AP Wire

Court refuses to reverse judge’s removal from Ackal case

by The Associated Press

A federal appeals court has refused to reverse a judge's mysterious removal from the Justice Department's high-profile case against a south Louisiana sheriff.

Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal argued that U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi's removal from his case in March violated court rules and apparently was done without her consent.

But in a one-sentence order Thursday, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Ackal's requests to have the case transferred back to Minaldi and to move his trial from Shreveport to Lafayette.

Chief Judge Dee Drell, of the Western District of Louisiana, hasn't explained why he reassigned Ackal's case to U.S. District Judge Donald Walter.

Ackal has pleaded not guilty to civil rights violations over the alleged beatings of jail inmates.