of his conversation with Clouatre was edited and published online by the Pelican Post News website in a way that falsely suggested he helped cover up allegations of child rape involving five girls younger than 12 while he was working at the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office.

The hour-long recording later became the basis of a 49-second edited clip published alongside an article by the Pelican Post News in October 2019. 

Painter said he believed the conversation with Clouatre would surface in the future because the publisher of the Pelican Post News, Wade Petite, allegedly threatened to sabotage him in a 2018 conversation.

Petite testified in pretrial proceedings that he received the recording from Clouatre and published it because he believed it was newsworthy. At the time, he was working for Clint Cointment’s campaign, who was running against Painter in the race for parish president.

The lawsuit has gone through several rounds of court proceedings in the past few years, with some issues reaching the state Supreme Court.