One of four vendors implicated in a sprawling justice-for-sale scandal centered on the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office has been hit with a federal charge, the first visible development in the case in months.
Joseph Prejean, the owner of C&A Consulting Services, faces a charge of conspiring to defraud the federal government. He was charged Tuesday in a bill of information, which generally signifies that a defendant is cooperating with the government and intends to plead guilty.
It's not clear who is representing Prejean, of Church Point. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors say that Prejean extorted money from defendants facing criminal charges in exchange for a tacit agreement to get their charges thrown out. The bill of information says Prejean worked with Dusty Guidry, who oversaw pretrial diversion programs for District Attorney Don Landry, and a second person identified as "Public Official 1."
Joseph Prejean
Guidry entered a blockbuster guilty plea in March, in which he admitted taking more than $800,000 in kickbacks from four vendors who ran pretrial diversion programs. Guidry admitted conspiring with one of the vendors and Public Official 2, whom The Advocate has identified as Jack Montoucet, then the secretary of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Guidry said the three came up with a deal where the vendor would provide training programs to hunters and boaters who were ticketed for violating state law — for a fee. In exchange, Guidry and Montoucet would share a kickback.
In keeping with U.S. Department of Justice policy, court documents have not identified Montoucet by name, because he has yet to be charged with a crime.
The same logic holds for Public Official 1, whom The Advocate has previously identified as Gary Haynes.
Haynes was Lafayette's city prosecutor and an assistant district attorney from the time Landry took office in January 2021 through May 2022, when Landry put him on leave shortly after FBI agents raided the DA's offices in May 2022. The bill of information charging Prejean further confirm Haynes' identity: The document notes that Public Official 1 "was an employee and agent of the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office" from about January 2021 through May 2002.
It says that Guidry and Haynes "used their positions to unlawfully steer and attempt to steer participants in the program to pretrial classes and services offered by C&A Consulting and Prejean in exchange for payments and other tangible benefits."
Haynes has not been charged with a crime.
"The charge against Mr. Prejean has no impact on my client, Mr. Haynes," Haynes's lawyer, Todd S. Clemons, said Wednesday. "Mr. Haynes has not been charged with any crimes at this juncture. If he is charged with a crime, we are going to zealously defend him, and he’s going to exercise his Sixth Amendment right to a trial by a jury of his peers."
Pretrial diversion programs are offered by most district attorneys. They allow defendants, usually those facing minor charges, to avoid a permanent criminal record, provided they complete certain steps or programs. The programs also have served as a source of revenue for many DAs.
The bill of information outlines two cases in which Prejean allegedly extorted payments from defendants in the pretrial diversion program. One defendant, identified only as Person 1, faced charges in both the 15th and the 16th Judicial Districts, the document says.
Prejean "corruptly solicited" a $25,000 bribe, it says, and then paid half of that to Guidry, who said he would share it with Haynes. Haynes then approved the defendant for pretrial diversion, the bill says.
The document indicates that federal authorities captured conversations between Prejean and Guidry where they discussed the "25 cash" and how it would be split up.
It does not say what crime Person 1 was charged with, and whether he or she should have been eligible for pretrial diversion.
The Times-Picayune and The Advocate have previously reported that federal authorities captured at least 1,500 "incriminating" phone calls made or received by Guidry and another player in the scheme in late 2021.
The document also outlines a second case, involving Person 2, who allegedly paid Prejean $20,000 in exchange for assurances that he or she would "successfully graduate" from the diversion program. Again, the document doesn't say what crime the person was charged with.
It's unclear whether that transaction was captured in a phone call, but it occurred during the four-month period when federal authorities had an open wiretap.
Landry, the 15th Judicial District attorney, put Haynes and Guidry on leave in May 2022 after the FBI raid. After Guidry was charged, in March, Landry said he was ending the office's relationship with the four vendors to which it had been sending pretrial diversion cases. Several other DAs who used the same firms followed suit.
Along with coordinating pretrial diversion programs in the 15th Judicial District — which includes Lafayette, Acadia and Vermilion parishes — Guidry worked full-time overseeing pretrial diversion in the Baton Rouge-based 19th Judicial District Attorney's Office.
That office also used Prejean's C&A Consulting as a vendor in its diversion programs.
Hillar Moore, the East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney, fired Guidry in December 2021, after he was arrested with drugs in a traffic stop in St. Martin Parish. Guidry resigned from a volunteer post on the state Wildlife and Fisheries Commission at the same time.
Landry has not said why he allowed Guidry to stay on until the FBI raid.
After Guidry's guilty plea, Moore ended his office's relationship with C&A Consulting.
Prejean, who owns a gym and does motivational speaking, wrote a book several years ago about the challenges he has faced in life — including being left for dead as a child by his mother. He told a reporter then that he had served time in prison in the 1990s.
For years, Prejean has had a close relationship with the District Attorney's Office, one that predates Landry's tenure.
In addition to his relationships in Lafayette, Prejean had connections at the state level. Gov. John Bel Edwards in 2016 appointed him to a board that makes recommendations on how to handle prisoners’ re-entry into society. Prejean was recommended by Montoucet, then a state representative and a friend of the governor.
In addition to Prejean's firm, C&A Consulting, the companies that had been providing pretrial services to the 15th JDC included Burton Services, Lake Wellness and Acadian Monitoring and Evaluation.
In Guidry's plea, he said that he had been paid substantial kickbacks by the proprietors of all four firms. So far, Prejean is the only one to be charged.
