By Matt Bruce
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — Susan Hutson’s attorneys are raising red flags about a lack of details in the 50-count criminal indictment Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office secured earlier this year against the ousted Orleans Parish sheriff and her former chief financial officer.
During a hearing Friday morning inside the Criminal District Courthouse, Hutson’s attorney Michael McMahon, told a judge that the AG’s office did not reveal specifics about Hutson and Bianka Brown’s alleged crimes in a massive amount of electronic data prosecutors handed to Hutson’s legal team Sept. 3.
He referred to that first round of evidence disclosures as a “discovery dump” but said it provided little details about the criminal acts that a special grand jury indicted Hutson over. The indictment included charges of malfeasance in office, criminal conspiracy, obstruction of justice and falsifying public records.
“We object to what we have received from the Attorney General up to this point,” McMahon said. “This is the Attorney General setting up a trial by ambush.”
Assistant Attorney General Heather Hendrix, who’s leading Hutson’s prosecution, called McMahon’s arguments Friday a “performance” designed to “produce sound bite clips for any press” present in the courtroom. She said Hutson’s attorneys could easily glean more specifics about the alleged misconduct by filing pre-trial motions that compel prosecutors to particularize each charge. Greg Carter, the former sheriff’s lead attorney, did just that at the end of Friday’s hearing.
“The indictment is well within the letter of the law,” Hendrix said. “The defendant has a remedy. There’s nothing where the state is hiding the ball.”
Retired New Orleans Criminal Judge Dennis Waldron, appointed to preside after all 12 sitting judges in courtrhouse recused themselves, urged Hutson and Brown’s attorney to formalize motions for discovery and urged the AG’s office to hand over any necessary information the defendants may need to fight the allegations fairly. He set a Dec. 11 date to hash out any discovery issues and said he hopes to be able to set a 2027 trial date at the next court hearing.
“I don’t know what the state is alleging,” he said. “I hope to learn. But it appears that this could be a very complex set of allegations.”
Both Hutson and Brown sat in the courtroom and watched.
McMahon joined Hutson’s legal team Aug. 5, according to court records. He’s a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Eastern District who secured the convictions of rogue New Orleans Police Department officer Len Davis, former New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper, and real estate heir Robert Durst.
Brown’s attorney, Jeffrey Hufft, did not receive the evidence disclosures until Friday morning and told Waldron he’d need to review the files before he raised any concerns over the digest.
Murrill launched the criminal probe last year, days after 10 inmates escaped the Orleans Justice Center that Hutson oversaw at the time. The jailbreak touched off a multi-state manhunt that spanned nearly five months before all prisoners were captured.
Hutson said the escapees had help from Sheriff’s Office staffers. But according to her charging affidavit, she ignored warnings from federal consent decree monitors and let security lapses inside the Perdido Street jailhouse fester long before the May 16, 2025 getaway.
Hutson and Brown were indicted April 29, just days before the sheriff’s four-year term ended and Michelle Woodfork assumed office after defeating Hutson at the polls last November.
McMahon said each of the counts in Hutson’s indictment included little more than a cursory definition of the statute the ex-sheriff is accused of violating. All of the counts say Hutson’s crimes occured between May 2, 2022 — the day she took office — and April 8, 2026. That 1,437-day span encapsulated all but the final 24 days of Hutson’s term.
“She must’ve been like a walking, talking, eating, drinking crime machine,” McMahon scoffed. “Sheriff Hutson can’t answer that. She doesn’t know what she did. It’s impossible.”
Hendrix stood by the state’s accusations that Hutson committed “acts against Louisiana law” on each of the 1,437 days included in the scope of the indictment. She did not provide specifics, but promised “they were numerous, broad, vast, extensive, ongoing and varied.”
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