A pair of elected members of the St. Landry Parish School Board are facing lengthy prison sentences and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for allegedly offering their votes in favor of a candidate for superintendent in exchange for $5,000. U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced the indictments against Quincy Richard and John Miller late Thursday afternoon after a federal grand jury issued them.
According to a press release detailing the allegations:
United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that two St. Landry Parish School Board members were indicted by a federal grand jury for one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and two counts of bribery.
A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment late yesterday afternoon charging Quincy Richard, Sr., 50, and John Miller, 71, both of Opelousas, La., with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and two counts of bribery.
According to the indictment, Richard and Miller are two of 13 members serving on the St. Landry Parish School Board (SLPSB). SLPSB is responsible for advertising, interviewing and selecting by majority vote, the position of Superintendent of St. Landry Parish Schools. After the individual is selected to be hired as Superintendent, the SLPSB approves the salary contract of the Superintendent. From on or about mid July 2012 until September 24, 2012, the defendants conspired together to obtain money for their vote concerning the position of Superintendent of St. Landry Parish Schools. As a result of the conspiracy, on September 24, 2012, in return for their vote, Richard and Miller each accepted $5,000 from a Superintendent candidate who was cooperating with the FBI.
If convicted, both defendants face up to five years in prison for the conspiracy count and up to 10 years in prison for the bribery count. Both defendants are also subject to a $250,000 fine on each count.
An indictment is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alexandria Resident Agency and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Howard C. Parker.
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
Most Read
in case you missed it
Subscribe to this comment's feed
never get tired of it?