BATON ROUGE — A Maurepas landlord has been arrested after investigators say he defrauded a state-run COVID-19 emergency rental assistance program, collecting more than $60,000 across three parishes.
Attorney General Liz Murrill announced that her office’s Louisiana Bureau of Investigation arrested 42-year-old Quinton Mitchell, of Highway 22 in Maurepas, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. Mitchell was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of theft by fraud over $25,000 and government benefit fraud.
The investigation began after the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office flagged irregularities in the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which was administered by the Division of Administration’s Office of Community Development. The program was designed to help renters facing homelessness or housing instability due to the financial fallout of the pandemic.
Investigators say Mitchell submitted fraudulent applications that included tenants who never applied for assistance, listed individuals who did not live at the claimed properties, falsely asserted ownership of certain rental properties, and inflated rental amounts. Between May 2021 and March 2022, he allegedly used these tactics to secure more than $60,000 in payments for properties in Ascension, Livingston, and St. John the Baptist parishes.
The case remains under investigation.
