The saga of a political mailer, issued by the Sherman Mack campaign, has taken a new turn.
First reported by The Advocate, 21st Judicial District Attorney Scott Perrilloux told the newspaper that his office has launched a criminal probe into the matter that will focus on whether Parish Councilwoman Erin Sandefur committed malfeasance in office. Investigators are assessing whether the council member failed to perform a lawful duty required of her as a public official or carried out official duties unlawfully.
After a brief investigation, Parish President Randy Delatte made a public announcement that his office followed the paper trail back to Councilwoman Sandefur, who had requested check images paid to the Moody Law Firm for the firm's work on the Deer Run lawsuit. Delatte said that 'there was no wrong' after the investigation, but the parish would be adjusting their internal protocols regarding the release of financial documents.
Sandefur made the following statement on social media shortly after the criminal investigation announcement:
"I committed no crime," her statement said. "This is political rhetoric.
"I had concerns about corruption in the billing practices surrounding Deer Run. I asked for the payments to the Moody Law Firm and they were given to me from Parish government, and I shared them. There is no law that prohibits any resident of this parish from making public, public documents.
"Would a person paid by the Parish be subject to a criminal investigation if they made their payment public or is this just weaponization of the DAs office? I was not informed by the administration that the documents were in any way confidential.
"If the administration made a mistake then it should investigate itself," Sandefur concluded.
Sandefur, who is also the chairwoman of the parish counci's finance committee, seemed surprised at a September 24 finance committee hearing when images of the mailer were produced for the two committee members present.
For context, the parish’s finance department recently discovered that they will need to change their bank account number due to a security breach where exact photocopies of several parish checks were reproduced on political marketing materials mailed last week.
The photocopies were of financial records of what the council paid the Moody Law Firm, where Brad Cascio is listed as an attorney, for the years 2023 to 2026.
Alongside his position as Assistant District Attorney, Brad Cascio is also running for the position of District Attorney and has worked with the council by providing counsel since late last year.
The parish checks and records were requested by Councilwoman Erin Sandefur who has gone on record to state that she had “deep concerns about Mr. Cascio’s involvement with Deer Run/Ascension Properties” lawsuit and so “requested the invoices to review and I shared them” noting that “there was no confidential information included, that I know of.”
Cascio’s opponent for District Attorney, Sherman Mack, printed and sent out the unredacted parish check photocopies on political mail pieces while alleging that Cascio “has taken thousands of dollars of taxpayer money and when confronted with it, he refuses to admit to his double dipping efforts off the working people of the 21st JDC.”
After the breach was revealed, FGB advised the council that, in the interest of safety, the parish's main payment account account will be locked and a new one will have to be established, leading to concerns regarding how vendors and governmental entities will receive their payments from the department in the interim.
The parish confirmed they would not be charged for the bank account change.
“Hundreds, if not thousands of vendors, employees, etc. will be required to have direct deposit and ACH information changed, which will take weeks, and cost the Parish a considerable amount of money (likely more than I have billed them in over 5 years),” Cascio posted on Facebook.
“What’s worse is this information was NOT obtained through a public records request. This means someone within the government, whether an employee or elected official, leaked this information to him for political purposes,” Cascio continued.
According to Parish President Randy Delatte, the official internal investigation into how these documents were leaked has concluded.
“We have determined there was no wrong and the records were obtained legally,” Delatte stated.
“We reviewed all public records requests that have been submitted and consulted with the Finance Department to determine whether any requests had been made by the Council pertaining to financial information," Parish President Delatte said to the News. "No public records request was submitted. However, the Council did request payment information from the Finance Department relating to Moody Law Firm.”
Delatte revealed that the investigation has been forwarded to the District Attorney’s office for further consideration and action since the internal review revealed “no wrong.”
“We hope this never happens again and take the proper steps in order to do that,” Delatte added.
When asked for additional comment on the situation, Councilwoman Sandefur stated “I do not wish to add anything further at this time.”
Delatte added that, in an effort to combat the problem of vendors and entities not being paid due to the breach and its fallout, parish finance “has completed the setup of a new account, ensuring that vendors currently receiving payments via ACH will experience no disruption.”
“Vendors who are still receiving payments by check have the option to transition to ACH or receive their payment once the new checks arrive. We anticipate the new checks will be available within two weeks,” Delatte concluded.
