[StBernard] MRGO MURDER CASE

[Westley Annis]

Found this snippet on an engine search


 


Lawyer calls talk of murder out of line 

 
 
9.28.2002
Chalmette lawyer J. Wayne Mumphrey, who is eyeing a state Senate run, is finding himself talking about something he didn't want discussed.
It involves the unsolved 1981 death of Valerie Randazzo, 37, whose body was found in February 1981 in the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet in New Orleans, near the St. Bernard Parish line.
In October 1984, Mumphrey voluntarily appeared before a federal grand jury investigating Randazzo's death and told jurors he wasn't involved in her murder. No one has ever been charged in connection with Randazzo's death despite investigations by New Orleans police, the FBI and St. Bernard authorities.
Mumphrey, who once served as a state district judge on a temporary basis in St. Bernard, acknowledges he told current judge candidate Sharon Williams and district attorney candidate Edgar Quillin that he will sue them for defamation if they say or imply he is connected to the investigation of Randazzo's death.
Quillin mentioned the Randazzo case during a recent candidates' forum, saying that if he is elected district attorney he will start a St. Bernard grand jury investigation into the woman's death. Quillin never mentioned Mumphrey at the forum.
Mumphrey alleges Williams is behind a resurgence of gossip about the case that's recently appeared on a local Internet forum -- a fact that Williams denies.
"I have no connection" to Randazzo's death, Mumphrey said this week. "If they (Williams or Quillin) insinuate anything else, it will cost somebody money."
Both Williams and Quillin said this week that they were approached by lawyer Keith Couture who said he represented Mumphrey and conveyed the message to them they would be sued if they didn't watch what they said.
"I was very surprised. I really didn't have any idea that what I said at the forum would be controversial," Quillin said, adding that he hasn't confronted Mumphrey about the lawsuit threat. "I just blew it off," he said.
Williams said she's never mentioned Mumphrey -- except to an old friend who told her that Mumphrey might be running for the state Senate seat now held by Lynn Dean.
"I said, ‘He's got to be nuts, because all the other stuff would come up when he puts his hat in the ring,' " she said.