BATON ROUGE, La. (Legal Newsline) - Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry was wrong to try to transfer a wrongful demotion lawsuit against his office to federal court and will have to pay the attorney fees incurred by the plaintiff.
That's the ruling of the federal court in Baton Rouge, which on Sept. 30 ruled for Matthew Derbes and sent his case back to where he first filed it - East Baton Rouge state court. Judge Shelly Dick also awarded him $2,312.50 in fees racked up fighting Landry's removal to her court.
"When this case was first removed, Plaintiff’s state court petition explicitly reserved the right to assert a Title VII claim (under the federal Civil Rights Act)," Dick wrote.
"This language alone makes it clear that the Plaintiff was not asserting a Title VII in the petition. The Plaintiff’s allegations make clear that Plaintiff was only asserting state law claims.
"Moreover, the very cases upon which Defendant relies in its opposition to the motion to remand should have informed the Defendant that there was no federal jurisdiction."
According to the lawsuit, in October 2006, Derbes was hired to be an assistant attorney general under former AG Charles Foti. By 2018, Derbes had become Deputy Director of the Criminal Division.
In 2020, Derbes noticed that treatment for serious criminals was more lenient and women in the office began complaining about sexual harassment, the suit says.
In 2021, Derbes was demoted due to retaliation after a false document was released that accused Derbes of lying and filing false public records and sexual harassment complaints, the suit says.