ST. MARTIN PARISH — A St. Martin Parish grand jury has indicted former Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory on four felony counts of malfeasance in office stemming from the 2022 spoil bank removal project along the Vermilion River, escalating a years-long dispute that has included both criminal and civil proceedings.
The indictment follows an earlier decision by the 15th Judicial District Attorney to decline charges. The case now moves forward in St. Martin Parish, where leaders have continued to pursue civil litigation related to the spoil banks.
Guillory’s defense attorney, Kevin Stockstill, said the legal team plans to challenge the charges and intends to seek extensive records now that the case is formally before the court.
“Of course now that an indictment has been filed, we have the power of subpoena so we’ll be subpoenaing all the records that we can get from the Lafayette Consolidated Government emails and etcetera amongst the players and the people involved,” Stockstill said. “We either want the case dismissed or we want a judge or jury to return a not guilty verdict on each and every count of the indictment,” he added.
Stockstill also questioned whether the grand jury received a complete picture of events surrounding the project.
“There were a lot of witnesses that were not called to the grand jury that know a lot about what happened leading up to and through that project and so I don’t know that the grand jury got the entire picture,” Stockstill said.
He said they have not yet received notice of an arraignment date and are letting the legal process take its course.
On the civil side, former St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars said his focus remains on addressing the impact of the spoil bank removal and advancing the parish’s lawsuit against Lafayette Consolidated Government.
“Ive been invited to appear before the st.martin parish council at its next meeting, just to sit down and have a chat with them about where to from now, how do we get this thing expedited, that is the key, that is the focus,” Cedars said.
He cautioned that the process will take time.
“It’s not going to be an easy road, it's going to take a long time, we just got to make sure we keep the wheels of justice moving,” Cedars said.
St. Martin Parish Councilman Chris Tauzin issued a statement saying the parish remains committed to its civil case. The statement reads in full:
“St.Martin Parish want the citizens to know that we are still pursuing the civil case against lcg and working on restoring the spoiled banks back to there original state before they were removed in the middle of the night and placed on the Lafayette Parish side and we command sheriff Breaux and District Attorney Mike Haik for there efforts to protecting our citizens and making sure that those who break our laws are held responsible”
The criminal case now proceeds separately from the parish’s civil litigation as both sides prepare for the next phase in court.
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