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Former La. House Speaker Clay Schexnayder indicted after disappearance of state artifact
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BATON ROUGE - Former Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder was indicted by a Baton Rouge grand jury Wednesday following the disappearance of an ancient cypress board that is considered a state artifact.
The board was last seen in his Gonzales legislative office; Schexnayder was charged with felony grand theft greater than $25,000 and malfeasance in office.
The indictment said Schexnayder "knowingly and intentionally committed theft of a rare Louisiana state artifact," and it also accused him of "intentionally refusing to perform a duty required of him as a public officer or employee."
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sought the indictment, according to court records.
“You don’t get to keep State property, it doesn’t belong to you," Murrill said to WBRZ.
WBRZ also spoke to the family of Walter Stebbins, the man who donated the artifact to the State Capitol in the 1950s.
"I remember going to the Capitol with him to see the board when I was 7 or 8 years old," Julius Mullins said. "My grandad was in charge of timber in Livingston, around Maurepas, back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. One of the last trees they cut, they saved some of the wood."
Mullins said he thought the board had been lost until it popped up in the background of an interview in 2023. A WBRZ interview from 2023 shows the board in question in Schexnayder's office in a strip mall along Highway 44 in Gonzales.
The board has yet to be located.
"I would like to see it, but I don't know, I'm not very hopeful," Mullins said.
WBRZ reached out to Schexnayder and has not heard back at the time of this article.
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