Jury sides with Louisiana Supreme Court justice in rare defamation win for public official

A jury sided with Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes on Monday, finding a local newspaper and two former editors defamed him in a 2019 editorial.

The Iberville Parish jury awarded Hughes $300,000 in damages for an investigative editorial published in Baton Rouge-based newspaper, The Advocate, according to WWL Louisiana, a New Orleans-based CBS affiliate . The justice originally sought $10 million in damages for the piece, which highlighted a custody battle that took place 20 years prior to the editorial’s publication. The custody battle sparked an FBI probe into Hughes and his handling of the case as a Livingston Parish district judge in the late 1990s.

Hughes’s win suggests the justice was able to prove the outlet acted with “actual malice,” a legal standard of proof needed in defamation cases where a public figure is the defendant. The standard is difficult to meet , as it places the legal burden on the plaintiff to show a respondent either knew a statement was false or recklessly failed to verify it.

“We are pleased that justice was served and Jeff was able to clear his name from this unfortunate defamation,” an attorney for Hughes said following the ruling, as reported by WWL Louisiana.

The case stemmed from a joint investigation by The Advocate and WWL Louisiana with the headline, “Our Views: Before Jeff Hughes landed on Louisiana Supreme Court, he made a mockery of justice.”

The editorial stated that Hughes failed to recuse himself from an abuse-related custody case in the late 1990s. The paper went on to argue that the move was a conflict of interest, alleging he was “romantically involved” with Berkley Durbin — a lawyer for the child’s mother — during these proceedings. At the time, he was acting as a state judge.

Hughes argued this timeline was inaccurate, adding that it “took years” for The Advocate to issue a clarification.

“This editorial has been revised to clarify that the attorney Judge Jeff Hughes was dating withdrew before he made his final ruling in the Nicholson custody case,” a later editor’s note clarified.

The investigation also mentioned a 2004 FBI probe into Hughes’s potential conflict of interest in the custody case. The agency uncovered a letter the judge wrote to the child’s grandmother — who had been on the other side of the custody battle with the child’s mother — where Hughes “appeared to apologize for his conduct.”

In the note, Hughes reportedly wrote that “because of my actions, justice suffered. For this, I am deeply remorseful.”

During the last day of arguments, WWL Louisiana reported that former editorial board member Danny Heitman said he did everything he could to ensure the editorial’s accuracy.