A former Assistant District Attorney has been indicted in federal court, accused of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
The grand jury alleges that Gary Haynes, 66, of Lafayette, conspired with Dusty Guidry, Leonard Franques, and others to solicit bribes and kickbacks and to accept things of value while Haynes was an Assistant District Attorney in the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office (the D.A.’s Office).
Guidry and Franques already have pleaded guilty, along with a business owner, Joseph Prejean. Franques pleaded guilty on January 12, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Guidry pleaded guilty on March 23, 2023, to two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Prejean pleaded guilty in December 2023 to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official in the Lafayette Parish District Attorney's Office. All three men are scheduled to be sentenced next month.
According to the indictment, Haynes oversaw the D.A.’s Office’s Pretrial Intervention (PTI) program–a program that offered an alternative to criminal prosecution for certain criminal offenders. Haynes approved defendants to participate in the program and then directed them to take classes from Franques’s companies.
Those defendants paid money to take classes through Franques’s companies to complete the program and obtain dismissal of the criminal charges against them from Haynes. Haynes, Guidry, and Franques agreed that Haynes would receive kickbacks in exchange for accepting people into the PTI program, directing those people to Franques’s companies, and then dismissing the charges against the people who enrolled in and paid for the courses that Franques’s companies provided.
Further, according to the charges in the indictment, Haynes and his co-conspirators discussed several ways to conceal the nature of the money that Haynes would receive from the kickback scheme, including having Haynes reactivate a defunct company during the conspiracy to hide the proceeds from the kickbacks. Finally, Haynes directed a coconspirator to alter, destroy, and conceal documents and records to prevent their availability in a future proceeding.
Haynes is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, two counts of using his cell phone in aid of bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and obstruction of justice. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and U.S. Attorney Brandon Bonaparte Brown for the Western District of Louisiana made the announcement.
The FBI New Orleans Field Office and IRS Criminal Investigation are investigating the case. Trial Attorneys Steven Loew and Trevor Wilmot of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Luke Walker and John Nickel for the Western District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case.
KATC Investigates has been covering this case for more than two years. Here's some background:
In the court documents filed along with the three guilty pleas, two public officials were identified - one who allegedly took bribes in the DA's office, and a public official with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries who accepted bribes.
Shortly after Guidry pleaded guilty in 2023, LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet resigned. To read our story about that, click here. Montoucet's resignation came the day after our media partners at The Advocate/Times Picayune identified him as the person of interest described in Guidry's guilty plea.
Documents filed in Prejean's case and the Franques case tell a similar story to the allegations in Haynes' case, alleging that Guidry facilitated bribes with the unnamed public officials in charge at each public office. In both cases, companies that wanted to do business with the agencies - in most cases offering classes that people accused of crimes were required to do in order to either complete their punishment or avoid more serious punishment like jail - had to pay bribes to Guidry, who in turn split the money with these unnamed public officials.
As part of his plea agreement, Guidry admitted to accepting more than $730,000 in bribes.
Back in 2022, the FBI searched the District Attorney's Office; DA Don Landry told KATC at the time that they were looking at the pre-trial diversion program. To read that story, click here.
The 10-page bill of information filed against Guidry lays out a conspiracy that began in 2021 and lasted until 2022 involving the pre-trial diversion program, two unnamed public officials and four "vendors." Prejean and Franques are identified in court documents as two of those four vendors.
Guidry used to work for the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office, but he was working as an "agent" of the Lafayette DA's pre-trial diversion program in January 2021 when the alleged conspiracy began.
Guidry was appointed to the Cajundome Commission by Lafayette Mayor-President Joel Robideaux, and to the state Wildlife and Fisheries Commission by Gov. John Bel Edwards. In December 2021, he was arrested on drug charges.
