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LIVINGSTON PARISH
AG sues Library Board
Griffin has questioned need for inoculations for children BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
Judicial District Court in Livingston Parish. In it, the attorney general requests that the board’s vote not to renew Parrish’s contract be invalidated due to the violations surrounding the action. The lawsuit also asks the court to impose civil penalties on any board member who knowingly and willfully violated the law, according to court records. “The Open Meetings Law is a statutory embodiment of a constitutional promise: that the public has the right to know, to observe and to participate in the actions of its government. The Livingston Parish Library Board of Control violated that promise,” Murrill’s lawsuit states. The board, through recently appointed
WASHINGTON — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed a Baton Rouge physician to the committee that recommends vaccination policies to the federal government — and she has repeatedly questioned COVID-19 vaccines and other inocula- Griffin tions for children. “I am very, very skeptical,” Dr. Evelyn Griffin said in 2024 while speaking to the congregation of the Rev. Tony Spell’s Life Tabernacle Church near Central City. “For a lot of us, the COVID experience has really opened our eyes. You know that I have a lot of concerns. One of those concerns, I would say, is about the COVID vaccine.” Spell became a face of resistance to then-Gov. John Bel Edward’s pandemic restrictions, defying orders to stop holding services and winning a court challenge against Edwards. Griffin told the congregation concerns about the COVID vaccine prompted her to study other vaccines: what they’re made of, how they’re doing, and how those vaccines got on the childhood vaccination schedule. “Many physicians, like myself, are seriously questioning the vaccine schedule,” she said. Griffin did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment. Kennedy tapped Griffin on Monday night to join the civilian Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommends vaccines and vaccination policies to the Centers for Disease Control
ä See LIBRARY, page 4A
ä See DOCTOR, page 6A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Livingston Parish Library Board President Jonathan Davis speaks during the board meeting on July 18.
Panel accused of violating open meetings law when it fired library system’s director in July BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Livingston Parish Library Board, alleging the board violated the open meetings law when it ousted the library system’s director in July. The attorney general’s lawsuit alleges the board, which includes Parish President Randy Delatte as ex officio and oversees the parish’s public library system, violated mandatory agenda requirements, misled the public and suppressed participation in public comment at its July 15 meeting. During the July 15 meeting, Delatte and a majority of board members voted not
to renew the contract of Library Director Michelle Parrish. The vote followed a two-hour executive session for Parrish’s annual evaluation, which the public initially was told would not result in any action. The meeting’s agenda also did not originally have an item to renew, or not renew, Parrish’s contract. Several Livingston Parish residents filed a formal complaint to the Attorney General’s Office after that meeting. “We’ve reviewed the open meetings law complaints concerning the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control and the response to it by the board, and concluded that a review by the court is appropriate,” Murrill said in a statement Tuesday. The legal petition was filed in the 21st
Longtime 21st Judicial District Attorney Perrilloux to retire BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer
Scott Perrilloux, longtime district attorney for the 21st Judicial District, is retiring after 30 years, saying he doesn’t plan to seek reelection in 2026. “It has been an honor and
privilege to serve those who live in the district and others who have needed the services of the District Attorney’s office,” Perrilloux said Tuesday in a news release. Perrilloux will have served as district attorney for three decades when he retires af-
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website. Perrilloux, a Hammond native, is in his fifth term in office. Before that, he served as city prosecutor and assistant city attorney for Hammond, assistant district attorney and judge pro tempore. The election for district at-
torney will be held in fall 2026. He will finish the current term, which ends on the second Sunday of 2027. Hillar Moore, who serves as district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish and the 19th
ä See RETIRE, page 4A Perrilloux
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ter first being elected in 1996. The judicial district includes Livingston, Tangipahoa and St. Helena parishes. The district is one of the largest in the state, and Perrilloux’s office has maintained a 90% or higher criminal conviction rate, according to his office’s
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