U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley’s office, after months of keeping hush on the identity of co-conspirator No. 1, Thursday pegged Lafayette private eye Robert Williamson as the mastermind behind the bribery scheme that took place for four years under the nose of 15th Judicial District Attorney Mike Harson. The indictment was announced in a press conference this afternoon.
The 64-year-old Williamson (aka Secret Cajun Man) now faces a slew of charges following a federal grand jury indictment Thursday, including six counts of bribery “for operating a pay-for-plea scheme that garnered favorable treatment for defendants charged with state violations of operating while intoxicated,” one count of conspiracy, one count of Social Security fraud and one count of making false statements to federal agents.
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| Photo by Robin May |
Williamson, who is not a lawyer, would offer individuals facing misdemeanor and felony charges (mostly OWIs) an opportunity to erase their records in exchange for “thousands of dollars,” according to the indictment. Using a process called "immediate 894," which Harson created based Article 894 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure, Williamson secured those favorable outcomes by bribing officials within District Attorney Mike Harson’s office, including his secretary Barna Haynes, Assistant District Attorney Greg Williams and Williams’ secretary Denease Curry. All three of the former DA employees have pleaded guilty in the scheme; Williams will likely be disbarred for his participation. Curry, according to her guilty plea, overheard defendants say they were paying Williamson $5,000 to handle their cases.
Williamson was able to exploit a flawed program, but it remains unclear just how much Harson knew about what was going between his office and the local private eye. According to Finley, who says the scheme was able to play out for so long due to a “lack of oversight and safeguards” in the DA's office, all of the defendants have so far stated that Harson was unaware of the bribery scheme. Harson last week told The Advertiser the immediate 894 program has since been shut down because district judges have refused to hear the cases; District Judge Ed Rubin handled all of the cases at the heart of the bribery scheme. Finley says there is no evidence anyone in the judicial branch was paid bribes in the scheme.
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| Robert Williamson |
The conspiracy also included Acadiana Outreach Center, where Williamson bribed case workers Elaine Crump and Sandra Degeyter in exchange for their falsifying community service documents for his clients. They, too, pleaded guilty.
The feds say Williamson’s bribes stretched even beyond AOC and the DA’s office. Williamson, according to the indictment, also obtained falsified driver safety training certificates for his clients, which were filed by his co-conspirators in the DA’s office.
Last year, on Feb. 27, Williamson, the indictment reads, lied to federal agents when asked if he’d ever paid anyone working in the 15th JDC. That same day, federal agents seized $20,700 from Williamson, as well as 17 money orders totaling $2,155.
Williamson, if convicted, faces a maximum penalty of 75 years in prison: five for conspiracy, 10 years for each of the six counts of bribery, five for the Social Security fraud count and five for lying to a federal agent.
Finley says Williamson will be given the opportunity to turn himself in.
Read more about Williamson here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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I would like the names of the people that paid Mr. Williams to get him to take care of them. They are as guilty as anyone. How many of them went on to drive drunk again. They should have their convictions re-instated and should be held accountable. Where is MAD? They should be outraged.