it seems awfully coincidental that just a few days before a ninth judicial district court judgeship runoff election which pits an assistant district attorney (rocky willson) against a popular local lawyer (mary lauve doggett) that the rapides parish district attorneys office would choose to bring this case back into the public eye.
in 2001 when this case started, the district attorneys office was bragging about how they were going to get the death penalty for ms. hypes and they were going to do this and do that....then the district attorneys office was caught leaking secret grand jury testimony to one of their expert witnesses and a rapides parish sheriff's detective -- presumably so that they would have their stories straight to pitch at trial.
only they got caught and the trial judge threw the indictment out.. the third circuit and the state supreme court mostly upheld the judges ruling.
no investigation was ever conducted to punish anyone by finding out just how this happened, how common this practice is or how many times in the past it's been done to others less fortunate. -- this is louisiana after all.
now the district attorneys office is back with even less severe charges than what they originally filed.
people would be foolish to promote anyone from this district attorneys office especially to a position as important as a district court judgeship.
