LOUISIANA – A former District Attorney Walter P. Reed and his son were charged with misusing campaign money, federal officials said Thursday.
Reed, 68, and his son Steven P. Reed, 43, were named in an 18-count indictment, officials said.
Additionally, the former St. Tammany and Washington parishes, Walter P. Reed, and his son were charged with wire fraud for his personal misuse of campaign funds, mail fraud.
If convicted, Walter Reed faces up to 277 years in prison, and his son, Steven Reed, is facing up toi 65 years, officials said.
In total, Walter P. Reed, spent at least $100,000 from the Walter Reed Campaign Fund bank account on personal expenses, including to money used to recruit potential clients for his private legal practice, to pay off various expenses incurred by his son, Steven P. Reed, and to pay for private and personal dinners.
According to the indictment, these are the allegations surrounding this case:
- Walter P. Reed and the younger Reed cooked up a scheme to defraud the Walter Reed Campaign and contributors by using donations to pay for goods and services either unrelated to the campaign or an amount that grossly exceeded the value of the services provided.
- Walter Reed caused a series of payments to be made from the Campaign Fund to Steven Reed’s companies in order to pay down a loan on which Walter Reed was a cosigner.
- Walter P. Reed had Steven P. Reed’s company, Globop, paid about $8,352.64 for producing a housewarming party at Walter P. Reed’s new condominium in April 2012 that was unrelated to Walter P. Reed’s campaign.
- Steven P. Reed’s company, Liquid Bread LLC, received $29,400 from the Campaign Fund account for purportedly providing catering or bar services at a campaign event at the Castine Center in September 2012 that Steven P. Reed did not actually provide.
- Walter P. Reed also required two companies that provided services at the September 2012 event to kickback a portion of their payments to Steven P. Reed as a means to funnel campaign monies to him.
- Walter P. Reed also paid for numerous other personal expenses unrelated to his campaign out of his Campaign Fund, including the following:
- Flowers with an accompanying message that stated, “[T]o my rodeo girl from a secret admirer from Camp J”
- $1,885.36 for a Thanksgiving Day dinner for Reed and about ten other members of his family
- A $500 gift card for Walter Reed’s personal use
- $2,635.00 to a North shore steakhouse for a dinner he hosted for “Pentecostal Preachers” for the purpose of recruiting clients to refer him private civil legal work.
- Walter Reed also sought, and received, a reimbursement for the $2,635.00 dinner from the law firm with which he was affiliated, which he did not then put back into his Campaign Fund.
- The indictment also alleges that Walter Reed diverted money paid by St. Tammany Parish Hospital for work performed by the Office of the District Attorney to his personal bank account.
- Between about 1994 and 2014, St. Tammany Parish Hospital retained the services of the Office of the District Attorney to advise it on various matters, for which it agreed to pay between $25,000 and $30,000 per year.
- Reed attended some of the monthly meetings, though on dozens of occasions he directed Assistant District Attorneys to attend.
- Notwithstanding Reed’s use of resources and personnel of his office, Reed deposited into his own personal bank account each check provided by St. Tammany Parish Hospital that were intended for the Office of the District Attorney.
Walter Reed’s attorney Rick Simmons responded: