Luling businessman John Landry III, who was arrested and charged with falsifying public records in June, has agreed to resign as chairman of the St. Charles Parish Hospital Board as part of an agreement with the District Attorney’s Office.
District Attorney Joel Chaisson II said Landry was enrolled in a Pre-Trial Intervention Program. If Landry successfully completes it, charges for falsifying public records and conspiring to file falsified records in connection with former District Attorney Harry Morel Jr.’s federal case would be dropped.
Chaisson emphasized Landry will be prosecuted if he fails to meet any terms of the agreement, but called the agreement fair considering Morel, who is believed to have requested the falsified documents from Landry, has not been charged in the case.
“Clearly, the most culpable player in the activities for which Mr. Landry was arrested is Harry Morel who utilized his position of power as an assistant district attorney to pressure Mr. Landry into reluctantly committing the acts for which he was arrested, but for which Harry Morel was not,” Chaisson states in the agreement.
Landry sent Chaisson a letter stating that he will resign from the hospital board on Sept. 14. Landry also agreed to “testify truthfully in any criminal case” instituted by the Justice Department against Morel on falsifying documents should any charges occur.
Landry was arrested on June 20 after the FBI’s New Orleans Public Corruption Unit and St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office recovered documents involving Morel and Landry. The two were implicated in having filed fraudulent public records with the St. Charles Parish District Attorney’s Office on behalf of Danelle Keim and two other women not identified by the FBI, the warrant states.
Landry was charged with four counts of filing false public records and four counts of conspiracy to file false records on Morel’s behalf.
In Keim’s case, Morel offered her assistance with a DWI charge in Lafourche Parish and then went to her St. Rose apartment on April 16, 2010 where he asked for sexual favors in return for it, according to the warrant. Keim pleaded guilty to the DWI charge after Morel secured an attorney to represent her, and then he assisted her by giving her 64 hours of community service that she did not have to perform and having Landry fabricate letters falsely stating it was done.
In a meeting videotaped by the FBI on July 23, 2012 at Keim’s apartment, Morel told Keim that he could not return to see her until “he got the papers,” according to the warrant. This is when Morel requested Landry’s assistance and, under Morel’s direction, got him to prepare the community service letters falsely stating she performed community service at the Luling-Boutte Lions Club.
Two letters were signed by Landry as “community service director of the Luling-Boutte Lions Charter President,” both of them stating Keim had done 32 hours each of community service. They were faxed to Lafourche Parish’s Community Service Department.
The arrest warrant also states Morel did the same for two women, unnamed by the FBI, who were arrested in St. Charles Parish for DWI, reckless operation of a vehicle and no driver’s license in 2012. Both approached Morel for help and he agreed to do it in return for meeting with him socially for apparent sexual favors.Again, Morel secured community service letters from Landry.
Along with resigning from the hospital board, Landry will also serve 128 hours of community service (the same amount of time Landry is accused of falsifying in public service documents for Morel) and pay $2,500 in program fees and restitution with the Sheriff’s Office.
Chaisson states the agreement is based on Landry eventually cooperating with the FBI investigation in Morel, as well as him being “a first-time offender with no criminal record whatsoever” and having a long history of community service in St. Charles Parish.
Morel pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to eliminate evidence against him with Keim, a key witness who aided the FBI investigation into accusations that Morel was trading leniency for sex.
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