LIVINGSTON — The scheduled retrial of a woman accused of taking part in the videotaped sexual assault of an unconscious woman has been postponed while state prosecutors seek Supreme Court guidance on how certain evidence should be handled.

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal ruled last week that District Judge Brian Abels was wrong to say that he would clear the courtroom of the public and the media when the purported victim testifies. The defendant, Melanie Curtin, wants them to have access, saying an "open trial discourages perjury."

The retrial had been set to begin Monday. The attorney general's office said a new date will be set after the state Supreme Court rules and lawyers have a chance to meet with the judge.

Curtin was convicted in 2021, but the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal said the trial judge erred when he admitted evidence too prejudicial against the defendant, and rejected material that would have benefited her.

The state this fall had called the purported victim a "vulnerable witness" who should testify in secret, but the 1st Circuit said last week there was no "substantial reason" to clear the courtroom when she testified. Curtin says the purported victim's testimony will "unequivocally contradict" testimony from the original trial.

In the initial trial, the purported victim testified in open court but the public and the media were sent away as jurors watched a video of the sexual encounter.

Curtin was arrested amid the high-profile investigation into former Livingston Parish deputy Dennis Perkins. Perkins and his wife Cynthia were arrested in October 2019 and ultimately faced 150 counts alleging they raped two children and an adult, produced child pornography and served schoolchildren baked goods contaminated with a bodily fluid. 

Perkins was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of charges, and Cynthia Perkins was sentenced to 41 years. Curtin was sentenced to a life term in the sexual assault case.