[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro's storage unit searched, documents seized

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro's storage unit searched,
documents seized
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on October 25, 2012 at 2:10 PM, updated October 25, 2012 at 9:50 PM Email |
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Former St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro's old storage unit in
Chalmette was searched Tuesday night by St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's
deputies, who allegedly retrieved 19 boxes of parish documents from it.
Taffaro's attorney Henry Klein said Thursday that the documents were not
originals and that Taffaro had every right to keep them for reference in
ongoing litigation against his administration.

The documents sought allegedly are related to the ongoing discovery phase of
a long-running housing discrimination case, spearheaded by the U.S.
Department of Justice, over Taffaro's and parish government's repeated
attempts to limit affordable multi-family and rental housing, in part by
establishing an onerous permit-approval process for single-family rentals
and eliminating wide swaths of multifamily zoning.

In a matter set for trial on Feb. 19, 2013, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed
its first request for production of documents on July 12. Then last week,
the U.S. Attorney's Office contended that St. Bernard had not produced four
boxes of documents related to the permit issues that are under litigation.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan last week ordered St. Bernard to produce
all hard-copy documents related to the litigation, including those four
boxes.

Klein said on Thursday morning that "the boxes (of documents) are now being
picked up and brought to the U.S. Attorney's Office." 

Klein said that the parish government had the documents all along, as
Taffaro had scanned them into the parish government's computer server and
that he also had left the original documents in his parish president's
office before leaving his post. Klein says that parish government officials
had asked Taffaro for documents and that "he immediately went and put
together some documents that he thought would be helpful to the parish."

Klein said that Taffaro "attempted to call St. Bernard Parish and provide
them with some documentation that the parish already had... but they would
not talk to him and instead they sent this goon squad to his storage bin."

"They sent this goon squad to his storage bin." -- Henry Klein, Craig
Taffaro's attorney
"St. Bernard Parish continues to run its business like a third world country
--- this is like guerrilla warfare," Klein added. Klein said that he is in
possession of other documents provided by Taffaro but that the parish
government also already possesses. He will hand those over to the U.S.
Attorney's Office on Thursday, he said.

The Times-Picayune had received a tip on Wednesday night about the incident
and called the Sheriff's Office. A spokesperson there said Wednesday they
were unaware of the matter.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann
confirmed that the Sheriff's Office had received 19 boxes of records of
parish government from a Chalmette storage facility after applying for a
search warrant from a state court judge. Pohlmann, who stressed the warrant
was based on information provided by parish government employees, said the
records will be given to the Justice Department in response to a subpoena
issued in the civil rights lawsuit against the parish.

St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta, who beat Taffaro last fall, said
he would not comment as it was "an ongoing case" but that "we will comply
with any orders that we receive."

The search warrant, obtained by The Times-Picayune, says that it was
requested by St. Bernard Sheriff's Sgt. Jarrod Gourgues. While technically a
sheriff's employee, Gourgues officially handles Peralta's internal security
and is paid for by the parish government, not by the Sheriff's Office.

The application for the search warrant, signed about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday,
states that St. Bernard Parish Attorney William McGoey spoke with Taffaro
last Thursday and told him that "the judge was demanding files."

"During that conversation Mr. Taffaro admitted that he had indeed removed
(government) files from the government building," Gourgues wrote in the
warrant application.

Gourgues states in that application that he spoke with current parish
maintenance supervisor Steve LeRouge, who told him that while Taffaro was
still parish president he instructed him "to remove the file boxes from the
president's office and store them in a private unit" at the Chalmette Super
Self Storage, 8400 W. Judge Perez Dr. in Chalmette. The manager there,
Carrie Lulu, declined to answer a Times-Picayune reporter's questions on
Thursday morning, simply saying "you know I can't speak on that."

Gourgues states in the warrant that on Monday, Clay Dillon, the parish chief
compliance inspector, met Lulu who allegedly told him that, when Taffaro
vacated one of the storage units, he left behind a number of boxes. When she
contacted Taffaro, he allegedly had said that he would retrieve them but
that he never did. She allegedly gave Dillon permission to review the boxes,
in which he discovered parish documents.

Inside several of those boxes, Dillon allegedly had observed time sheets for
current and former parish employees and documents related to the
"Redfish-cup" tournament, the warrant states. For the second consecutive
year, the Redfish Tour Committee currently is preparing for about 200
professional anglers to converge on Chalmette this weekend to host the 2012
IFA Championship Fishing Tour.

In the application for the search warrant, Gourgues states he is asking to
seize the documents "relative to an ongoing investigation involving
violation Louisiana RS 14:132 (injuring public records), involving a former
parish president."

First-degree injuring public records is defined by state law as "the
intentional removal, mutilation, destruction, alteration, falsification, or
concealment of any record, document, or other thing, filed or deposited, by
authority of law, in any public office or with any public officer." Instead
of a filed or deposited record, the lesser second-degree injuring public
records charge relates to anything defined as a public record that is
"required to be preserved in any public office or by any person or public
officer."

The first-degree charge can carry a maximum of 5 years imprisonment and up
to a $5,000 fine. The lesser second-degree charge carries up to one year in
prison and a $1,000 fine.

Klein said on Thursday morning that he has no knowledge of any pending
charges against Taffaro "but if anything is charged (against him) it will be
totally bogus."

The first-degree charge can carry a maximum of 5 years imprisonment and up
to a $5,000 fine. The lesser second-degree charge carries up to one year in
prison and a $1,000 fine.

Search Warrant
http://media.nola.com/crime_impact/other/Craig%20Taffaro%20Search%20Warrant.
pdf