PORT ALLEN — A West Baton Rouge judge Tuesday kicked a Port Allen city council candidate off the November ballot, ruling that he did not meet the one-year residency requirement for office-holders.

April King had sued her opponent, Shelton Berry, saying he was not eligible to run. Judge Elizabeth Engolio agreed; the decision leaves King as the only candidate for the District IV seat.

Berry said in an interview with WBRZ on Tuesday that he has lived in Port Allen all his life, leaving only for military service and a temporary re-location. He says he's always considered Port Allen his domicile and that he was eligible to run. In testimony, he acknowledged that he voted in East Baton Rouge Parish last November.

Berry, an independent, and King, a Democrat, filed to replace Brandon Brown, whose term expires at the end of the year. Brown is a Democrat.

A separate hearing is scheduled Wednesday on a challenge to the candidacy of mayoral candidate Lance Joseph. He says he lives in Port Allen while his wife lives in a Plaquemine home where he enjoys a homestead exemption on his property taxes. Local resident Regina Rizzutto has challenged his candidacy.

And a challenge was being heard Tuesday in East Baton Rouge Parish against two Supreme Court District 2 candidates. Elise Knowles Collins says 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Marcus Hunter and Louisiana Housing Commission Chief of Staff Leslie Chambers aren't eligible for the race. 

Collins' suit says Chambers doesn't live in the newly redrawn District 2. According to property records, Chambers owns a home in Prairieville and has used her Ascension Parish address on campaign records on multiple occasions.

Louisiana requires candidates to live in districts they seek to represent, but the exact definition of residency is not always clear. Courts often interpret the law generously, encouraging candidates to run for office. In the past, courts have allowed candidates to run in redrawn districts.

The issue came up because Ascension Parish not being in the Supreme Court’s 2nd District before the new map took effect, having previously been in the court’s 5th District along with East Baton Rouge and six other parishes. State lawmakers this year redrew the judicial boundaries to carve out a second majority-Black voting district for the seven-member court, which includes 17 parishes from Iberville Parish to Monroe.

The suit also alleges Hunter hasn't filed state income tax returns in three of the last five years, despite saying he did when filing his candidacy for the election.

Chambers' defense centers on whether she became an “orphaned candidate” when the districts were redrawn, noting that her connections within East Baton Rouge Parish when it was part of District 5 with her residency in Ascension Parish. Ascension Parish is now within District 6, while she is running for a judgeship in Baton Rouge’s District 2.

Chambers, who has never resided in District 2 even before the redrawing of lines, has never run for or held public office before her current bid for judgeship.

Prosecutors argued that she “still has the ability to run in District 6 when that vacancy occurs,” and that running in District 2 should not be allowed.

Arguments also strayed into whether or not Chambers properly filed her 2022 income taxes electronically to legally qualify for the election at all. If she had not filed her taxes properly, her candidacy could be thrown out for providing a false certification.