UPDATE: The prosecution says that Gary Haynes joined a scheme to take kick-backs from people participating in a pretrial diversion program soon after Don Landry was elected District Attorney.
Haynes' attorney says that it was Don Landry who put everything in place - including the hiring of the "con man" who set up the scheme and the inclusion of a business man who was going to pay the kick-backs - and Gary Haynes was just the fall guy.
That's the gist of the opening statements in Hayne's federal bribery trial, which began on Monday.
The jury was selected Monday morning, and after a break the opening statements were made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Loew and Attorney Todd Clemons, representing Haynes.
After Landry was elected DA and took office in 2021, he put Haynes in charge of the pretrial diversion program - it's a program that allows people with no serious criminal record to pay a fee, take classes and participate in programs to get a criminal charge off their record.
Haynes was put in charge of the program, Dusty Guidry was hired as a "consultant" to support him and Leonard Franques was the owner of a business that offered the classes participants were required to complete in order to get their record cleared, Loew explained.
"That's the set-up," Loew said. (Haynes) "approves the participants and pushes them to Leonard Franques and Dusty Guidry. The more people who were pushed through, the more money, and the defendant gets to split the profits."
Loew promised the jury that Guidry and Franques would both testify, and that they would hear recorded conversations that would prove that Haynes was part of the scheme to make money off people trying to keep their record clear.
At least two participants shouldn't have been able to get in the program, he added, including a dentist who sexually assaulted a patient - and had been accused of doing it before - as well as one person who had two DWIs and got another while in the program.
One young man who got a DWI allegedly paid thousands up front to get into the program and gave Haynes alligator hides to make some shoes, Loew said. That was "such a good deal" the charge was dismissed up front, Loew said.
He acknowledged that Guidry is "a schemer" and that Franques began to cooperate with law enforcement after the FBI raided his house; he also said Haynes never made any money off the scheme - because the FBI shut it down before he could collect.
Clemons had a different take. He said Haynes never made any money because he wasn't a participant in the scheme. He described Guidry as "a con man" and scoffed at the alligator hide story.
"They want you to believe Gary Haynes is the dumbest public official who ever lived," Clemons says. "He says the FBI shut it down - they shut it down because after a year they had no evidence that Gary Haynes ever got a kick-back."
Instead, Clemons said Landry was the one who hired Guidry, because he was friends with Guidry's father. He said he threw business to Franques because Franques and his wife and donated thousands to Landry's campaign.
"They're going to try to minimize the impact of Don Landry and put it all on poor Gary Haynes," Clemons said. "Dusty Guidry woke up every day thinking of how to scheme and con people. You're going to see that. Don Landry brought Dusty Guidry on, and he brought him in for the moolah, to generate money for the DA's office with the PTI program. Don Landry brought him here. Not Gary Haynes."
And it was Guidry who told Landry's staff how the PTI program was going to work, "how the cow was going to eat the cabbage," Clemons said, not Haynes.
"In this case, you're going to get a hard look at Louisiana politics at its finest and at its worst," Clemons told the jury.
Landry was the first witness called by the prosecution, and he testified about how the PTI program was set up and why he wanted a focus on it. When he took office there was a backlog of more than 6,000 cases and he wanted to clear as many as he could.
He said that the PTI program was one that had operated under the prior DA, and that he used that DA's manual for the program. He said he used most of the prior DA's vendors for the classes, but added Franques because he knew Franques. He said he put Haynes in charge of the program because he'd known him since Haynes was 16 years old and Haynes worked on his campaign. He had some openings in his felony tracks, but because the majority of Haynes' work experience was in "misdemeanor law" he thought PTI was a better fit.
Some of the people who Landry identified as employees of the program when he took office are on the witness lists read in court Monday.
Landry said he put Haynes in charge of the program and expected him to run it, and only come to Landry if a major change or decision was necessary. He said he clearly remembered when the FBI raided his office to seize records of the PTI program, and that he talked to agents that night - and to his own attorney the following day.
The trial will resume at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, as Clemons begins his cross-examination of Landry.
Haynes was indicted last fall, accused of conspiracy, bribery and obstruction charges. To read the indictment, scroll down. He's 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.
On Monday morning, the court and attorneys in the case questioned several dozen potential jurors before seating a jury of six women and six men, plus two male and one female alternates. Of those jurors, two are black and the rest are white. Two alternates are black and one is white.
During their discussion with jurors, both sides read their list of witnesses. Among those on the government's list are District Attorney Don Landry, former District Attorney Keith Stutes and several attorneys. On the defendant's list are several local attorneys, including former Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory and former City-Parish Attorney Greg Logan, and former city court judge Michelle Odinet. On both lists are a drug court coordinator and a non-attorney employee of the District Attorney's Office.
Before jury selection began, U.S. District Judge David C. Joseph heard a Motion to Quash from four Acadiana attorneys who had been issued subpoenas but wanted them thrown out.
Barry Salinger, Allyson Melancon and Donald Cleveland, all criminal defense attorneys, and Assistant District Attorney Lance Beal all asked the court to quash their subpoenas.
The court was not receptive.
"I am not going to quash any subpoenas today," Joseph said, after stating that he had read their motions.
If there are any issues with attorney-client privilege, they can be raised during testimony and dealt with there, he said.
He said he had reviewed the legal argument raised in the Motions, and found that those rules applied to document-related subpoenas, not testimonial ones. He told the attorneys they would be under the rule of sequestration starting immediately, meaning they were not allowed to talk about the case with anyone.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Walker is prosecuting the case, and Lake Charles attorney and former federal prosecutor Todd Clemons is defending Haynes.
If convicted on all six charges, Haynes faces a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million or more; the conspiracy to launder money allows a fine twice the value of any money he's convicted of trying to launder.
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 later this month.
Guidry, Franques and Prejean all are set to testify during the trial.
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:
KATC Investigates has been covering this case for more than two years. To read more background, click here and here.
