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Lawyer for man accused of raping Madison Brooks committed contempt, judge decides

38 minutes ago Monday, October 19 2026 Oct 19, 2026 October 19, 2026 9:01 PM October 19, 2026 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - The judge presiding over the Madison Brooks rape trial decided Monday to admonish a lawyer representing one of the men accused for including the victim's full name in a court filing over the summer. 

Caitlin Fowlkes, an attorney for 21-year-old Desmond Carter, included Brooks' full name in exhibits attached to a July motion asking the judge to bar trial spectators from wearing pink. 

Carter was 17 when he was taken into custody for Brooks' rape. On the night she died, Brooks was drinking at Reggie's Bar in Tigerland and left the area with Carter, Kaivon Washington, Casen Carver and Everett Lee. Police say Carver drove the group to a parking lot where Carter and Washington had sex with Brooks.

The men told officers that Brooks then requested to go home and gave the group multiple wrong addresses before she asked to be dropped off at the front of the Pelican Lakes subdivision, where she wandered onto Burbank Drive and in front of a car. A coroner's report said Brooks' BAC was .319 and she had physical injuries consistent with rape when she died. 

Fowlkes argued that Brooks’ family and friends wearing pink in the courtroom would prejudice her client and intimidate the jury. Copies of social media messages from Brooks' mother asking people to show up in pink were included in the record, which was not filed under seal. 

According to state law, legal filings cannot include the names of victims of sex crimes. Instead, initials are used in their place, and full names should be redacted. 

Judge Gail Horne Ray previously decided that spectators can wear pink, and on Monday ruled that Fowlkes committed contempt for not redacting the attachments, but was not formally punished. 

Carter's trial is scheduled for Dec. 7. 

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