re: Bogalusa Mayor Tyrin Truong has been arrested

I would think AG Murrill would triple check before the arrest of a high profile individual. I’ll take her track record for competence over his lol

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Bogalusa won’t be any more than what it is as long as a paper mill is in the middle of town.

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Are you being serious? The paper mill and Walmart are practically the only things preventing Bogalusa from turning into full-blown Mogadishu.

Losing the mill might hurt in the beginning but would work itself out in the end, especially with this new highway coming. There are plenty of nice residential areas all around eastern WP that aren’t expensive and will be a stones throw from everything in St Tammany.

Update:

he has posted a gofundme on his mayoral fb page for his legal defense

Dude is 25 years old and already grifting from his "people"

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Could be more of a Lacombe effect, locals so crazy and trashy it scares off development and progress.

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I have kids and grandkids on the northshore. I have this strange self destructive desire to move to Lacombe and become a town fixture.

He's a politician, so sociopath is the way to bet

I heard there was some type of Prostitution ring going on at the mill
Probably connected

Already been gadooshed

Nola.com

In his first interview with a reporter since his Jan. 7 arrest, Bogalusa Mayor Tyrin Truong said Tuesday he believes his arrest was "politically motivated" because as mayor he has sought to upend the status quo in the Washington Parish city.

"The charges are not true. Anybody that knows me, knows that I'm not a drug dealer," he said by phone. 
Louisiana State Police arrested Truong, 25, on counts of transactions involving proceeds from drug offenses, unauthorized use of a movable, and soliciting for prostitutes. He was released later that night from Washington Parish Jail in Franklinton after posting a $150,000 bond.

On the day of the arrest, Northshore District Attorney Collin Sims said Truong allegedly "organized entertainment with a prostitute" at an Airbnb in Atlanta, where he was attending a mayor's conference. Sims said Truong arranged the alleged Atlanta “entertainment” while still in Louisiana. Sims also accused Truong of purchasing drugs in Louisiana. 

"No, I did not. That's not true," Truong said of the solicitation charge.
State Police have refused to share the initial report of Truong's arrest in response to a records request, citing an ongoing investigation. Truong said he is working to secure legal counsel. Some supporters started an online fundraiser to help him pay for legal fees. It had $4,204 as of Tuesday.

When Truong became mayor in 2022 at 23 years old, he was the city's first Black male mayor, the youngest mayor in Bogalusa history and tied for the youngest in Louisiana state history. 
"What's not lost on me in American politics and Louisiana politics and Bogalusa politics is the fact that there is a clear pattern of when minorities receive representation, it's always attacked," he said. 

“Our leadership has been focused on making the quality of life better for the average Bogalusan," he said. He said he has put more police on the streets to reduce crime, revitalized some of Bogalusa's parks and hosted a mayor's camp for youth over the summer. 
"He was not the target of the investigation,” Sims said by phone on Tuesday, saying the investigation was conducted by multiple agencies and led by State Police. "His involvement was not anticipated."

Fiscal administrator

Truong said his bigger concern is the possible appointment of a fiscal administrator to take control of the city's finances — the second in six years. 
The state Fiscal Review Committee in January recommended a fiscal administrator take control of Bogalusa's troubled finances. The city owed over $1 million to the IRS, the state Legislative Auditor's office found, and did not have enough revenue to cover its expenditures. The city also has not completed its 2022 audit, which is preventing it from completing the 2023 or 2024 annual audits and stopping it from accessing state funding.

Truong initially expressed support of the appointment of a fiscal administrator, saying the city needed a "neutral third party" to help the administration achieve its goals. The mayor has frequently clashed with the City Council over the city's budget. 
But on Tuesday, Truong said he changed his mind after the state recommended Robert Neilson, an accountant with offices in Bogalusa and Covington, to serve as fiscal administrator.

Neilson was the city's auditor for years until Truong took over in 2022, when Truong said he "fired" Neilson. Neilson, meanwhile, said his firm was initially going to serve as auditor for Truong, but withdrew from the 2022 audit because bookkeeping was “chaos" under Truong.
Truong said he believes Neilson's previous work for the city poses a conflict of interest. Neilson disagreed, saying the state recommended him for the job because he knows the city's finances well. 

“When [Truong] found out it was me, he started kicking because he knows, ‘Here comes the rain,'" Neilson said Tuesday. "I am going to work with the City Council and the mayor, if that's possible." 
A state judge will decide who serves as fiscal administrator on Friday. Truong said he tried and failed to convince the City Council to hire legal representation for him for that court hearing. He said the city attorney cannot serve because the city attorney represents both the mayor and the council, who disagree on whether the fiscal administrator should be appointed.

"You have a young Black mayor who has consistently tried to clean historical problems up in the city and we're on the verge of being stripped of power by the same people who caused the city to be in the place it was in the first place," Truong said.
Truong said he plans to present his case to the judge on Friday without legal representation. "It is a very polarized environment, but that’s nothing new in the city of Bogalusa."