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Embattled Southern University Board member fails to get indictment tossed in Ascension

4 years 9 months 3 days ago Monday, June 24 2019 Jun 24, 2019 June 24, 2019 4:50 PM June 24, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

GONZALES- Donald Ray Henry, the embattled Southern University Board of Supervisors member who is sitting on the board outside of the district where he lives, lost a fight in court Monday.

Henry and his lawyers were trying to get a judge to toss out his indictment on a felony charge of filing and maintaining false public records claiming his charge resulted from selective prosecution.

Prosecutor Phil Maples told WBRZ their office conducted a thorough investigation before Henry was indicted by a grand jury.

"Any citizen calls our office with a complaint, we're going to investigate," Maples said. "If there's a crime we will prosecute it. That's what happened here."

Henry's indictment came after a WBRZ Investigative Unit report that showed Henry was voting in Donaldsonville but actually living in Gonzales. The home in Gonzales is where Henry was claiming a homestead exemption, and it's where we found him. However, he was sitting on Southern University's Board representing the district in Donaldsonville.

Henry's attorney, Travis Turner, argued in court Monday that there were two other people who did the same thing as his client. He wanted to know why they weren't prosecuted.

The District Attorney said his office looked into both of those cases that Turner brought up, but there was insufficient evidence to move forward.

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