{"id":51493,"date":"2022-11-30T15:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T23:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=51493"},"modified":"2022-11-30T15:05:10","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T23:05:10","slug":"former-louisiana-police-chief-city-councilmember-and-co-conspirator-sentenced-in-vote-buying-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=51493","title":{"rendered":"Former Louisiana Police Chief, City Councilmember, and Co-Conspirator Sentenced in Vote Buying Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field--name-field-pr-body field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-595 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/FBI-IMAGE-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"FBI Photo\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/FBI-IMAGE-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/FBI-IMAGE-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/FBI-IMAGE-1024x1021.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A former police chief in Amite City, Louisiana and a former Amite City councilmember were each sentenced Tuesday to one year in prison for violating federal election laws as part of a conspiracy to pay, or offer to pay, voters for voting in a federal election, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">In addition to the prison sentence, the former police chief was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Wednesday, an additional co-conspirator was sentenced to four months in prison for his role in the scheme.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">According to the evidence, Jerry Trabona, 73, the former Chief of Police in Amite City, and Kristian \u201cKris\u201d Hart, 50, a former Amite City councilmember, agreed with each other and others to pay or offer to pay voters residing in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">They were to vote during the 2016 Open Primary Election and the 2016 Open General Election, contests in which Trabona and Hart were candidates. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">Trabona and Hart\u2019s vote-buying scheme included the solicitation and hiring of individuals responsible for identifying potential voters, the transportation of those voters to the polls, and payment and offer of payment to the voters for voting. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">In the 2016 election, co-conspirator Sidney Smith, 69, of Amite City, paid voters with money provided by Trabona and Hart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">Two other Louisiana men who previously pleaded guilty to their involvement in the vote-buying scheme, Calvin Batiste and Louis Ruffino, will be sentenced later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w2J8ipLtuZc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">The FBI New Orleans Field Office investigated the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px;\">Trial Attorneys Rosaleen T. O\u2019Gara and Michael N. Lang of the Criminal Division\u2019s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Irene Gonz\u00e1lez for the Eastern District of Louisiana are prosecuting the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former police chief in Amite City, Louisiana and a former Amite City councilmember were each sentenced Tuesday to one year in prison for violating federal election laws as part of a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3480],"class_list":["post-51493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-vote-buying-scheme"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Louisiana Police Chief, City Councilmember, and Co-Conspirator Sentenced in Vote Buying 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