Prosecutors are expected to introduce the material when St. Pierre and Greg and Linda Meffert go to trial in January
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office alleges in new court documents that Belle Chasse tech vendor Mark St. Pierre paid kickbacks to the chief technology officers of Baton Rouge and Lafayette in exchange for work awarded by those cities' governments.
View full sizeEscorted by his attorney Edward Castaing Jr., Mark St. Pierre, center and his wife, Stacey, enter the Hale Boggs Federal Building to be arraigned at U.S. District Court on Nov. 12. The schemes, prosecutors contend, were similar in design if not in scope to the conspiracy St. Pierre and former New Orleans chief technology officer Greg Meffert are accused of carrying out at City Hall in New Orleans. For that reason, prosecutors intend to raise the allegations about Lafayette and Baton Rouge when St. Pierre, Meffert and Meffert's wife, Linda, go to trial Jan. 24.
In New Orleans, the government contends that St. Pierre paid the Mefferts more than $850,000 over four years in exchange for millions of dollars in no-bid technology work that Greg Meffert, in his capacity as a city official in Mayor Ray Nagin's administration, steered to St. Pierre's firms. While acknowledging the payments, Meffert and St. Pierre deny the quid pro quo, saying that St. Pierre was paying Meffert for helping him develop business in other cities.
The government's new motion says that in autumn 2005, St. Pierre hired the wife of the technology chief in Lafayette at $80 an hour under a contract St. Pierre had at New Orleans City Hall. St. Pierre invoiced the city for more than $100,000 for the work she did, the motion says. Those invoices were approved by Meffert, it says.
Around the same time, the motion says, the city of Lafayette hired NetMethods, a St. Pierre-owned company, for a $45,000 technology consulting contract. That contract "later evolved" into a deal for NetMethods to provide crime cameras to Lafayette through Dell Inc., the motion says. It does not specify the value of that contract, but records obtained by The Times-Picayune indicate the work was worth at least $141,000.
The motion also does not name the Lafayette technology chief or his wife directly. But Keith Thibodeaux was the chief information officer for Lafayette's city-parish government in 2005, and he remains in that position now. His name and signature are listed on several invoices appended to the government's motion. Moreover, e-mail messages obtained by The Times-Picayune in a public-records request show that Thibodeaux, Meffert and St. Pierre were in regular communication.
View full sizeLinda and Greg Meffert leave Federal Court Nov. 12, 2009.The government's motion also includes invoices from St. Pierre's firm that list Celeste Thibodeaux as an employee billing at $80 an hour.
Keith Thibodeaux did not return phone messages left at his office Tuesday. Nor did his boss, chief administrative officer Dee Stanley. Efforts to reach Celeste Thibodeaux were unsuccessful.
There is no record of any charges being filed against either Thibodeaux.
In Baton Rouge, according to prosecutors, when city officials were considering installing a crime-camera system in 2006, St. Pierre began "showering the Baton Rouge DIS (director of information systems) with gifts." Among the gifts, according to the motion, were tickets to "approximately four" New Orleans Saints games, a "50th birthday party extravaganza" and a number of overnight stays at New Orleans hotels.
NetMethods wound up winning the crime-camera deal in Baton Rouge as well, a job that was worth as much as $800,000.
Don Evans was the chief technology officer for Baton Rouge's city-parish consolidated government at the time in question. He remains in that position. He did not return phone or e-mail messages Tuesday, nor did his boss, John Carpenter, acting chief administrative officer.
There is no record of any charges being filed against Evans.
The government's motion does not estimate the value of the gratuities Evans allegedly received, although receipts from some of the events are included as exhibits to the motion. Among them: a receipt showing Evans spent three nights in early 2008 at the Drury Inn in New Orleans, for a total of $850. The same charge appears on St. Pierre's American Express statement.
Along with its allegations about kickback schemes in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, the prosecution's motion also alleges that St. Pierre's 57-foot yacht, the Silicon Bayou, "served as another form of compensation to reward public officials, including Gregory Meffert, who had awarded IT-related work to St. Pierre."
At least a half-dozen former city employees have said that Meffert claimed to own the boat and hosted parties and other events on it on a number of occasions.
The motion also says that Meffert set up a system at City Hall whereby St. Pierre's firms did not contract directly with City Hall. Instead, his companies were paid -- and theoretically overseen -- by a City Hall contractor, first Ciber and later Benetech. However, these firms were strictly "pass-through" entities that exercised no oversight of St. Pierre's firms, the motion says.
The government's motion serves as a warning to defense lawyers that prosecutors consider the allegations pertinent to the case against St. Pierre and the Mefferts, and will thus seek to introduce the material at trial.
Eddie Castaing, a lawyer for St. Pierre, and Randy Smith, a lawyer for Meffert, both declined comment on the new motion Tuesday.
Evans is also a defendant in a civil federal suit filed in Baton Rouge by Camsoft Data Systems Inc. That suit alleges that Camsoft was unfairly shut out of crime-camera contracts in New Orleans and Baton Rouge by underhanded tactics used by Meffert, St. Pierre and others.
Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3347.