Former Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory is challenging where he is being prosecuted and the legal basis for the four felony malfeasance charges, arguing the case belongs in Lafayette Parish and prosecutors have not identified a legal duty he intentionally violated.
The arguments emerged during a court hearing Monday on Guillory’s motion to quash four counts of malfeasance in office stemming from the February 2022 removal of spoil banks along the Vermilion River. Guillory, a practicing attorney, was indicted by a St. Martin Parish grand jury in February.
Defense attorney Stephen Haedicke of New Orleans argued that planning and decisions about any alleged crimes occurred in Lafayette Parish, where Guillory served as mayor-president, making St. Martin Parish the improper venue for the prosecution.
Claire Howington, an assistant district attorney in the 16th Judicial District, countered with text messages showing Guillory, his public works director and others involved in the project traveled by boat to the Vermilion River in St. Martin Parish to conduct a reconnaissance mission ahead of the 2022 project. She said Guillory was aware of the need for permits, presenting messages in which he reportedly promised to “take all the arrows” if the project resulted in fallout.
Guillory’s defense said prosecutors have also failed to establish the essential elements of malfeasance in office, particularly an affirmative legal duty requiring Guillory to comply with the permitting laws of another parish and an intentional violation of that duty.
“The malfeasance statute is special,” Haedicke told 16th Judicial District Court Judge Vincent Borne, also calling the statute “just different” as he pleaded his case to a judge who appeared skeptical but did not rule on the motion Monday.
A central argument in the criminal case, according to the defense, is whether Lafayette Consolidated Government’s Home Rule Charter establishes a specific legal duty necessary to support felony malfeasance charges in another parish.
Howington said LCG’s charter requires the mayor-president to ensure that “all laws” are faithfully executed.
Howington said it was the “first time in my life” that someone had argued they were not obligated to follow the laws of another parish.
The charter states that the mayor-president shall “see that all laws, provisions of this charter and acts of the City Council and/or Parish Council, subject to the Mayor-President’s direction and supervision, are faithfully executed.”
The indictment alleges Guillory committed malfeasance by directing the removal of spoil banks without permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the St. Martin Parish floodplain administrator, as well as by intentionally causing barges to obstruct navigation on the Vermilion River. LCG’s contractor, Rigid Constructors, used barges to block the river while transferring spoil-bank levees from the St. Martin side to private property on the Lafayette side.
The Guillory administration believed the earthen spoil banks (crested ridges of dredged material left by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decades ago) were trapping or altering water flow and contributing to flood risks in Lafayette Parish.
The motion to quash further claimed Guillory was selectively prosecuted for political reasons.
Lafayette Parish District Attorney Don Landry, Guillory’s close political ally, declined to prosecute the former M-P after receiving an investigative audit report from the state’s legislative auditor that found likely violations of federal, state and local ordinances in executing the drainage project, which was done without the knowledge or consent of officials in neighboring St. Martin Parish. Guillory can no longer be prosecuted in Lafayette, as the statute of limitations expired just days before Landry announced he would not prosecute Guillory.
The overnight operation — known to only a handful of LCG officials and internally code named “Apollo” to keep it a secret — cost $3.7 million and was authorized through a change order on a $390,000 “as-needed” excavation contract.
Haedicke also made clear that the defense was not arguing Guillory could not be prosecuted for other potential offenses — like theft. “Charge him with different crimes,” he said.
Guillory, who is also represented by the Stockstill firm, has pleaded not guilty.
Judge Borne, who grew up in Franklin and lives in New Iberia, said he will rule on the motion by Dec. 10, the date he is scheduled to hear arguments on the defense’s selective prosecution claim.
In its memorandum supporting the motion to quash, the defense contends Guillory was singled out for prosecution while other officials involved in the project, including those who helped authorize it, were not charged.
The defense points to former Executive Chief of Staff Michael Hicks, who emailed the contractor on Feb. 21, 2022, stating, “Consider this email as a Notice to Proceed with the Vermillion (sic) Water Control Project.”
Seven minutes later, the contractor responded, “Thanks! We are going.”
Hicks, Guillory’s former Army commanding officer who left LCG after only four months on the job, received immunity from the district attorney, according to the memo. The defense argues that the decision to grant immunity to one official while prosecuting Guillory supports its claim of selective prosecution.
But Hicks told The Daily Advertiser in July 2022 that he issued the notice to proceed at the direction of both Guillory and then-City Parish Attorney Greg Logan.
