BATON ROUGE — Former East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor Pro Tempore LaMont Cole turned himself in to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Thursday morning, one day after he was indicted by a grand jury on corruption charges.

WBRZ was at the jail when Cole turned himself in.

"Respectfully, no comment," Cole said while shaking his head when WBRZ's Mia Monet asked him about the indictment. 

Cole's bond was set at $15,000, a bondsman told WBRZ.

Cole, the current East Baton Rouge Parish School System superintendent, was charged with two counts each of conspiracy to commit public bribery and money laundering between $20,000 and $100,000, as well as one count of malfeasance in office. 

According to dates provided in the indictment, Cole, 52, is accused of committing the crimes between Aug. 10, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024. Cole resigned from the Metro Council on Aug. 6, 2024, and started as EBR superintendent two days later.

WBRZ previously reported that Cole was under investigation by the AG's office in late July.

Two other people—Erica and Terral Jackson—were indicted Wednesday on criminal conspiracy to commit public bribery and money laundering charges. Earlier this year, they were also indicted on theft and conspiracy to commit theft charges.

The Jacksons also turned themselves in and are in the custody of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.

Cole is the latest city-parish official to come under fire as part of Attorney General Liz Murrill's probe. Over the past several months, she has taken aim at alleged corruption involving the Capital Area Transit System and multiple mayor's office initiatives, including councilman Cleve Dunn Jr., former mayoral aide Courtney Scott and former CATS Chief Administrative Officer Pearlina Thomas.

The Jacksons' firm, Broad Innovation Marketing Firm, was also connected to the wider CATS corruption investigation.

According to an affidavit reviewed by The Advocate, texts to and from Cole show he "agreed to accept bribes” from Terral Jackson in exchange for steering contracts to Jackson.

One text between Cole and Terral Jackson sees Cole acknowledge receiving kickbacks

“He knows I’m getting a kickback from both of you and he plans to expose us,” Cole wrote.

The paper adds that Cole and Terral Jackson discussed contracts with the Jacksons' firm.

“That’s potentially a $10k-20k a month contract over the next 10 years … I could use an additional $60k-120k a year,” Cole wrote to Jackson on Jan. 4, 2023, according to the paper.

Cole and Jackson, the paper adds, are members of the same fraternity.

The paper adds that the affidavit notes Cole used his influence as Mayor Pro Tempore to fire a contracted city-parish worker who was in charge of a blight program and who questioned Terral Jackson’s work between 2022 and 2023.

The employee’s contract was not renewed to start 2023, the paper notes, and investigators added that a text sent from Cole to Jackson indicates he influenced that decision to not bring the worker back.

“F- with the bull, you get the horns!!!” the text cited in the affidavit said.

Cole said Wednesday night that the indictment was a "miscarriage of justice based on association, not attestation, and proximity to potential crimes without proof."

Cole added he will comply with all legal requests, saying he is confident in the legal system "to swiftly recognize this for what it is and make the appropriate adjustments to fully vindicate [him]."