[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta sued over campaign ad bills

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta sued over campaign ad bills
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on December 03, 2012 at 5:00 PM, updated December 03, 2012 at 5:04 PM Print
St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta is facing a civil suit in New
Orleans from Sidney Torres IV's company SDT Productions, LLC. It alleges
Peralta owes it about $118,000 for various campaign commercials it produced
and put on local television stations during Peralta's parish president
campaign in fall 2011. 

The suit particularly revolves around three television commercials,
including one that showed a caricature of his rival, now-former Parish
President Craig Taffaro dressed as Napoleon, riding a pig like a cowboy as
it bucks to high-pitched "yeehaws" and "yahoooos" amid wads of dollar bills
falling from the sky. A narrator described Taffaro as "high on the hog."

Peralta on Monday called the suit a "private matter, unrelated to my
position in office,'' and said he would not comment on it.

The suit filed Nov. 14 alleges Peralta owes the company $18,000 for
producing three commercials and then $99,830 for air time on local
television stations.

Peralta earns $129,728 a year in his parish president post.


Torres sold his high-profile waste management company in June 2011, but he
still owns SDT Productions, a company described as providing "media
productions and election support to candidates for local and state offices,"
according to the lawsuit. The production company is based on Esplanade
Avenue, on the Mississippi River-side of N. Rampart Street.

SDT Productions, through its attorney John Litchfield, mailed a letter to
Peralta on Aug. 7 - nearly four months ago - stating that Peralta owed the
production company $117,830 and that Litchfield had been authorized to file
suit if that bill was not paid within 30 days.

"It is my understanding that Mr. Torres has been dealing with you in an
effort to collect this past due balance, but has been unsuccessful in
getting this account paid," that letter stated. Litchfield added on Monday
that he later offered Peralta a payment schedule but such discussions were
unsuccessful.

The suit alleges that the balance originally was due on Jan. 17, seven days
after Peralta took office.

"That's a private matter, unrelated to my position in office." - Dave
Peralta

In part, the lawsuit alleges that Peralta owes SDT Productions $69,705 for
commercials that aired on Fox 8 between Oct. 27, 2011 and Nov. 16, 2011;
$15,000 for air-time on WDSU 6;  and $15,125 for air time on WWL 4. The
commercials on WWL and WDSU aired Oct. 27, 2011, the suit says.

The suit names Dave Peralta, the Campaign to Elect Dave Peralta, and the
Dave Peralta Campaign Fund.

The runoff between Peralta and Taffaro last year was heated, with both
campaigns accusing the other of misconduct. 

The heated back-and-forth between Peralta and Taffaro did not stop on the
campaign trial. Taffaro, now the head of Gov. Bobby Jindal's hazard
mitigation office, recently sued Peralta, along with other parish employees,
accusing them of conspiring to defame him during Peralta's period thus far
in office.

The suit, filed on Nov. 8, asks for $2.75 million in damages and claims that
Peralta and other parish employees have violated Taffaro's civil rights and
his career rights and have intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

It says a raid of Taffaro's storage unit last month "was the culmination of
a pattern of retaliation by Peralta against Taffaro because Taffaro fired
Peralta as CAO in October 2008, and because Taffaro campaigned against
Peralta in 2011."