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The have come fast. The investigation behind them has not.

LATEST:��Councilman Cleve Dunn indicted in Baton Rouge public corruption case

In a one-week span, and a sitting councilman in an investigation of allegations that Baton Rouge public officials accepted bribes and used their positions to funnel government funds.

The recent events come six weeks after ����h Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office charged a local developer with financial crimes related to public funds and document fraud.

It’s all part of a three-year-old probe that has involved both the AG and the FBI, according to arresting documents and sources with direct knowledge.

For some inside city hall, the sudden burst of arrests came less as a shock than a confirmation of what subpoenas and years of whispers had already suggested — and that the investigation may not be finished.

“I’d consider this case substantial,” said Baton Rouge DA Hillar Moore, who is not directly involved in the investigation. “From just what I’ve read in the newspaper, I really think this is going to expand beyond what we’ve seen so far.”

Years in the making

On Jan. 14, a special grand jury indicted former Capital Area Transit System Chief Administrative Officer Pearlina Thomas and contractor Jay Colar on multiple counts of theft, conspiracy and misuse of public funds.

Prosecutors allege Thomas conspired with an unindicted co-conspirator named in the indictment only as “C.D.” — identified by a source with direct knowledge of the investigation as Metro Council member Cleve Dunn Jr. — to steer a $50,000 contract to Colar’s company, Supreme Solutions.

Most of that money ended up in the hands of a different company identified as “C.G.”, prosecutors say, which a source identified as Core Group, a company owned by Dunn.

A week after those charges were filed, Murrill’s investigation, headed by Assistant Attorney General Alex Calenda, resulted in two more people being added to that indictment. Husband and wife TJ Jackson and Erica Jackson were charged with theft and conspiracy.

The Jacksons are accused of entering into an administrative contract with CATS but instead using that taxpayer money to illegally campaign for an upcoming tax renewal that would fund the agency.

All four defendants have been charged on the same count of conspiracy to commit theft, and court records also implicate a fifth unindicted co-conspirator identified as “C.D.”

According to arresting documents for the CATS charges, the investigation dates back at least to 2022 and involves the FBI and the ����h Bureau of Investigation, the arm of the AG’s office that conducts major investigations.

“The LBI received a request for assistance from the FBI regarding allegations of public officials who allegedly accepted bribes and misused their positions to influence CATS procurement contracts to receive government funding,” LBI agent Phillip Vitter wrote in arrest warrants filed in court on Jan. 21.

The LBI took over the probe of CATS in December 2024, documents show, but FBI agents interviewed people implicated years before. In 2022, FBI agents interviewed both Thomas and Colar.

Investigators say those interviews prompted “conflicting answers” from Thomas and provided evidence of falsified records. They also found text messages from Colar’s phone that agents said had been altered to remove key information.

In December, Murrill’s office arrested and charged Baton Rouge developer Bradly Brown on seven total counts of theft, bank fraud, money laundering and falsifying public records. The city-parish in 2021 awarded Brown a $6 million deal using federal funds to build a low-income housing complex in Scotlandville.

Murrill’s office has offered few comments on either case.

“This is a continuing investigation,” spokesperson Lester Duhé said in a text Friday. “Additional charges may follow.”

‘This isn’t the end of the story’

For some with inside knowledge of city hall, Brown’s arrest and the recent CATS indictments follow years of rumored subpoenas, law enforcement investigations and whispers about corruption.

“We've been hearing rumors for years now, and now the indictments are coming out, which lends truth to the rumors that we've been hearing,” said Metro Council member Jen Racca.

Most disheartening to Racca is the impact these crimes, if proven, will have on the city-parish government going forward, she said. Racca fears it’ll breed further mistrust about the government and fuel paranoia from the public in general.

“It also will strain relationships with my colleagues and I on the council,” she said. “It’s incredibly impactful and incredibly sad.”

An attorney with criminal defense experience, Racca also believes there is more to come.

“Based upon my knowledge of the criminal justice system and the way that the indictments are currently written, it leads me to believe that there's more here,” she said. “This isn’t the end of the story.”

Top officials in Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ administration said in September that they were aware of investigations into possible misuse of tax dollars by public officials in recent years.

Emails obtained by ����h at that time showed that Office of Community Development Director Kelly LeDuff met with federal investigators and turned over records related to housing projects that preceded Edwards’ tenure.

One in particular was a $450,000 city-parish funded rehab project on Central Road awarded to developer Jason Hughes, though LeDuff told Louisian he was not sure if the federal probe was targeting Hughes or former city hall staffers.

In a statement Friday, Edwards said he was unaware of all the details regarding the CATS indictments, but pointed out that the activities in question occurred in 2021 and 2022 when he was coaching high school football.

After taking office, he said he ordered a review of all federal and state projects and programs to prevent any misuse of tax dollars.

“We examined policies and procedures and made revisions where necessary to ensure compliance with laws, rules and regulations,” Edwards said. ”I strongly believe that all individuals are innocent until proven otherwise.”

Accusations that public officials took bribes or funneled taxpayer money through fraudulent contracts is cause for concern, city officials say.

“Anytime something like this comes up, all of it needs to be investigated to the fullest extent,” said Metro Council member Aaron Moak. “If these allegations come to fruition then they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent.”

If the accusations are proven true, Moak said he is “deeply” alarmed that no vetting process was able to catch any unethical or illegal practices.

“With the taxpayer dollars, you better be able to vet every single step that you took and every single process,” he said.

Why unindicted?

Moore has been DA since 2009. From his limited knowledge of the ongoing case, the scope of this white-collar case is as big as any in Baton Rouge during that tenure. From what he’s read in the news, the investigation looks far from over.

Moore’s first assistant district attorney, Tracey Barbera, said the money involved is what sets this particular case apart.

“When white collar crime that involves public funds, to me, that just brings it to a whole different level,” she said.

Cases involving an unindicted co-conspirator — in this instance, Dunn — are relatively uncommon, and the term itself is not widely understood by the public, Moore said.

An unindicted co-conspirator means that investigators believe that person is involved in the case, Moore said, but for a variety of reason, they are not a defendant.

“They still may be working other avenues and presenting other evidence regarding that unindicted co-conspirator,” Moore said. “Or in some cases they don’t have enough evidence at that point to indict that person.”

An unindicted co-conspirator’s words and actions can be used as evidence in a case against others charged, he added, just as if as if that unindicted co-conspirator was one of the defendants.

Moore and Barbera both noted that, on occasion, an unindicted co-conspirator is cooperating with investigators and has been offered immunity in exchange for evidence or testimony.

“But I don’t think that’s the case here,” Moore said.