NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the state's request to keep the public out of the courtroom after a woman is called to testify about a sexual assault that she says occurred while she was unconscious.

In a 6-0 decision, justices upheld a decision by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal. Judges ruled two weeks ago that a lower court had abused its discretion by closing the courtroom, declaring there was not a "substantial reason for excluding the public from the courtroom during the adult victim's testimony."

Melanie Curtin's retrial had been scheduled to start last week but was delayed while the state sought again to shutter the courtroom. At a previous trial, the media and public were barred from the courtroom when the videotape of the purported assault was played for jurors. That might still occur in Curtin's second trial, but not during testimony.

Justices also ruled against the state as it sought limits on other evidence Curtin's lawyers want to show jurors. 

Judge Brian Abels had agreed to clear the court despite Curtin's lawyers wanting to grant full access. They argued in court papers that an "open trial discourages perjury."

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

This fall, the state identified the purported victim as a "vulnerable witness" who should be allowed to testify in secret. Curtin says evidence from the new trial will "unequivocally contradict" that offered in the original trial.

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 is serving 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.