St. Martinville – A St. Martin Parish grand jury did on Thursday what Lafayette District Attorney Don Landry refused to do this month, indicting former Lafayette Parish Mayor-President Josh Guillory on four felony counts of malfeasance in office for the Lafayette Consolidated Government’s actions in the removal of the St. Martin Parish Blanchet Site Spoil Bank in 2022.
Guillory, 43, was arrested on Thursday and booked into the St. Martin Parish Correctional Center on the four felony charges, and later released after posting a bond of $30,000.
The 15th Judicial District Attorney’s Office had declined to bring criminal charges in the case only a couple of weeks earlier for LCG’s role in removing a spoil bank in St. Martin Parish and taking the dirt directly across the Vermilion River to build a nine-foot levee on the Lafayette Parish banks of the river in 2022.
That decision had disappointed St. Martin Parish officials.
“It’s a sad day for the Cypress Island community when the 15th JD District Attorney doesn’t think it’s criminal to go into your neighbor’s back yard in the middle of the night and take something that’s not theirs and use it on their own side,” St. Martin Parish Council Chairman Chris Tauzin said.
A state legislative auditor’s report released in 2025 led to allegations of malfeasance and public bid law violations related to the removal of the spoil bank.
The work was contracted and funded by the LCG and took place one night in February of 2022.
The Legislative Auditor’s office released its findings after investigating the secret removal of the natural flood barriers under Guillory’s administration, leaving the Cypress Island community subject to potential flooding.
St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux was asked by 16th Judicial District Attorney Michael Haik III to start a criminal investigation into the removal of the spoil bank on Oct. 14, 2025.
Investigators with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office obtained a copy of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s investigative report and supporting documents.
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After reviewing those documents, it was determined that possible criminal violations had occurred in St. Martin Parish involving the removal of the spoil bank, which prompted further investigation.
On Jan. 12, following an extensive investigation, investigators with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office submitted the investigative file to the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Following a review of the file by the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, a grand jury was convened last week, resulting in the indictment and subsequent arrest.
St. Martin Parish President Pete Delcambre stressed that the St. Martin Parish Government’s position has been consistent since the spoil bank removal.
“St. Martin Parish’s position has always been the same,” Delcambre said. “Put the spoil bank back. Put the levee back, and the whole thing goes away.”
Flooding in 2016 occurred in the Cypress Island area with the spoil banks still in place. Removing them makes the community more vulnerable to the inevitable flooding that will happen along the Vermilion at some point, he said.
But he also stressed that those matters are dealing with something that happened years ago, and the two neighboring parishes must continue to work together to move South Louisiana forward.
“We are currently doing projects with LCG,” Delcambre said.
The legal matters began four years ago and will go on for at least another two years, he said, and LCG won’t begin to address the civil side of the issue until the criminal aspects have been put to rest.
St. Martin Parish and Lafayette Parish governments will continue to work together on projects that benefit the communities, he stressed.
