[StBernard] Two months after arrest, St. Bernard Parish Judge Wayne Cresap formally charged in conspiracy with two lawyers

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Jul 1 23:19:45 EDT 2009


Two months after arrest, St. Bernard Parish Judge Wayne Cresap formally
charged in conspiracy with two lawyers
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune
Wednesday July 01, 2009, 4:21 PM

State District Judge Wayne CresapMore than two months after being arrested
by the FBI in connection with a judicial corruption scheme, St. Bernard
Parish Judge Wayne Cresap has been formally charged with conspiracy to
commit wire fraud. Two St. Bernard Parish lawyers were indicted along with
him Wednesday.


Wayne Cresap, 62, was formally charged by the U.S. Attorney's office on a
bill of information along with St. Bernard Parish lawyers Victor J. "V.J."
Dauterive and Nunzio Salvadore "Sal" Cusimano.

According to the bill of information, Cresap allegedly took more than a
thousand dollars in cash from each lawyer in exchange for allowing inmates
to be released from the St. Bernard Parish Prison without putting up money
for the bond.

Read the bill of information:
<http://blog.nola.com/news_impact/2009/07/wayne%20cresap%20et%20al%20boi.pdf

>


Cresap was arrested April 24 by the FBI in connection with the arrest, but
at the time the lawyers were not named. Cresap was released from Orleans
Parish Prison shortly after his April 24 arrest.

The affidavit says Cresap "financially benefited from a discretionary
decision he made as a public official, thereby breaching his duty of honest,
faithful and disinterested service to the public."

Cresap admitted the scheme when FBI agents confronted him in a parking lot
April 9, according to the affidavit. He was arrested more than two weeks
later and charged based on a criminal complaint, an unusual tactic for cases
involving white-collar defendants.

Letten said agents arrested him because of concerns that Cresap might harm
himself.

Last month the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed retired Judge Robert Klees,
a former chief judge for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, to take over
Cresap's court through Nov. 7. The Supreme Court's decision came after
Cresap filed a motion for interim disqualification with the Louisiana
Judiciary Commission.

The accusations against Cresap are similar to those that sent two Jefferson
Parish judges, Ronald Bodenheimer and Alan Green, to prison earlier this
decade in the FBI's Wrinkled Robe investigation. The difference is that
Bodenheimer and Green were accused of manipulating bonds in exchange for
gifts from a bail bond executive, Louis Marcotte III, not from lawyers as
suggested in this case.

Cresap had been a central figure in some of St. Bernard's most far-reaching
and controversial lawsuits, including the politically charged fight over the
estimated $250 million estate left by Arlene Meraux, the heiress to St.
Bernard land baron Joseph Meraux's fortune.




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