Judge Ron Ware on Monday declined a request from prosecutors that he recuse himself from Sulphur businessman Joe Palermo’s legal proceedings.

Prosecutors asked Ware to remove himself from the case because a grand jury pondering racketeering and money laundering charges against Palermo reportedly wants to hear from Ware.

Calcasieu District Attorney John DeRosier said he could not reveal why the grand jury wants Ware to testify.

Prosecutor Carla Sigler said she intends to take the matter to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal. The case was stayed until the recusal motion is decided, thus canceling afternoon hearings set for nearly every day this week.

DeRosier has said in the past that the numerous motions filed by Palermo’s lawyers were a ploy to slow proceedings. This time, it was Palermo’s attorney’s accusing the District Attorney of the same thing.

“I think that the state was so desperate to avoid these hearings, because these hearings were all about the DA’s misconduct,” said Karl Koch, Palermo’s lead attorney. “So they attempted to throw some cloud around Judge Ware, which was a shame because he’s a good and honest man. I think that this business calling him in front of the grand jury is a bunch of nonsense and there’s nothing legitimate that they could possibly ask him.”

DeRosier responded to that allegation by saying “Most of the motions that the defense has filed are filed as a ploy to keep this case from going to trial or to keep the grand jury from reaching a decision, so I think I’ll answer that in the same fashion that (Koch) did. They don’t want to go to trial in this case, that’s why they brought in the grand jury that never, ever should have been considered by this court.”

In the motion to recuse, Sigler said that the grand jury’s wish to subpoena Ware is “legitimate.” Ware has “been made a fact witness by the defense” in its motions, Sigler wrote.

DeRosier said he has never had to subpoena a judge for a grand jury before but that he didn’t find it odd for a grand jury to call “anybody that they feel may have information relevant to what they’re investigating.”

Among Koch’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct is an allegation that DeRosier tried to “shake down” Palermo by having him pay a $5 million fine as part of a plea deal.” The defense has requested that the district attorney’s office be recused from the case.

While a plea deal between Palermo and the district attorney’s office (which did not come to fruition) once included a $1 million fine, DeRosier claimed the $5 million figure arose from a plea deal offered to Palermo by federal authorities before they decided the case was out of their jurisdiction. He said his office had no part in a number as high as $5 million.

“I have never asked them for five million dollars, never,” DeRosier said. “Whatever amount of money I asked for and thought they had agreed upon, was after negotiations with them over, not only the stolen equipment charges, but also the matters under investigation, as a global resolution. They at all times were aware of that.”

As all the hearings in the Palermo case have been, Monday’s hearing was contentious.

Before a judge can be subpoenaed, a hearing has to be held. Judge Robert Wyatt initially signed the order for a hearing, but on Monday reversed himself and vacated the order out of concern that he was “treading into Ware’s territory.”

That brought the hearing back to Ware, who said that it was “more appropriate” for another judge to hold the hearing and recused himself from the subpoena hearing only.

The deputy clerk of court randomly assigned the matter to Judge Clayton Davis.

(Rick Hickman/American Press)

Rick Hickman