How secret recordings landed a Louisiana official in jail, accused of Hurricane Ida bribes

When the president of St. Helena Parish’s police jury tried to wring money for himself out of Hurricane Ida cleanup work, authorities were listening, according to newly released arrest documents.

Frank E. Johnson was booked into jail in Greensburg last week on malfeasance in office and bribery counts, after allegedly leveraging his role atop the parish government to seek a kickback from a company in exchange for a disaster contract apparently related to debris removal.

The probe by state Attorney General Jeff Landry's office led to the first public corruption allegations to emerge from the debris removal bonanza spawned by Hurricane Ida. Picking up the mess after hurricanes is among the biggest expenses local government in Louisiana typically incurs — and over the years, that work has produced a rich history of inside dealing.

In Ida’s wake, parish governments across the blast zone have handed out contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.

Landry’s office received a tip in late September that Johnson had “solicited a bribe in exchange for using his official position to influence an emergency disaster contract," according to an affidavit released by Landry’s office in response to a public records request.

Agents with Landry’s office outfitted a whistleblower with “covert recording devices” and had the person discuss the bribe with Johnson on the phone, the affidavit said. Later, they “facilitated a covert operation in which Johnson transacted said bribe.”

Johnson, 76, of Pine Grove, has served as president of the police jury since 2020, when he began his second term on the panel. He declined to comment on the specific allegations against him. In a phone call last week, he told The Advocate | The Times-Picayune that he has “nothing to say to you, because when I give you the ins and outs, you take it the wrong way.”

As president of the six-member police jury – the main administrative and legislative body set up in many Louisiana parishes – Johnson has considerable sway over St. Helena’s spending and personnel decisions. That includes overseeing the response after disasters like Ida, whose winds ravaged his rural parish between Baton Rouge and the Mississippi line.

Ida was believed to be the worst storm on record in the parish, residents said, with winds retaining hurricane force until its eye crossed into Mississippi.

Landry’s office said only that the alleged bribe involved Ida relief, and declined to offer more details. It’s not yet clear who will prosecute the case; 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux declined to comment.

It’s also not clear whether Johnson will step down from his position as president of the police jury while the case is pending. He surrendered to agents from the Attorney General’s Office last week before meeting conditions of a $50,000 bond paid by police juror Jule Charles Wascom, according to the St. Helena Parish Sheriff's Office.

It was business as usual at Tuesday evening's police jury meeting in Greensburg. Johnson presided over a relatively short agenda, moving police jurors through votes on such measures as a request for new tile in the tax assessor's office and an update on broadband expansion efforts in the rural area. No public comments were made; the allegations against Johnson did not arise.

But sources say the bribe centered around a Hammond environmental consultant that does some debris monitoring work. The federal government requires local governments to closely track how much debris is hauled into staging sites, chipped and disposed of, and most localities hire private firms to do the monitoring and hauling.

Records show the company was not among a group of seven applicants that initially applied for the parish’s debris monitoring and removal deals, the two main types of contracts typically awarded by parishes after big storms. Nor was it one of two firms who ultimately won those contracts.

Before the hurricane, the company held an agreement with the Police Jury for “environmental services” for a project unrelated to emergency recovery, Emergency Preparedness Director Roderick Matthews said in a text message.

After the storm, the parish discussed using the firm as a consultant to help secure environmental permits for a debris-staging site, Matthews said — areas where hurricane refuse is piled up before it gets trucked away. Johnson was “in those conversations,” Matthews said. The parish, however, didn't end up hiring the company for that deal, choosing instead to handle the permitting process in-house.

On the morning of his arrest last week, Johnson called some local officials to tell them an employee of the company had “set me up” and that he was going to turn himself in to agents from the Attorney General’s Office, according to a person with direct knowledge of those conversations.

A secretary at the company, Hammond-based environmental consultant Elos, which is accused of no wrongdoing in the case, said the firm could not comment.

Matthews said he never observed Johnson trying to improperly influence awarding of debris-related contracts.

Ryan Byrd, the Police Jury vice president, echoed that sentiment. “The first I’d heard of it was in regards to the press coverage,” he said. The four remaining police jurors declined to comment or did not return phone messages.

Recovery from Ida in St. Helena Parish took months. Two weeks after the winds died down, about half the parish lacked power. On an afternoon in January, some 130 days after the storm, blue tarps remained on some roofs around Greensburg, where residents were still clearing fallen timber.

The mounds of debris that pile up on curbsides after major hurricanes have long signaled dollar signs for the companies and truckers who clean it up.

The federal government usually reimburses local parishes, cities and other government bodies for debris collection. And for major storms, the tab can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, often making it the single costliest government post-storm expense. Government bodies typically hire a contractor to manage subcontractors who actually pick up the rotted drywall, shingles and the like, as well as a “monitor” to make sure they’re keeping the books straight.

A FEMA spokesperson said this week it has doled out $102.5 million for 121 public assistance projects related to Ida so far, including many for debris. Debris costs for Hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020 topped at least $250 million.

Historically, the process has often led to people with political connections getting a slice of the pie.

After Ida, relatives of state Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, locked in a contract with a debris firm to stage refuse at their property on Airline Highway in St. Charles Parish.

Politicians and their relatives are supposed to file disclosures when landing contracts related to disasters, but that practice appears to have waned in recent years, despite a state law requiring it. Smith’s father, Gary Sr., filed a disclosure after The Advocate | The Times-Picayune reported on his deal, making him the first person since 2015 to file a disclosure reporting income from disaster work.

Since then, only one other person has filed a disclosure for disaster contracts from Ida: Assessor Wesley Blades, who, as it happens, also hails from St. Helena Parish.

Blades said a member of the Police Jury called him after Ida to connect him to a company that ended up hauling debris onto his property, to the tune of $1 an acre. Blades said he didn’t know anything about why Johnson was arrested; there’s no evidence Blades was involved in that case.

Blades said he’s been paid more than $40,000 for his debris deal so far and is owed probably another $20,000. He didn’t know about the disclosure requirement until reading about the Smith family deal in St. Charles.