re: Former Lafayette Mayor Josh Guillory arrested

Damn, I am assuming meth? That a rough fall in 5 years.

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Because St Martin’s ego and feelings got hurt and they are trying to drag him through the mud. I don’t have a dog in this fight from the outside St Martin looks pathetic to pull this crap.

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I respect your opinions on here most of the time but you and the other "he be witchhunt" posts are off target here.

Lafayette Consolidated Government executed a secret operation to unlawfully remove the spoil bank outside of the boundary of their parish after being denied local and federal permits to do so. All of it was intentionally done to allow excess Bayou Vermillion flood waters to flow into St Martin Parish instead of an uninhabited area of Lafayette Parish.

The Cypress Island community that was put at a higher risk of flooding due to this action already routinely floods due to excessive rainfall events and the subsequent high river levels. The area of Lafayette Parish that the spoil bank was moved to is basically a swamp and mostly undeveloped property with only a few landowners who have dry land on their parcels.

Basically in this instance, LCG just said "frick it" and performed the operation without publically bidding on the project to retain it's secrecy and screw St Martin Parish over regardless of the necessary approvals required. They even used a codename for the operation to keep from the public eye.

And for those who say just handle this in civil court, there already is an ongoing lawsuit currently in litigation. This was about pursuing the decisions of the Lafayette leaders who undertook this ill guided operation before statute of limitations expire.

The dirty politics actually is what the Lafayette DA did to dismiss and diminish the crimes of a political ally recently instead of make an impartial decision. I believe that the 16th JDC decision to pursue Guillory will eventually be thrown out, but that still doesn't make his actions right or St Martin Parish residents whole again.

I respected Josh Guillory's term and the things that he accomplished during it, but this fiasco is a black eye on his record.

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A St. Martin Parish grand jury indicted former Mayor-President Josh Guillory Thursday on four counts of malfeasance in office in connection with a covert drainage operation that cleared spoil banks along the Vermilion River.

With Guillory at the helm, Lafayette Consolidated Government carried out the project in February 2022, using barges to block the river while transferring spoil-bank levees from the St. Martin side to private property on the Lafayette side. The entire project was executed without the knowledge or consent of St. Martin Parish.

St. Martin Parish is one of three parishes in the 16th Judicial District, headed by District Attorney Michael Haik.

The indictment comes a week after 15th Judicial District Attorney Don Landry announced that his office would not pursue charges related to the rogue drainage project. A 12-page memo from Landry’s office declining to investigate or prosecute Guillory, a close political ally, surfaced unexpectedly, just days before the four-year statute of limitations expires.

Guillory, an attorney, was indicted on felony charges of removing spoil banks without a permit from St. Martin Parish, removing them without proper permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (two counts), and placing barges across the Vermilion River in violation of state law prohibiting obstruction of a highway of commerce.

Grand jurors heard two days of testimony from multiple witnesses to Guillory’s alleged crimes, including former St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars, ex-LCG Public Works Director Chad Nepveaux and former City-Parish Attorney Greg Logan. 

The former mayor-president was arrested and booked into the St. Martin Parish Correctional Center and released on a $30,000 bond.

“This indictment does not replace the spoil bank that was taken, which has always been my desire so that the Cypress Island community will not be subjected to any unnecessary peril,” Cedars tells The Current. “When this matter runs its course in the judicial system, I believe that the illegality of the surreptitious, furtive removal of the spoil banks will be confirmed on a number of fronts.”

The overnight drainage operation — known to only a handful of LCG officials and internally code named “Apollo” to keep it a secret — netted $3.7 million for LCG contractor Rigid Constructors and was authorized through a change order on a $390,000 “as-needed” excavation contract. Still, Landry’s office said in the memo there was no proof of anyone personally benefiting from the situation.

The project was even more costly for LCG, as it led to multiple lawsuits, including one filed by St. Martin Parish demanding that LCG restore, replace and reconstruct the spoil banks and alleging the project violated a St. Martin Parish ordinance. That lawsuit is ongoing.

Officials with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office also testified before the grand jury. 

In a report released in August, the LLA found that the Guillory administration likely violated federal, state and local ordinances in executing the drainage project. LCG’s own auditors also raised red flags about the project, and an LCG attorney concluded that it violated public bid law.

“LCG executed a public works project outside its jurisdiction, on land it did not fully own, without obtaining the required local and federal permits, and in potential violation of multiple state and federal laws,” the LLA report noted.

Guillory, who went on a public tirade against Legislative Auditor Michael Waguespack after the agency released its investigative audit findings, expressed a sense of vindication last week over Landry’s decision not to prosecute him. “I’m happy an independent agency reviewed the spoil bank project and found no criminal findings,” Guillory wrote in a social media post Friday morning of the DA’s memo.

Landry endorsed the one-term mayor-president in his reelection bid in 2023, personally signed off on expungement work Guillory performed while in office, and was the point of contact for council members when Guillory went to what he said was rehab for alcohol abuse and PTSD.

At District Attorney Haik’s request, the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office launched a months-long investigation into the LLA’s findings.

Guillory was defeated in his reelection bid by Monique Blanco Boulet, who ran on a platform of calling him corrupt. 

Landry’s decision to forgo any prosecution has raised questions about his prioritizing personal and political relationships over his law enforcement responsibilities. 

The 79-year-old is seeking re-election to a six-year term this fall and has one declared opponent, former 15th Judicial District Court Judge Kristian Earles. 

Cedars, the former St. Martin Parish president, has a message for anyone who views Thursday’s indictment as political.

“For six months, the prosecutorial authority for Lafayette Parish [did] nothing about the disclosures in [the] Legislative Auditor’s Investigative Audit Report,” he says, noting that Landry released his letter only after learning that a grand jury would be convened in St. Martin Parish.

That, Cedars maintains, is what was political.

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I’m most curious on whether this will affect the Lafayette DA race. Don Landry also has the Gary Haynes stain on his watch.

His appearance went from all-American salesmen to Russian war veteran look in just 5 years. :whoa:

That’s the look of multiple substances

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Lafayette moved the spoil bank materials from the St Martin Parish side of the bayou over to the Lafayette side.

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Sounds like a "can do" attitude to me.

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Why didn’t Lafayette just build their own levee / dirt pile?

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It would have required COE permits to be approved prior to construction. The Corps denied Lafayette's permits for the spoil bank removal and it would have likely been denied had they tried to build a higher "levee" instead on their side of the bayou so floodwaters would overtop the existing spoil bank. So Josh and conspirators hired a contractor under the table and did the "excavation" illegally during the dark of the night while nobody was looking.

Is this the spot in question? Right by the airport at where the Vermillion enters St. Martin Parish?

This is it in early 2022




This is it a year later in 2023

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He didn't do anything that he personally benefited from correct? He bent the rules or did something shady to push through something that was beneficial for his constituents?

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From what is known at this point, yes. That’s why it’s going to be interesting on whether a GJ in St. Martin can indict him for it.