ORLEANS PARISH, La. ( Louisiana Illuminator ) - Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson successfully argued Friday that she shouldn’t have to pay the full fine for missing a campaign reporting deadline because her attorney was incarcerated at the time.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics voted to reduce Hutson’s fine for filing the annual report for the Orleans Jedi Guardian political action committee, where she is the chairperson, three weeks late earlier this year.

Her original fine was $2,800, but the board lowered it to $500. The ethics board staff had recommended that the fine, at a minimum, be reduced to $2,000, according to board documents .

The board was apparently swayed by Hutson’s explanation that she didn’t realize the PAC’s attorney, Jimmy Burland, was behind bars and couldn

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