Gov. Jeff Landry has ordered State Police to investigate the disposal of Orleans Parish criminal court files into a local landfill.
“The disposing of these case files is a disgusting abuse of power and a slap in the face to crime victims. Those who participated in the deliberate crime must be held accountable,” Landry said in a letter to Col. Robert P. Hodges of the Louisiana State Police.
Orleans Parish Criminal Clerk of Court Darren Lombard has also called for an investigation.
“At the end of the day, I want to get to the bottom of what happened and want the public to understand that we are fully transparent and that everything is clear and that this doesn’t happen again,” said Lombard.
Initially, Lombard said he thought the records were thrown away by accident.
“But after finding out that absolutely everyone knew what was at stake and how important those records were, it's making me wonder,” said Lombard.
Some of the files date back to 1950. Lombard said the records, which contain serious court cases, were improperly disposed of last month.
So far, more than 60 containers of files have been recovered. The city has found a building for storage, but is still finalizing the lease agreement. Lombard says some records had water and mildew damage since they weren’t stored properly.