UPDATE: A jury deliberated around two hours Thursday before returning a verdict in the Gary Haynes trial: Guilty on all counts.
Haynes, a longtime prosecutor in Lafayette, was convicted of conspiracy to engage in bribery; bribery; two counts use of a cell phone to facilitate bribery; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and obstruction of justice. He now faces up to 60 years in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million or more.
After the jury was dismissed, U.S. District Judge David C. Joseph said Haynes could remain free on his pretrial conditions, ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for December 17 at 10 a.m.
Haynes' attorney Todd Clemons tells KATC they do plan to appeal.
"We gave it our best shot, we left it all on the field. It was a pleasure to represent Gary, and we will continue to fight for him. We will explore all his appellate rights, and we do plan on appealing once he gets sentenced. We respect the jury's verdict, but we thought there was reasonable doubt."
The verdict comes roughly a decade after Haynes' spouse pleaded guilty in a bribery scheme, also involving the District Attorney's Office; she served time in federal prison. To read more about that, click here. His wife now is ill; her health issues were the subject of a Motion to Continue earlier this year, which was denied. Clemons said caring for his spouse while trying to prepare for a trial was difficult for Haynes and his children but he has a good support system of family and friends.
Thursday morning, jurors heard from the judge and both sides before they retired to deliberate.
In the closing arguments, jurors heard two versions: Gary Haynes is either a corrupt public servant who sold his oath for the promise of cash and a truck, or an honorable man who was the victim of an overzealous federal investigation looking for a fall guy.
Haynes was indicted last fall; to read the indictment, scroll down. He was accused of using his position over the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Pretrial Diversion program to solicit bribes from companies that provided required programs to people who participated in the program.
The trial started last week and testimony was complete on Wednesday. Thursday morning began with Joseph reading the law and instructions to jurors, and then they heard closing arguments from Assistant U.S. Attorney John Nickel and defense attorney Todd Clemons, himself a former federal prosecutor. Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Walker provided the rebuttal closing for the government.
Nickel used an electronic presentation with embedded audio and video clips to show jurors the evidence he argued proved the elements of each offense Haynes is accused of. The investigation began in July 2021 when the FBI got a tip about Joseph Prejean shaking down defendants who were facing charges in the 15th Judicial District. The wiretaps began with him, and expanded to Dusty Guidry and Haynes based on information gathered on those tapes.
Prejean, Guidry and Scott businessman Leonard Franques already have pleaded guilty. Early on, Franques agreed to work with the FBI and recorded and filmed several conversations with Guidry and Haynes. Guidry testified during the trial.
According to the government's theory of the case, Guidry and Haynes began working in the pretrial diversion program shortly after Don Landry was elected District Attorney. Franques was making money by offering classes to participants in the program for a fee; he was splitting the fee with Guidry and Haynes in exchange for their efforts to get him more customers. Haynes paid the two men more than $219,000 to "buy in" to the scheme, and resurrected along-dormant LLC in order to serve as a depositor for some of the graft, along with more bribes coming from Franques in connection with a similar scheme involving the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
But Clemons said there was no credible evidence that Haynes committed any crime.
"The government built their entire case on a con man," Clemons said. "Dusty Guidry conned our client, he conned the federal government and he conned the Department of Justice. But thank God, he didn't con you."
The money Haynes contributed was to invest in a legit business, Clemons said.
"We have a bribery case without a bribe," Clemons said. Instead, he argued, Guidry had conned his client out of more than $200,000.
Clemons said Haynes was selected as the fall guy after the FBI raided the DA's office back in 2022.
"They were all afraid when the FBI kicked in that door, and self-preservation kicked in. Every man for himself, and the good Lord for us all," Clemons said. "But somebody had to go down, somebody with a title was going down. And it can't be Mr. Don, everybody's favorite uncle. Everybody knows that we've got to give the feds a prize - so we're going to blame little Gary."
It was "Mr. Don," District Attorney Don Landry, who brought his "dirty" friends - Prejean and Guidry - into the pretrial program.
"Don Landry put two foxes in the hen house. The first fox was Joe Prejean, who is crooked as crooked can be. He's as corrupt as corrupt can be. The second fox was Dusty Guidry," Clemons said. "He found out the foxes were foxes - and he left them in the hen house."
After Guidry was arrested for drug charges, Landry announced he was suspended - but told the pretrial diversion staff he was still a part of the team and they could continue to call him with questions. Eventually, he brought Guidry back on the job.
"Actually, he never left," Clemons said, adding that Landry wanted to keep Guidry around because Guidry was "good for business."
After Clemons finished his argument, Walker gave the rebuttal argument. The government gets two bites at the closing apple because they have the burden of proof, the judge explained.
Walker said the jury doesn't need to look very hard to find credible evidence that Haynes was involved in a bribery scheme.
"You sat through 20 different calls where the defendant was describing the criminal activity he was participating in," Walker said.
He asked jurors to use their common sense to evaluate what they heard during the course of the trial.
"The FBI followed the evidence. That's how they work a case," Walker said.
Aside from statements from Guidry, Prejean and Franques, the FBI also had statements from DA employees who found Haynes to be a lazy co-worker who didn't come to work much - until the scheme is alleged to have begun, Walker said.
"And all of a sudden, Gary Haynes is motivated to push these cases through the pretrial intervention program," Walker said.
Guidry was a participant, "but you don't need him to prove that Gary Haynes is guilty," Walker argued. "I'm not here to support Dusty Guidry. There's no question he was doing bad things. But the calls, the statements this defendant was making were consistent with what Dusty Guidry testified to."
The only person jurors need to listen to is Haynes, he said.
"His own words convict him," Walker said. "His words convict him of those crimes."
The trial started last week. To read about that, click here.
KATC Investigates has been covering this case for several years; here's some background on this case:
The indictment alleges that Haynes, 66, of Lafayette, conspired with Dusty Guidry, Leonard Franques, and others to solicit bribes and kickbacks and to accept things of value while Haynes was an Assistant District Attorney in the 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Guidry and Franques already have pleaded guilty, along with a business owner, Joseph Prejean. Franques pleaded guilty on January 12, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Guidry pleaded guilty on March 23, 2023, to two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Prejean pleaded guilty in December 2023 to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official in the Lafayette Parish District Attorney's Office. All three men are scheduled to be sentenced next month; Guidry has testified but Franques and Prejean did not.
According to the indictment, Haynes oversaw the D.A.’s Office’s Pretrial Intervention (PTI) program–a program that offered an alternative to criminal prosecution for certain criminal offenders. Haynes approved defendants to participate in the program and then directed them to take classes from Franques’ companies.
Haynes is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, two counts of using his cell phone in aid of bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
After his indictment, we reached out to Clemons, who sent us the following statement:
"Gary is relieved that he can finally commence the process of clearing his good name. Gary is a good and hardworking man. He served the citizens of Lafayette Parish with distinction for many years. He has lived under the cloud, and the enormous stress, of overtly being investigated by our federal government for well over two years.
"The prosecutors authored an Indictment that tells a false story. A falsehood created by weak and less than honorable men pressured into cooperating with the Department of Justice. Gary Joseph Haynes is an honorable man of integrity. He will stand tall and fight these false allegations until he is exonerated by twelve of his peers."
Here's a copy of the indictment against Haynes:
To read more background from KATC Investigates, click here and here.
