New Orleans Judge Jennifer Medley, who signed the LaToya Cantrell recall petition before approving a settlement that made it easier for organizers to force a referendum on the mayor, has asked the state Supreme Court to appoint an ad hoc judge to settle whether she should be recused from the case.
In an order signed Friday, Medley said she was "confident that any judicial duties performed in this proceeding have been and would be performed without bias or prejudice to any party."
However, she added, out of an "abundance of caution," she was asking the high court to tap another judge to decide whether she erred in presiding over the case.
State law requires judges to either recuse themselves or refer a recusal request to another jurist if a party in a case has filed a motion alleging "a valid ground" for recusal.
Medley, who sits on the Orleans Parish Civil District Court bench, oversaw a lawsuit from recall organizers against Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin over the size of the active voter list in New Orleans.
After Medley sided with recall organizers on several key procedural questions, Ardoin agreed to a settlement that lowered the bar on the recall campaign by 5,000 signatures.
Medley signed off on the settlement on March 1 without revealing to the parties in the case that she had signed the recall petition in December.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell has sued Ardoin and the recall's leaders over what she calls a "back room deal."
Medley's order came in response to a motion to intervene in the original lawsuit from recall organizers by the nonprofit group VOTE. That group has asked for the settlement between recall organizers and Ardoin to be thrown out as patently illegal, and for another judge to be appointed to consider their request.
The legal maneuvering in the case comes as Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson counts recall signatures ahead of a March 22 deadline. Recall organizers have refused to disclose how many signatures they have collected.