NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – It has been 18 yrs considering that Marlin Gusman required a new working day job. But in one of the very first indications of how the outgoing Orleans Parish sheriff options to commit time immediately after his substitution is sworn in up coming month, Gusman has enrolled as an lawyer concerned in the ownership battle for the historic Carver Theater.
Court docket documents display Gusman has signed on to characterize Kristen “Weezie” Melancon, a New Orleans-born producer and screenwriter who is 1 of three central figures locked in a legal struggle for control of the Treme landmark theater at 2101 Orleans Ave.
Now symbolizing Melancon’s passions is the regional Rodrigue & Arcuri Regulation Group, whose principal lawyers Laura Rodrigue and Blake Arcuri have served as in-residence counsel to Gusman’s OPSO.
The tug-of-war for possession of the historic theater has been pretty much deadlocked for far more than 3 many years, right until Orleans Parish Civil District Court Choose Kern Reese late previous week purchased the get-togethers to settle their dispute by arbitration. Gusman will be included in that ongoing energy.
Melancon headed a revival task involving the Crest Theater in Los Angeles, and envisioned a similar long term in Treme that would revamp the 72-calendar year-aged Carver Theater and acquire six encompassing homes into a cultural middle with dining, artistic studios and places of work.
In 2018, Melancon introduced jointly longtime Carver house operator Eugene Oppman and Hollywood film producer Bob Yari, with whom she experienced worked in Los Angeles on the Crest Theater undertaking. The trio agreed on a joint venture on the Treme property, but the partnership shortly devolved into dueling lawsuits.
Yari has sought to foreclose on the property just after acquiring extra than $5.5 million in loans on which Oppman allegedly defaulted. Oppman has countersued, accusing his former partners of breach of deal.
Gusman, who was defeated in a re-election bid final December by previous impartial police check Susan Hutson, has just four months remaining in his fourth term as sheriff. Hutson is to be sworn in on Might 2.
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