Assistant District Attorney and Lafayette city prosecutor Gary Haynes has been indicted on federal charges stemming from a kickback scheme that allegedly went on for several years in the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office, federal prosecutors said.
Haynes, 66, of Lafayette, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday in the U.S. Western District of Louisiana in Lafayette and charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, using his cellphone in furtherance of bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice.
If convicted, he faces up to 65 years in prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Lafayette.
Haynes' attorney, Todd Clemons had no comment Wednesday evening.
He remains on administrative leave from the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office, according to DA Don Landry.
Haynes was rumored to be a target in the federal investigation after the March 2023 guilty plea of Dusty Guidry of Youngsville. Guidry worked in the pretrial diversion programs for the district attorneys in Lafayette and Baton Rouge and was a gubernatorial appointee to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.
Guidry's guilty plea described public official No. 1 as an employee and agent of the District Attorney's Office of the 15th Judicial District, which includes Lafayette, Acadia and Vermilion parishes. Haynes was believed to be public official No. 1. Wednesday's indictment confirms it.
Haynes, according to the news release, conspired with Guidry, Acadiana businessman Leonard Franques and others to solicit bribes and kickbacks while he was an assistant district attorney in the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
According to the indictment, Haynes oversaw the pretrial intervention program that offered an alternative to criminal prosecution for some criminal offenders.
Haynes allegedly decided who would participate in the program and directed defendants to take classes from Franques’ companies, which they had to pay for. The criminal charges against them were dismissed by Haynes.
The indictment alleges that Haynes, Guidry and Franques agreed that Haynes would receive kickbacks in exchange for accepting people into the program and directing them to Franques’ companies, the news release states.
Haynes and his co-conspirators also allegedly discussed ways to conceal the source of the money that Haynes would receive from the kickback scheme, the indictment alleges, including having Haynes reactivate a defunct company.
Finally, according to the news release, Haynes directed a co-conspirator to alter, destroy and conceal documents and records, allegedly to prevent them from being used in future court proceedings.
Court documents, interviews and other federal records indicate that federal authorities had secured two wiretap orders in the case in August 2021. Over a four-month period, they listened in on more than 6,000 calls, roughly 1,500 of which were described as "incriminating." One such call, in which Guidry discussed taking a $12,500 kickback from a vendor providing services to the diversion program, was described in Guidry's guilty plea.
Guidry, who worked as a contractor for 15th Judicial District Attorney Don Landry, has said he worked with Haynes, who was an employee of the office, to steer defendants into diversion programs run by several companies.
Federal investigators allege in the Guidry indictment that he and Haynes loosened the rules under which defendants could qualify for diversion.
The loosened rules allowed more defendants into the diversion program, allowing Guidry and Haynes to direct more paying customers into programs operated by the cooperating companies that allegedly shared the profits with Guidry and Haynes.
Landry has said he re-tightened the rules after the FBI raided the DA's offices in May 2023 and said they were investigating the diversion program. He let Guidry go and placed Haynes on leave.
Guidry also pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme involving the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and another public official referred to in the plea as public official No. 2, an employee and agent of the LDWF. Public official No. 2 is believed to be former LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet, who resigned in 2023 after The Advocate revealed a contract that connected him with the scheme.
Montoucet has not been indicted or charged.
Overall, Guidry admitted taking more than $800,000 in kickbacks from vendors doing business with the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office as well as with at least one vendor contracting with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The latter scheme netted Guidry $89,000, he has said.
Two Acadiana businessmen also have pleaded guilty for their roles in the two schemes.
Joseph Prejean of Church Point pleaded guilty in December to a federal charge of conspiring to defraud the federal government. Prejean's company, C&A Consulting, had a contract with the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office to provide services to defendants in the pretrial diversion program.
Franques pleaded guilty in federal court in January for his involvement in the LDWF bribery scheme in which Guidry and public official No. 2 allegedly awarded one or more contracts to a Franques business to provide services such as online boating and hunting courses through the LDWF. In exchange, Franques split the profits with Guidry and the public official.
Guidry, Franques and Prejean are scheduled for sentencing in federal court on Oct. 24 in Lafayette.