UPDATE: The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal on Wednesday denied the stay and writ requested in this case. Judges said they were limited in what they could review and directed the parties to return to the District Court level in Baton Rouge.

BATON ROUGE - A potential conflict of interest arose in a case against two people where a caretaker was accused of naming herself in a will without consent, according to a writ filed Friday.

A writ filed by representatives of Beth Claybourn, whose late husband's will was allegedly altered by his caretaker, Melba Braud, alleges a defense lawyer in the case also represented presiding Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts in a separate case while trial for the succession case took place.

The Investigative Unit previously reported that Braud and Maria Finley, Braud's lawyer, were accused of cruelty to the infirm. A grand jury formally accused Braud of creating power of attorney without the consent of Garrett Claybourn, whoM the family says was battling dementia. The indictment also alleged she named herself in a will without consent and spent Claybourn's money without his consent.

The grand jury pretermitted on the accusations against Finley, opting against charges against her.

The will that was drafted listed Braud as the beneficiary to the couple's $2 million Destin condominium, all of his stocks and bank accounts, all of his guns, and half of his stake in his wife's interior design business, Beth Claybourn Interiors.

According to a writ filed by Claybourn's lawyers, Finley's representation did not disclose that they also represented Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts in an unrelated investigation by the Louisiana Judiciary Commission.

The Louisiana Judiciary Commission reportedly found that an advertisement Foxworth-Roberts ran in 2020 potentially falsified her military records and her nursing records.

The writ alleged a lawyer for the defense, Dane Ciolino, enrolled as counsel of record for Foxworth-Roberts in a disciplinary investigation on April 8, 2024, which took place at the same time of Finley's trial. Since the disclosure was mandatory, the failure to disclose would require every ruling by Foxworth-Roberts to be vacated, according to the writ.

Sources say the state has dismissed the criminal case against Braud. Claybourn's legal team asked the court to render judgement on validating a previous will and remanding the case to a different division of the 19th JDC.