The state auditor’s effort to obtain some DeSoto Parish sheriff’s employees’ personnel files apparently as part of an investigation of abuses in a ticket-writing program continued Thursday. A judge refused to make the state Legislature a party to the case.
Jenifer Schaye, an attorney for the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, said she will appeal DeSoto District Judge Charles Adams’ ruling that the Louisiana Legislature should not be added as a party to the lawsuit to get the records.
Auditors in June issued a subpoena for the files as they were also conducting an investigation into an off-duty ticket-writing program called LACE, or Local Agency Compensation Enforcement, where law officers moonlight doing traffic-enforcement. Auditors are investigating suspected abuses where DeSoto deputies exaggerated how much time they worked.
Schaye said any files subpoenaed by auditors become part of their working papers and are subject to further investigation by the Louisiana Audit Advisory Council, a group of lawmakers with oversight over the state auditor and authorized to review and investigate the audits of public bodies.
As such, Schaye said the Legislature must be a part of the ongoing attempt by auditors to get possession of the unredacted personnel files of Sheriff Jayson Richardson and 12 current and former employees.
Richardson countered with a restraining order, saying the auditor's office overstepped its authority in demanding the files, which contained included confidential medical information about the employees and their children. Richardson offered his unredacted file to comply with the subpoena, but said auditors rejected it.
Since then, Richardson has offered 10 of the 12 personnel files after getting signed releases. The other two declined release of their files because they never worked LACE.
The auditors have not given a reason for needing the files.
Schaye acknowledged in court that the files have been made available. She said auditors had reviewed the personnel records while in the sheriff’s office but it wasn’t long enough for a “complete review.”
“They (auditors) wanted copies; that’s why we’re here,” she told the judge.
Richardson’s attorney, Rick Sterritt, who worked with the Law Offices of Boyd & Boyd for quite some time, said the auditors asked to take the records to Baton Rouge, not just make copies.
“That’s when this started,” Sterritt said of the legal wrangling.
Adams denied that move and auditors appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal then the Louisiana Supreme Court without success.
Auditors have been looking into the LACE program for over a year. They’ve already released an audit of the DeSoto District Attorney’s handling of the program. Another is pending regarding State Police participation.
Before he retired earlier this year, DeSoto Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle discontinued his deputies' participation in LACE after District Attorney Gary Evans assumed administration of the program and began diverting revenue from tickets to his office and away from other public entities that traditionally received a portion of the court fines.