Anticipation is building ahead of the latest court battle to decide who will serve as the next sheriff in Caddo Parish. The Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport will hear arguments from the legal teams representing Democrat Henry Whitehorn and Republican John Nickelson.
At this stage in the legal process, there will be no more new evidence or witnesses presented. Instead, the five judge appeals panel will hear each side’s arguments – and ask their own questions, in some cases lots of questions.
Shreveport attorney and political analyst Royal Alexander says there are a number of potential outcomes from this hearing. If the appeals court sides with Whitehorn, “That’s going to be interesting, because then you will have two different courts drawing two different conclusions.” And Alexander surmises, “I think if that’s the case, I think the Louisiana Supreme Court would most likely hear it. If the appeals court affirms the district court, the Supreme Court may leave it alone.”
Unlike the all-day trial on November 30th, this is not expected to take an entire day. The appeals court hearing begins at 11:00 a.m. in downtown Shreveport. Then, a ruling is expected to come on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The legal challenges all began after Nickelson lost to Democrat Henry Whitehorn by just a single vote. Nickelson did point out a number of irregularities in the election. So, after a partial recount resulted in the very same one-vote margin, Nickelson filed his lawsuit.
In Judge Bleich’s ruling he wrote that it “defies logic” to determine who won. In all, Bleich identified 11 votes that he says were never votes in the first place and should never have been part of the vote count. That’s when the judge called for a new election, expected to take place in the Louisiana Primary election March 23.
