State v. Gravois

234 So.3d 1151

STATE of Louisiana

v.Blaise GRAVOIS

NO. 17–KA–341

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fifth Circuit.

December 13, 2017

COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLANT, STATE OF LOUISIANA, Honorable Ricky L. Babin, Donald D. Candell, Charles S. Long, Robin C. O'Bannon

COUNSEL FOR PLAINTIFF/APPELLEE, STATE OF LOUISIANA, ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, Honorable Jeffrey M. Landry, Colin Clark

COUNSEL FOR DEFENDANT/APPELLEE, BLAISE GRAVOIS, Matthew S. Chester, Kerry J. Miller, Daniel J. Dysart

AMICUS CURIAE, LOUISIANA ASSOCATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS, Letty S. Di Giulio, Edward K. Alexander, Jr., Kyla Blanchard–Romanach

Panel composed of Judges Fredericka Homberg Wicker, Robert M. Murphy, and Stephen J. Windhorst

MURPHY, J.

Appellant, the State of Louisiana, appeals the trial court's grant of appellee-defendant's two motions to quash his five count indictment. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court's finding of prosecutorial misconduct and its determination that the indictment lacked the required notice to defendant, but reverse the portion of the trial court's judgment that dismissed any portion of defendant's bill of indictment. We remand the proceedings for any further action the trial court deems necessary with respect to prosecutorial misconduct, and to allow the State to comply with the trial court's prior order to file a bill of particulars.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On September 28, 2016, a St. James Parish grand jury returned a Bill of Indictment charging appellee-defendant, Blaise Gravois, (hereinafter referred to as "defendant") with five counts of malfeasance in office, violations of La. R.S. 14:134. Defendant pled not guilty to all counts at his arraignment on November 14, 2016. On January 30, 2017, defendant filed a motion for a bill of particulars.¹ On February 10, 2017, the State filed an answer to defendant's bill of particulars, in which it alleged that "defendant does not file an actual Motion for Bill of Particulars, but instead, gives examples of what he perceives as the lack of factual particularities in the indictment." The State then offered what it styled as a response to "bullet points" listed in defendant's memorandum. The trial court granted defendant's second motion for a bill of particulars on March 30, 2017. The trial court gave the State 15 days from the date of the Order, until April 14, 2017, to file the bill of particulars.

Defendant filed a "Motion to Dismiss/Quash the Indictment On the Basis of Prosecutorial Misconduct, or Alternatively, Motion to Dismiss/Quash Count 1 of the Indictment on the Basis of Prosecutorial Misconduct, and Request for Evidentiary Hearing," and a "Motion to Dismiss/Quash the Indictment on the Basis of Lack of Notice," both of which were set to be heard on April 10, 2017. On April 3, 2017, the State filed a motion to continue defendant's motions, which was denied.² At the April 10, 2017 hearing on defendant's motions to quash, the trial court indicated that it was not going to hold the motions to quash open pending the State's completion of the bill of particulars. On April 25, 2017, the trial court issued a ruling with reasons which granted both of defendant's motions to quash and dismissed defendant's Bill of Indictment in its entirety. The State timely sought the instant appeal.

FACTS

This matter comes before us in a pre-trial posture and, therefore, the record before us is limited. The following facts were extracted from our review of the record, as well as evidence adduced at the hearing on defendant's exceptions.

In its Bill of Indictment, the State alleges that defendant, in his capacity as the St. James Parish Director of Operations and Public Works, committed malfeasance in office when he utilized the resources of St. James Parish for the benefit of a private business, and other individuals, on five separate occasions. With respect to Count 1, the State alleged that defendant

gave/donated/loaned approximately 4500 feet of gas line and a 10,000–unit gas meter and supplies to Millennium Galvanizing and also authorized St. James Parish employees to install the gas line and meter on the private property of Millennium Galvanizing on Winnie Road at a cost to St. James Parish of approximatelythirty-three thousand two hundred seventy-nine and 84/100 ($33,279.84) dollars or more without a contract with Millennium Galvanizing for the payment of the gas line, meter and labor costs, for the cost of the gas, or the use of or transportation or distribution of gas through parish lines. Millennium Galvanizing, a private corporation was given/loaned all the materials, labor and usage at the sole cost and expense of the Parish of St. James, in violation of La. R S 42:1461 whereby a public employee shall not misappropriate, misapply, convert, misuse, or otherwise wrongfully take any funds, property, or other thing of value belonging to or under the custody or control of St. James Parish.

Counts 2 through 5, alleged in summary, that defendant committed malfeasance in separate acts, to wit: 2) authorizing the parish's cost of mobilization and pile-driving on private property when the work "served no legitimate public purpose;" 3) authorizing the use of public employees and public equipment to remove a shed from private property upon request of the land owner when the work "served no legitimate public purpose"; 4) authorizing the use of public employees and public equipment to demolish a private mobile home upon request of the land owner when the work "served no legitimate public purpose" and; 5) authorizing the use of public employees and public equipment to remove a playhouse and debris on a private lot when the work "served no legitimate public purpose."

In his motion to dismiss/quash due to prosecutorial misconduct, defendant focused primarily on Count 1 of the Bill of Indictment, and asserted that the State had violated his right to due process by deliberately interfering:

"in a business arrangement between the Parish of St. James (the "Parish") and Millennium Galvanizing ("Millennium"), which interference prohibited Millennium from honoring an agreement—made prior to the instant Indictment—to pay the Parish for the cost of labor and materials in connection the installation of a gas line (and related equipment) for Millennium. This payment would undeniably be considered Brady evidence and the State's interference has destroyed the opportunity for this payment, which would have directly contradicted the State's theory in this case, as well as the allegations contained in the Indictment."

Defendant also argued that at the time St. James Parish sought to enforce the "arrangement" with Millennium Galvanizing for the cost of the gas line, St. James Parish was informed that "despite the prior agreement and its desire to honor that agreement, it was instructed not to pay these funds back to the Parish. " [Emphasis as in the original.] Defendant contended that "[t]his directive appears to have originated from Bruce Mohon, Esq., an Assistant District Attorney, who is the genesis of the investigation and prosecution of this case." Defendant concluded that the State's interference in prohibiting the payment from Millennium to St. James Parish qualified as the destruction of "materially exculpatory" evidence, as the payment itself "would expressly contradict the Indictment's allegations that Mr. Gravois 'gave' or 'donated' Parish resources to Millennium."

In his Motion to Dismiss/Quash the Indictment on the Basis of Lack of Notice, defendant argued that he could not have known that the conduct alleged in the Bill of Indictment was illegal, given that it was not alleged he received a personal, financial benefit from the alleged misconduct. Defendant also asserted that the alleged acts of malfeasance were conducted as part of the "duties of his job—activities which have never before been declared unlawful."

At the hearing on defendant's motions to quash, Brad Meyers, an attorney with the Kean Miller law firm in Baton Rouge testified that, in 2014, his firm represented Crest Industries, and its subsidiary Millennium Galvanizing, while Millennium was building its St. James Parish plant. Meyers referenced a letter from May of 2014, in which St. James Parish agreed to install a gas line. Meyers' interpretation of the letter was that Millennium agreed to compensate St. James Parish for the installation of a gas line. To his knowledge, defendant never promised Millennium that the gas line would be installed for free.³ On or about September 1, 2016,⁴ after Millennium received a bill from St. James Parish for installation of the gas line, Meyers contacted Charles Long, an assistant district attorney ("ADA") to ask what he should do about the bill. Long told Meyers that he knew nothing of the invoice. Following that communication, Meyers got a call at the end of September from Alvin St. Pierre, Chairman of the St. James Parish Council. St. Pierre told Meyers that St. James Parish was not sure if the amount on the invoice was accurate and for Millennium not to pay the invoice at that time. Then, near the end of December of 2016, after defendant had been indicted, Meyers again communicated with St. Pierre in response to an inquiry from the Finance Director for St. James Parish to Millennium as to why the outstanding invoice had not been paid. St. Pierre then directed Meyers to talk about the matter with the parish's attorney, ADA Bruce Mohon.⁵ Meyers testified that Millennium would have paid the invoice for installation of the gas line, but for the calls with St. Pierre and Mohon.

On cross examination, Meyers testified that Millennium never had a contract in place to purchase gas from St. James Parish. In April of 2016, Millennium received, arguably in error, a $22,000 bill from St. James Parish for gas that it had never purchased.

Alvin St. Pierre, Jr., testified that he became Chairman of the St. James Parish Council on January 11, 2016. St. Pierre was not aware of any inducements that Millennium was...