Madison Brooks Ruling Bars Victim's Sexual History at Trial

BATON ROUGE, La. (KPEL News) — A Louisiana appeals court has ruled that defense attorneys cannot bring up the sexual history of Madison Brooks during the upcoming trial of the four men charged in her 2023 death, dealing a blow to a controversial legal strategy that critics say was meant to blame the victim.

The decision reinforces the state’s rape shield law and sets the stage for the high-profile trial later this year. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal sided with prosecutors, who argued that such information is not only irrelevant under Louisiana law but also highly prejudicial.

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State’s Rape Shield Law at Center of Controversy

The defense attorneys had previously filed motions to question Brooks’s past sexual experiences as part of their argument that the encounter was consensual. But Louisiana’s rape shield statute specifically prohibits the introduction of a victim’s sexual history unless it meets strict legal exceptions. The appellate judges determined this case did not.

Prosecutors have maintained from the beginning that Brooks, 19, was too intoxicated to consent to sex the night she was assaulted. After being dropped off on the side of the road in the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 2023, she was struck and killed by a rideshare vehicle.

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District Attorney: 'It Was the Right Call'

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said in a statement that the ruling “protects victims in the future and prevents unnecessary trauma to the family.” He praised the court for upholding the law and ensuring the focus remains on the actions of the defendants.

Defense attorneys, however, have expressed frustration with the ruling, claiming that the excluded evidence could have provided important context. They have not said whether they plan to appeal further.

A Pattern of Controversy: Judge Ray’s Judicial History Under Scrutiny

This isn’t the first time Judge Gail Horne Ray has come under fire for her decisions in cases involving sexual violence. Just weeks before she barred key testimony in the high-profile Madison Brooks case, the Louisiana Supreme Court publicly rebuked her for what it called a “grossly erroneous ruling” in a decades-old rape conviction.

In that case, Ray vacated the conviction of Donald Ray Link, a man found guilty of rape in 1972—despite the fact that Link’s attorneys were only before her court to ask about parole eligibility. The state's highest court wasted no time overturning her ruling and took the unusual step of criticizing her directly, calling her decision “retaliatory if not contemptuous in tone” and asserting that she had fashioned “an illegal remedy that even the defendant had not requested.”

That moment added fuel to long-standing criticism that Ray has a pattern of leniency when it comes to sexual assault cases. In 2022, she released a man accused of raping a preteen girl without notifying the victim or prosecutors, a move that stunned Baton Rouge DA Hillar Moore and others in the legal community.

Critics also point to her history as a defense attorney—decades before taking the bench—when she represented her own son after he was accused of multiple rapes in the mid-1990s. He eventually pleaded guilty to several of those charges.

What’s Ahead for the Defendants

With this legal hurdle behind them, prosecutors are expected to proceed toward trial, which could begin later this year. The four men — including at least one LSU student at the time — face charges ranging from third-degree rape to principal to rape in connection with Brooks’s death.

As the case moves forward, it will likely remain a focal point in both legal and political circles, particularly around issues of consent, sexual assault, and how Louisiana’s courts handle high-profile cases involving young victims.