The assistant U.S. attorney who led the prosecution in a bribery case involving the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office a decade ago has been named prosecutor in another bribery case involving the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office and the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Federal Magistrate Judge Carol Whitehurst on Jan. 31 approved the replacement of Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel McCoy with John Luke Walker in the federal felony case of Dusty Guidry.
McCoy acted as lead attorney in court appearances in December and January by two others involved in the bribery schemes, both of whom pleaded guilty and, like Guidry, are awaiting sentencing.
Federal court records on Monday indicated McCoy was being replaced by Walker in Guidry's case and in the case of Leonard Franques, an Acadiana businessman who pleaded guilty in January to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Walker may be familiar to those who followed federal bribery cases against Robert Williamson and several employees of District Attorney Mike Harson's office between 2013 and 2015. Williamson took money from people with criminal charges and allegedly paid bribes to people in the District Attorney's Office and others to say they completed court-ordered activities and clear their records.
Walker prosecuted those cases, resulting in federal detention for Williamson and Harson's long-time secretary, Barna Haynes.
In the more recent case, Guidry, a Youngsville resident, pleaded guilty in March to running a bribery scheme in the district attorney's office where he worked in the pretrial diversion program as well as another bribery scheme in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, both of which involved business owners allegedly paying Guidry and others for contracts that steered business their way.
Two unnamed and thus far unindicted public officials allegedly played roles in the schemes.
One is believed to be former Assistant District Attorney Gary Haynes, who was married to Barna Haynes. Gary Haynes, who worked on pretrial diversions, was put on administrative leave in May by District Attorney Don Landry.
The other is believed to be former LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet, who resigned in April after The Times-Picayune | The Advocate identified him, based on information from Guidry and a LDWF contract, as the high-ranking department official implicated in the federal bribery scheme.
Dusty Guidry is scheduled for sentencing March 22.
Joseph Prejean of Church Point was charged in November with one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government for allegedly conspiring with two employees of the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office to take kickbacks from defendants in the pretrial diversion program. He pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced.
Staff writer Gordon Russell contributed to this report.