The legal battle between former Parish Attorney Mary Roper and the city-parish is getting expensive.
An item placed for consideration on the agenda of the next Metro Council meeting increases from $50,000 to $120,000 the council’s legal services contract with attorney Murphy J. Foster, who is representing the council in its legal battle against Roper. Since her termination in 2014, Roper and her husband, Eiad Odeh, have filed nine separate lawsuits over three different matters having to do with public records, defamation of character and wrongful termination.
Councilman John Delgado, who is not able to discuss the suits because he is a named defendant in one of them, says the issue strictly comes down to avoiding a conflict of interest.
“Because she is a former parish attorney, when she sued there was an inherent conflict of interest,” he says. “So we had to hire a private attorney and now we have to pay his bills.”
According to council documents, “the cap on that contract is set at $50,000 but legal fees have exceed that amount as the plaintiffs have filed a total of nine suits against the city-parish and the council. In order to pay the outstanding invoices and the anticipated billings in the next few months, it is necessary to amend the scope of the contract.”
Councilmember Chauna Banks-Daniels, one of Roper’s few supporters on the council, sent a group email to her fellow members in response to the agenda item space request, saying, “This could have been avoided.” However, she could not be reached for further comment as of this afternoon’s deadline.
Roper was fired in 2014, following questions about her job performance and allegations of the theft of in-house software.
—Stephanie Riegel
