Former recall leader, already in jail, sentenced for theft

By Jeff Moore THE DAILY IBERIAN
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 3:48 PM CST

A New Iberia man was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for rolling back the mileage of state surplus cars and selling them for profit, the latest in a series of theft charges against him.

Greg Johnson, 36, is currently serving 10 years in the LaSalle Correctional Center for billing the state for daycare services he did not provide and stealing property from his former landlord.

The new sentence will run concurrent with time Johnson has already served.

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Assistant Attorney General Stephen Martin said Johnson pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to theft of more than $500 and two counts of injuring public records.

Martin said Johnson, posing as the head of a non-profit agency, bought more than a dozen cars from the Louisiana Property Assistance Agency at a “vastly reduced price.”

Johnson then sold the cars in New Iberia, falsifying the sales prices in the bills of sale. He rolled back the odometer on at least one of the cars by more than 50,000 miles, Martin said.

“There was an exhaustive investigation,” Martin said. “The result was that he defrauded the LPAA and obtained things that did not belong to him.”

Johnson previously was convicted of defrauding the state of $17,900 in child-care assistance payments to his business, Sesame Street Daycare.

An attorney general’s investigation later found no daycare services were actually being provided there.

Johnson was also convicted of stealing appliances and other property from his landlord, J.D. Dugas.

He was placed on probation in both cases, but his probation was revoked when he was arrested on the newest charge.

“Mr. Johnson has consistently chosen to steal monies and things which did not belong to him through practices of fraud and deception,” Martin said. “He has been held accountable and now has an opportunity to reflect upon, what his guilty pleas clearly indicate, was wrong decision making.”

Johnson said the charges were the result of a “personal vendetta” by District Attorney Phil Haney. Johnson tried unsuccessfully to recall Haney in 2004.

“This whole thing was unfair,” he said. “This was planned where they could file multiple charges in multiple jurisdictions, so they could maximize the penalty that I got.”

Martin said Johnson would be eligible for good time release after five years.

Comments

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