BATON ROUGE — A wide-ranging probe of City Hall affairs ensnared another public employee Wednesday when a grand jury indicted a former top administrator for former mayor Sharon Weston Broome.

The panel named Courtney Scott in nine counts and also brought eight charges against Veronica Mathis, whose company provided assistance to Broome's "Safe Hopeful Healthy Baton Rouge" program. Scott oversaw Broome's "Healthy City" initiative, which benefited from the use of federal COVID-19 relief funds.

"That's a program that was under the previous administration, look several things came before the council, we approved it for what it was supposed to be for, what happened with that, you know it's a bad thing," East Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Aaron Moak said. 

Scott and Mathis each face allegations including conspiracy, theft, bribery, money laundering and public contract fraud, while Scott is also accused of malfeasance as a government employee.

Officials confirmed Mathis was booked into prison around 9:45 p.m.

Scott worked for Broome until July 2024, when she was accused of beating a man outside a Baton Rouge night club. She resigned, and a video of the incident popped up after a lawsuit was filed.

A probe led by the attorney general's office previously resulted in the indictment of five people with ties to the Capital Area Transit System, including Metro Council member Cleve Dunn Jr.

Tuesday, CATS' former administrator and a CATS contractor pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. According to the AG's office, the two made fradulent reports about pre-agreed-upon contracts to defraud CATS of tens of thousands of dollars.

"I say this with everything that's going on with all these indictments, we have to sit here and let the chips fall and you know, you have to do the right thing with money or this is what comes up," Moak said. 

The Safe Hopeful Healthy Baton Rouge initiative was behind Broome's "Summer of Hope" events in 2024. The program was intended to reduce violence in the city. The Advocate newspaper reported Wednesday that Mathis’ company received city-parish funds totaling more than $50,000 between 2020 and 2024.

Legal analyst Franz Borghardt says he anticipates more indictments may be on the way.

"When it comes to public corruption, when it comes to criminal enterprises, you're looking to get justice for everybody, but there is always a bigger fish," Borghardt said.