Jury Acquits Murphy Painter In Fraud Case

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Former state Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Murphy Painter has been acquitted in a fraud case.

The Advocate reports that Painter mouthed the words "thank you" after the jury found him not guilty on Friday in federal court in Baton Rouge.

He was fighting counts of computer fraud, false statements and aggravated identity theft.

He is alleged to have used confidential federal and state law enforcement databases to gather information about people unrelated to any criminal investigations.

Defense attorneys Michael Fawer and Al J. Robert Jr. called witnesses Wednesday who supported Painter's pretrial allegation that several members of his ATC staff had access to his office and computer passwords.