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City wants parking permit back from convicted thief

6 years 8 months 1 week ago Tuesday, July 18 2017 Jul 18, 2017 July 18, 2017 5:53 PM July 18, 2017 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- The problems continue to grow tonight for the former CATS Board Member Montrell McCaleb who stole money to pay his cable bill and was featured in a WBRZ Investigative Unit report last month for creating non-profits with no track records of helping the community.

When The Investigative Unit caught up with McCaleb this summer, he was using a city issued parking permit. Non-profits, churches and other people who do work for the city can apply through the city for one. It allows you to park downtown for free.

The Investigative Unit discovered McCaleb was issued one for working at St. Joseph Baptist Church in South Baton Rouge.

A St. Joseph Baptist Church van sits parked at the church now. However, for weeks as we tried to track down Montrell McCaleb. We found it at his house in Scotlandville. At the center of controversy tonight is a permit issued by Baton Rouge Police. We found it in another vehicle Montrell was driving.

"I have no comment Chris Nakamoto," McCaleb said as he was asked about the permit.

It was issued by the city to a Reverend M-Henderson of St. Joseph Baptist Church. Following the WBRZ report that showed he was soliciting donations from people in the community and not using them for the kids he was trying to help, the Pastor at St. Joseph's church fired him.

Pastor Donald Grim says he knows Montrell McCaleb by another one of his aliases, Reverend Henderson. He says by no means does he condone his actions which is why he fired him. He also believes he needs to turn the police issued permit in, since he didn't know he had one.

"Since this individual is no longer with the chruch, we don't want him to abuse it and represent them improperly," L'Jean McKneely with Baton Rouge Police said. "We ask that he returns the parking pass or destroy it."

Norelle Feinauer met McCaleb when he came in looking for donations from her at the restaurant where she works. This is what she told us last month.

"Not one time could I track where the donations had gone to the children," Feinauer said. "He's told me that he's used Saints tickets to go for himself, give them to the past board chairman who is on the other documents. Any mention of hotel stays that were donated by another board member, he used them for himself."

From 2011 until 2017, McCaleb has been operating or closely tied to non-profits using the following aliases.

Montrell McCaleb
MJ McCaleb
Montrell Henderson
M Jovan Henderson
MJ Henderson

Police say he needs to just hang it up and bring their permit back after it was issued to him under the guise of working for the church.

"If we make contact with him while he is using the pass, we will run his name to see if there's a violation, any warrants, for his arrest," Mckneely said. "If there's some type of violation there's a possibility he will be issued a citation or even arrested."

When The Investigative Unit checked with the Pastor and gave him details about the permit, he said he was never aware that his Church had one. We also asked whether McCaleb was a paid employee or a volunteer, but the pastor declined to comment.

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