NOLA judge’s father in ethics case also got loan | Courts

While Judge Jennifer Medley is scheduled to answer questions at a September ethics hearing regarding a $100,000 loan she received from garbage magnate Sidney Torres IV, documents show Torres made another loan to Medley’s father around the same time.

Two days after Medley won a 2020 seat on the Orleans Parish Civil District Court bench in a campaign heavily backed by Torres against former Judge Christopher Bruno, Torres’ IV Capital LLC made a $75,000 loan to retired Judge Lloyd J. Medley Jr., Medley’s father and the chairman of her campaign committee.

At the time, Jennifer Medley was more than $72,000 in campaign debt, campaign finance reports show. More than half of that — about $42,700 — was owed to Torres’ other company, which produced campaign ads for her.

Campaign records show she eventually paid off her debt to Torres.

No one involved would explain the purpose of the loan to the elder Medley or whether it had been repaid. Asked in a telephone interview, Lloyd Medley said, “I won’t comment.” Torres also declined to answer specific questions.

“We are in the business of lending money,” Torres said in a brief statement, noting that his company was founded nearly a decade before the loan was made. “IV Capital does not discuss any specifics about any account without written authorization from a client.”

Jennifer Medley did not respond to messages left at her office and by email. Her attorney did not respond either.

It’s unclear whether the Louisiana Judiciary Commission, which brought misconduct charges against Jennifer Medley related to her 2020 campaign, is aware of the second loan made to the judge’s father. It is not part of the judicial misconduct case against her pending before the commission.

According to Orleans Parish land records, Lloyd Medley’s home in Gentilly was used as collateral.

Land records also show that Torres’ company filed a motion to cancel the loan to Jennifer Medley in December 2021, which stated the loan had been paid off. There is no indication in land records that Lloyd Medley’s loan was canceled.

A spokesman for the Judiciary Committee, which operates in secret, said the agency cannot comment on pending cases.

Clare Roubion, an attorney who represented the justices before the commission, said the state’s judicial canons do not apply to Lloyd Medley because he is no longer a judge. He was defeated in a 2014 reelection bid after 18 years as a judge.

But the loan to Jennifer Medley’s father could fall into an ethical gray area because judges cannot accept donations directly and must direct all political activity to campaign committees, Roubion said.

If the money given to Lloyd Medley had gone to Jennifer Medley’s campaign, Roubion said, there could have been ethical issues in court.

Jennifer Medley has already been accused of “willful misconduct” by the Judiciary Committee, which filed a formal charge in late May accusing her of approving ads attacking Bruno that contained false or unsubstantiated allegations.

The commission also alleges that she tried to circumvent campaign contribution limits by accepting a $100,000 loan from Torres’ company, which she deposited into her campaign account.

In response to the allegations, Jennifer Medley said she had paid Torres back $100,000 and added that her inexperience as a political candidate partially contributed to her stumbles.

Jennifer Medley, who is currently halfway through a six-year term, is making her first run in 2020 with the overwhelming support of Torres, who lost a legal battle in Bruno’s court over control of a commercial property on Frenchmen Street.

In one of Medley’s campaign ads, a woman who said she was a rape victim said Bruno undermined her credibility in court, claims that a watchdog committee later found to be unsubstantiated. A second ad described Bruno as an “irresponsible father” and claimed he did not pay child support.

Bruno obtained a court order barring the ad from airing, and an appeals court later found that Medley knew the ad was false or that she “at least acted with reckless disregard for whether her statements in the ad were false.”

Also at issue was a $100,000 loan Medley accepted from Torres in September 2020 that the commission says Medley falsely claimed was for property renovations.

The same day the loan was reported, Medley lent her campaign $85,000. The following week, she lent her campaign another $15,000.

Medley also made news in 2023 when it was revealed she had approved a settlement that lowered the bar for Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s recall without disclosing that she had signed the recall petition. She later asked the state Supreme Court to rule on whether she should be removed from the case.

Despite Medley’s decision, the appeal to dismiss was rejected by a large majority.