The first of two vendors charged in a kickback scheme that stretched from the District Attorney's Office in Lafayette to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in Baton Rouge entered a guilty plea in federal court Friday, telling a judge he got "caught up in a situation I didn't really understand."
Joseph Prejean, 57, of Church Point, owner of C&A Consulting, was charged in November with one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government for allegedly conspiring with two employees of the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office to take kickbacks from defendants in the pretrial diversion program.
On Friday, he described his participation not as an agreement with Dusty Guidry, who worked via contract for District Attorney Don Landry's Office.
"It was a demand," Prejean said.
He faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised probation. Prejean was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Sentencing is set for March 14.
Details of the bribery scheme became public in March when Guidry entered a guilty plea, admitting he took $800,000 in kickbacks from vendors, including C&A Consulting, that provided services to defendants in the pretrial diversion program.
Under the scheme, Guidry and another public employee, thought to be Assistant District Attorney Gary Haynes, loosened requirements for entering the pretrial diversion program and directed defendants to cooperating vendors.
The defendants allegedly paid bribes as high as $25,000 to Prejean with the promise their record would show they successfully completed the program and their offense would be wiped from their criminal record. Prejean, Guidry and Haynes allegedly would split the money extorted from the defendant.
Haynes has not been charged. Guidry is awaiting sentencing in January.
In court Friday, Prejean, who said he has a sixth-grade education and some ability to read and write, said Guidry "had a way of looking out for me" when he worked with the pretrial diversion program. The only Black contractor, Prejean said he felt he had to give Guidry more money to get more work in order to take care of his family.
When the judge asked Prejean about two instances outlined in the bill of information where he allegedly took kickbacks of $20,000 and $25,000 from defendants in the pre-trial diversion program, Prejean said they had accrued multiple counts of DWI and had to pay to get into the diversion program.
"They shouldn't have been in to begin with," he said.
A second vendor has been charged for allegedly conspiring with Guidry and another public official in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Leonard Franques was charged Wednesday in a bill of information with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Franques is the owner of a company called DGL1 that had a contract with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Guidry, who was on the LDWF commission board, allegedly conspired with a LDWF employee, believed to be former Secretary Jack Montoucet, to take kickbacks from Franques in exchange for sending work to his company in the form of people seeking online hunter and boater education classes and those seeking to resolve LDWF violations, according to the bill of information.
Montoucet resigned as secretary of the LDWF on April 14, a day after The Advocate | The Times-Picayune identified him as the unnamed official described in Guidry’s guilty plea. Montoucet has not been charged.