BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge judge ruled in favor of critics publishing stories accusing the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council of improper spending of an Entergy franchise fee, The Advocate reported.

The publications in question, with one being owned by Baton Rouge Republican Woody Jenkins, are tied to the same group of plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the council in December.

The initial lawsuit said the funds from the franchise fee were earmarked for crime prevention and community centers, but they were used for sponsorships, donations, events, and payments to private entities lacking public-purpose agreements.

City-parish attorneys attempted to get the court to bar the publications from making "false statements" about the fee, saying the publications are attempting to try the case in the media and threatened to create bias in future jurors.

Judge Johnell Matthews denied the attorneys' protective order, which sought to limit statements made by the plaintiff's publications while the case remains open.