St. Gabriel Police Chief home and office raided by deputies
ST. GABRIEL, La. (WAFB) - Iberville Parish Sheriff’s deputies raided the home and office of St. Gabriel Police Chief Kevin Ambeau Sr. Wednesday, June 15.
“Let me tell you, anytime we have to investigate a law enforcement brother, it’s a tough time,” said Iberville Sheriff Brett Stassi.
Officials with District Attorney Tony Clayton’s Office were looking over evidence from a double homicide that took place in St. Gabriel back in 2019, to prepare for trial.
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Sheriff Stassi says that when they noticed items were missing from some of the deceased victims, including $3,500 worth of cash.
“They had a lot of personal items that were taken out of the vehicle, and so far we realized that some of that was never put into evidence also,” he said.
Clayton issued subpoenas for sheriff’s deputies to raid chief Ambeau’s office and his home.
We’ve also learned the FBI is involved in this case.
“We didn’t find the money, but we found some stuff that we were looking for. We also took some computers, and phones, and got some videos from the actual building, to see if we can determine what may have happened to the evidence in this murder case,” said Stassi.
WAFB went to Ambeau’s home to try and get his side of the story. We saw him on his lawn mower but he quickly inside. He did not answer when we knocked on his door and did not answer our phone calls.
“The chief and the department cooperated fully with the subpoenas and the search warrants,” said the Sheriff.
“Either way, it doesn’t bode well for the chief or for the agency,” said Dr. Andrew Scott, a law enforcement expert with AJS Consulting.
Dr. Scott is an expert on police practices and procedures with 30 years of law enforcement experience.
“Search warrants are based on probable cause. And probable cause means that it is likely that fruits of the crime may be found within that search warrant where it’s being executed,” said Dr. Scott.
DA Tony Clayton told WAFB, “We will follow the evidence, and we will let it lead us to wherever it leads us.”
While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, Dr. Scott says there are still more questions than answers in this one.
“At this juncture, nothing solid yet. But if there’s evidence found that’s related to a crime, someone’s going to wind up getting arrested,” he said.
The DA says this case may stretch beyond St. Gabriel. But at this time, none of this evidence is connected to the case involving Chief Ambeau’s son, who was arrested for attempted murder charges back in April.
“It’s never a good day when you have to look into the dealings of a fellow law enforcement officer or agency. Not one of my prouder moments,” said Sheriff Stassi.
Ambeau is not facing any charges at this time.
This investigation is ongoing.
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