United States v. Broussard, 2:11-CR-299
| Decision Date | 11 July 2014 |
| Docket Number | 2:11-CR-299,2:14-CV-432 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. AARON F. BROUSSARD. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
Before the Court is Aaron Broussard's motion to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and his motion for discovery. D.E. 250, 271. The government opposed both. D.E. 270, 273. The Court denies both motions, but grants him a certificate of appealability.
The Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331.
Aaron Broussard, the former president of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, was indicted in December 2011 for conspiracy to commit payroll fraud, wire fraud, and theft from programs receiving federal funds, with his former wife Karen Parker and former parish attorney Thomas Wilkinson. D.E. 1.1 Broussard became parish president of Jefferson Parishin 2003, was re-elected in 2007 and remained in that position until he resigned in January 2010. Id. As parish president, Broussard was responsible for the administration and supervision of parish departments, offices, agencies and special districts. He hired Tom Wilkinson as parish attorney and with Wilkinson's help hired Parker, with whom he became romantically involved and later married. Parker was hired as a paralegal supervisor for the parish, a position for which she was in no way qualified and that she could not and did not perform. For Wilkinson's part, he signed off on Parker's raises and other personnel benefits, and in return, received substantial pay raises himself.
The indictment was superseded twice. The Second Superseding Indictment was issued as to Broussard and Wilkinson in July 2012 in which additional details were added to the conspiracy count, including allegations that Broussard received pay-offs from a company that sought to do business with Jefferson Parish. The new charge as to Broussard included bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds in Counts Two through Six. Broussard and Wilkinson were charged in Counts Seven through Twenty-Three with wire fraud. Both were also charged with theft concerning programs receiving federal funds in Counts Twenty-Four through Twenty-Seven. D.E. 117.2
Ultimately, in September 2012, Broussard pled guilty to Counts One and Twenty-Seven with a plea agreement in which he waived his right to appeal or to collaterally attack his judgment. D.E. 198. Pursuant to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Broussard was rearraigned and the Court3 accepted his guilty plea on September 25, 2012. D.E. 202.
During rearraignment, the Court found that Broussard was competent, understood his right to counsel, was satisfied with the performance of counsel, and understood his trial rights, including his right to a trial by jury at which the government would have to prove all of the elements of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Brossard waived his right to trial and waived his right to silence. Id., pp. 8-9. The Court also found that Broussard understood the charges against him and the consequences of his guilty plea. Id., pp.10-18. The Court found Broussard's plea was knowing and voluntary and not the result of force, threat, or promise of leniency. Broussard testified it was his own decision to plead guilty because he was guilty. Id., p. 18.4 The Court found that Broussard conferred with counsel regarding theplea agreement and understood the terms of the agreement, including his waivers of his right to appeal or to collaterally attack his conviction or sentence.5 The Court additionally found that Broussard was not promised a specific sentence. Id., pp. 18-21. After consulting withcounsel, Broussard agreed to the facts related to his crimes as set out by the government. There was factual basis for the Court's finding of guilt. Id., pp. 25-33. At no time since has Broussard attempted to withdraw his plea of guilty or assert his innocence of the charges.
After deciding various sentencing guideline issues favorably to Broussard, the Court sentenced him to 46 months on Count One and the same for Count Twenty-Seven on February 28, 2013. The sentences were to be served concurrently and to be followed by three years supervised release for each count to be served concurrently, a special assessment of $200.00, and restitution in the amount of $214,209.94. Additionally, Broussard was to forfeit $66,000. D.E. 237. He did not appeal, but timely filed the present motion.
During Broussard's prosecution, the United States Attorney was investigating a variety of public corruption cases, some of which also implicated Broussard. During these various prosecutions, the misconduct of two attorneys in the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District was uncovered. It first came to light that Sal Perricone, senior litigation counsel in that office, was blogging anonymously on criminal justice matters, including cases prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office. The blogging occurred on the newspaper internet site for the New Orleans Times-Picayune in the form of comments to various news articles regarding various criminal justice and political matters. Perricone's blogging under various pseudonyms was highly critical of the New Orleans Police Department, as well as Broussardand a number of other high profile individuals who were being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office.6
In March 2012, the U.S. Attorney announced that Perricone blogged anonymously. Perricone then resigned. United States v. Mouton, 2013 WL 2455934 at *3 (E.D. La., June 5, 2013) (designated unpublished); United States v. Bowen, 969 F. Supp.2d 518, 521 n.4 (E.D. La. 2012).
Eight months later, in November 2012, it was determined that First Assistant to the United States Attorney of the Eastern District, Jan Mann, posted online comments on the newspaper site, including comments about ongoing prosecutions. Mouton, 2013 WL 2455934 at *3; Bowen, 969 F. Supp.2d at 530. She was demoted immediately and resigned in December 2012. Mouton, 2013 WL 2455934 at *3. Jim Letten, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District also resigned in December 2012. Id.
Additional misconduct was discovered on the part of Karla Dobinski, a member of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, who worked on a prosecution involving members of the New Orleans Police Department. She too posted anonymously on the New Orleans website during the trial of the case on which she was assisting. Her misconduct was discovered in May 2013. United States v. Bowen, 969 F. Supp.2d 546, 616 (E.D. La. 2012).
Following Broussard's indictment in December 2011, Broussard filed a pro se motion for formal inquiry alleging that the secrecy of the grand jury had been violated based upon media reports the day before the indictment was returned that Broussard's indictment was imminent. D.E. 9. Broussard supplemented his pro se motion to include additional reports from the media, including a report that target letters were sent to Broussard and his co-defendants less than a week after the letters had been delivered. D.E. 10. The Court dismissed the motion without prejudice after Broussard hired counsel. D.E. 28.
In May 2012, the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice took over several cases from the local U.S. Attorney's Office after Perricone's conduct was uncovered. D.E. 82. Broussard also sought recusal of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana based upon the revelation that the Senior Litigation Counsel posted opinions on the newspaper website anonymously regarding matters before the U.S. Attorney's office. Broussard also claimed that a member of the Eastern District's office leaked grand jury materials and information. D.E. 83.
The government responded and additional briefing was done by all parties. D.E. 94, 100, 110, 112. The Court denied Broussard's motion for an evidentiary hearing, but instead ordered the United States to file, under seal, for the Court's inspection the results of the investigation conducted by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District. D.E. 113.
Jan Mann, the First Assistant to the U.S. Attorney, signed the report of internal investigation in which she claimed that Sal Perricone had no supervisory responsibilities in the Broussard case. According to Mann's report, the internal investigation revealed no other bloggers or any knowledge of Perricone's blogging within the office, found no leaks of grand jury information, and argued the Office should not be recused. D.E. 204-1. After reviewing the sealed report by Mann,7 the Court denied the motion to recuse the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana in July 2012. D.E. 115. The Court later learned that Mann's report of the U.S. Attorney's Office internal investigation was demonstrably false because it omitted any mention of her own blogging.
Broussard filed a motion for a change of venue on the ground that pretrial publicity would prevent a fair trial and argued that prejudice should be presumed. D.E. 150.8 The government opposed the request. D.E. 157. Broussard pled guilty before the Court was scheduled to hear argument on the motion.
In late November 2012, two months after Broussard pled guilty, Jim Letten, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana advised the Court of the following:
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