BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Newly-elected Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks has been in office just one week, and he already stopped payment on a nearly $400,000 check signed by his predecessor, Mike Grimmer.
The $379,000 check never made it to C-Del's Inc.'s bank account. Ricks called and cancelled it, a day before it was deposited.
Denham Springs businessman, Corey Delahoussaye, owner of C-Del Inc., told us in November and still says he's done nothing wrong.
"This wasn't an attempt to deceive anyone for billing practices," he said in November.
Delahoussaye is accused of billing Livingston Parish and the federal government for hundreds of hours he didn't actually work.
"It's not a personal vendetta against Mr. Corey Delahoussaye," Ricks said.
A council resolution from the end of November shows eight out of the nine council members voted in favor of withholding any payment of funds due C-Del Inc., pending completion of the current investigation. A month later, Grimmer signed the check.
"We called the district attorney's office and inquired has the investigation ended and when they told us no, we immediately stopped payment on the check," Ricks said.
Livingston District Attorney Scott Perrilloux turned over his investigation to the federal government in December. Ricks said it's still an active investigation.
"After the investigation of C-Del and Corey Delahoussaye, if it's decided there is no wrong doing and that bill is in fact owed, we'll pay the check," Ricks said.
Attempts to get in touch with Grimmer for comment were unsuccessful. Delahoussaye's attorney said he and his client would not be making a comment.
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Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks
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