Nugent v . Phelps 816 So.2d 349 816 So.2d 349, 36,366 (La.App. 2 Cir. 4/23/02) (Cite as: 816 So.2d 349, 36,366 (La.App. 2 Cir. 4/23/02)) to request any special instructions or object to statute as read. LSA-R.S. 14:119. [6] Elections 239 144k239 Most Cited Cases Votes of three potential voters did not have to be counted in election on ground that voters were in jail when election took place because the district attorney supported successful candidate, as arrests were the result of grand jury indictments, not arrests ordered by the district attorney, and election challenger had not proven a scheme by district attorney, which would have included district judge and grand jury. *350 Edward Larvadain, Jr., Belle Rose, Counsel for Plaintiffs-Appellants. Stephen D. Hawkland, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Defendant-Appellee, Fox McKeithen. Bobby L. Culpepper, Jonesboro, Martin Smith Sanders, Winnfield, III, Counsel for Defendant-Appellee, Benji Phelps. Michael Sean Walsh, Juliet E. Thompson Rizzo, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Defendant-Appellee, Suzanne HaikTerrell. Before NORRIS, BROWN, STEWART, GASKINS and KOSTELKA, JJ. *351**1 NORRIS, Chief Judge. In this election contest case, the plaintiffs sought to have the April 6, 2002 election for Winnfield Police Chief nullified and a new election held. Plaintiffs asserted numerous irregularities and unlawful activities by defendant, Benji Phelps, and his supporters. However, plaintiffs Johnny Ray Carpenter, Doris Abrams, and Shelia White were dismissed early in the action pursuant to exceptions of no right of action because the court concluded that under La. R.S. 18:1401 B only the losing candidate is a proper plaintiff to challenge the election results. Only plaintiff Gleason Nugent, the incumbent Police Chief who lost the election by a margin of four votes, was held to be a proper plaintiff. This was not challenged on appeal. At the end of Nugent's case, the trial court granted an involuntary dismissal [FN1] of Nugent's suit, and this appeal followed. For the reasons set Page 2 forth below, we affirm the trial court's judgment. FN1. The dismissal was erroneously referred to as a "directed verdict," but the matter was not tried by jury. FACTS The following is a summary of the factual allegations of the plaintiffs' petition: Carpenter, Abrams, and White supported Nugent for Police Chief, and if free on election day, they would have gotten enough votes to get Nugent reelected. On the other hand, Terry Reeves, the District Attorney for Winn Parish, supported Mayor Deano Thornton and Benji Phelps who were working as a team to be elected to the positions of Mayor and Police Chief, respectively. Reeves, as D.A. rules Winn Parish through "fear and terror." In the past, Shelia White had gotten along with Reeves who, along with Thornton, had got her the job of Executive Director of the Winnfield Housing Authority (WHA). However, Reeves' behavior toward White drastically changed when she refused to write a $100,000 check on WHA funds as a donation to the city in connection with the building of a **2 community center. Subsequently, she was "terrorized" by Assistant District Attorney James Lewis to "break her" so that she would favor the donation. Reeves, through Lewis, empaneled a grand jury to investigate the way White was operating the WHA. On June 4, 2001 she received a subpoena to produce all her records before a grand jury, but after taking the records to the jury and waiting four hours, she was told she could go home and take the records with her. Reeves sent an investigator to the WHA who investigated the records for more than seven months. White was subpoenaed again on January 29, 2002 to produce documents she already had produced. On February 8, 2002, Reeves' office issued another subpoena ordering document production. White also produced these documents, but still would not write the $100,000 check. As election day was approaching, Reeves had Lewis issue subpoenas to the plaintiffs, ordering them to appear before a grand jury during the week of the election, thus preventing them from campaigning. The cases against the © 2006 Thomson/West. No Claim to Orig. U.S. Govt. Works. 345