A second candidate has been removed from the ballot for Youngsville Chief of Police.
During qualifyingearlier this month, five men signed up to run for the post: "Rickey" Boudreaux; Jean Paul "JP" Broussard; Cody Louviere; "Matt" Thomassee and John M. Trahan Jr.
But then the District Attorney filed an objection to Boudreaux's candidacy, and a judge agreed. That objection was based on the fact that the unexpired term for which the men are running was created when Boudreaux resigned last year.
State law forbids the person who created the unexpired term from running for it, the DA argued.
This week, the DA filed another objection, this one to Trahan's candidacy, which the court granted, removing Trahan from the ballot, a spokesman for the DA's office says.
This objection was based on residency requirements. To be elected as Youngsville's Police Chief, you must have lived within the city limits for one year prior to qualifying for the election.
Trahan does not live in Youngsville now and has not lived in Youngsville for the year prior to qualifying, the DA's petition, which was filed on Friday, alleges. The petition argues that Trahan lives on Bonin Road in Lafayette, and has done since 1993.
Trahan, a retired State Trooper and former Lafayette Parish Sheriff's deputy, ran for Lafayette Marshal in 2020; when he qualified for that race he gave the Bonin Road address, records at the Secretary of State show.
When he qualified for Youngsville Police Chief earlier this month, he gave an address on Detente Road in Youngsville. A search indicates the address on Bonin Road is a house. The address on Detente Road is an RV Park.
The Google maps image of the Bonin Road home, which Google indicates was photographed in July 2023, shows a brick home with a pick-up truck and an RV parked next to it. The google satellite image of the address, which Google indicates was photographed in 2024, also shows an RV parked next to it. The Lafayette Tax Assessor's records show that he owns both properties, along with a third. He doesn't hold a homestead exemption - which often is used to determine a candidate's residency - on any of them, records show.
Our media partners at the Advocate were at the hearing on the DA's petition, and they reported that Trahan said he has lived full-time at the RV park while he builds a home on the property.
But Assistant District Attorney Holden Hoggat argued that Trahan couldn't live there full-time because a Youngsville ordinance forbits an RV from being used as a permanent residence. Trahan argued that his park was "grandfathered" in, but the court accepted the DA's arguments.
The Advocate reports that Trahan told them he didn't agree with the decision, and planned to run in the next regular election for police chief.
