Tim Whitmer's sweet deal a bad omen for Aaron Broussard: Stephanie Grace

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on January 22, 2012 at 7:18 AM, updated January 22, 2012 at 9:26 AM
tim_whitmer_dawn_whitmer.JPGTim and Dawn Whitmer

Oh, yeah, Tim Whitmer.

Remember when the sprawling Jefferson Parish probe was all about the former chief administrative officer and his side insurance company, Lagniappe Industries, which turned out to be doing business with all sorts of folks who had relationships with the parish?

Before the scandal grew so big that it took down Whitmer's boss, Parish President Aaron Broussard -- and before it spread to the River Birch landfill company, not just its $160 million sanitation deal with Jefferson Parish but also its aggressive move to block a rival dump in New Orleans -- it seemed as if Whitmer would go down as the face of corruption run amok, Jefferson Parish-style.

Yet while the investigations into Broussard's actions and River Birch's tentacles slowly, steadily and publicly unfolded, Whitmer somehow faded into the background. Instead, all the news has been about the payroll fraud indictment against Broussard, former Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson and Broussard's ex-wife Karen Parker, which was limited to shenanigans surrounding Parker's job, and about the unorthodox methods River Birch used to pursue its far-reaching interests.

Anyone who still thought about Whitmer at all had to wonder: Did the feds no longer find him interesting, and move on to more promising targets? Or had he been quietly talking all along?

Friday's bill of information against Whitmer, which his attorney acknowledges is the precursor to a guilty plea, points straight towards the latter possibility.

Federal officials don't say so, but by charging Whitmer with just one count of misprision of a felony, they cut him the sweetest sort of deal, the kind you only get if you cooperate quickly and fully. Whitmer now faces just three years in prison max -- compared to the nearly 600 Broussard and Wilkinson face for the payroll fraud indictment. (Parker, who pleaded guilty last week to the same charge that Whitmer faces, will also get a vastly reduced sentence in exchange for her cooperation).

Nor did prosecutors name his wife Dawn, who Whitmer initially claimed handled the bulk of Lagniappe's business. Contrast that with the case of former New Orleans tech chief Greg Meffert, whose initial indictment also named his accountant wife Linda, in a move that was clearly aimed at giving prosecutors leverage. It worked; Meffert eventually pleaded guilty and testified against his lead contractor Mark St. Pierre, and charges against Linda Meffert were dropped.

The bill of information also tiptoed right past Whitmer's most sordid behavior.

This was a guy who had no qualms about using his public e-mail account to do Lagniappe business, leaning on his employees to buy what he was selling, and even soliciting gifts from Broussard's appointees.

Whitmer also played a controversial lead role in promoting the quarter-century-long, $6.4 million annual River Birch contract, including publicly touting rosy savings projections that his own finance department didn't know about. Lagniappe just happened to do insurance work for River Birch, as well as a host of other big contractors.

Lagniappe also did business with St. John the Baptist Parish, at the same time that the Broussard administration recommended expanding a Jefferson parish contract with a company owned by then-St. John Parish President Bill Hubbard. Hubbard later pleaded guilty in an unrelated corruption case.

Then there was the very first stinky deal to come to light, Lagniappe's arrangement to share commissions with a broker who handled supplemental health insurance policies for parish-owned West Jefferson Medical Center's employees.

Meanwhile, Whitmer's firm hired Broussard to do "legal work," and Broussard actively solicited business on Lagniappe's behalf.

Despite all this, Whitmer wound up accused of just one count of knowing that a felony took place. Not committing a felony, just knowing that one was being committed. What felony? According to the legal documents, Parker's payroll scam and "the contract selection process." Theoretically that would be the same process that led to what the feds, in Parker's documents, described as hundreds of thousands in payments from parish contractors and vendors to Broussard.

So if Parker's plea should worry the former parish president, news that his No. 2 is cooperating should send a chill up his spine.

Whitmer knows stuff, all right. And now the feds will know it too -- on the off chance that they don't already.

