Constitutional amendment preventing a corrupt public official from collecting retirement didn't go into effect until Jan. 1, 2013
Jefferson Parish President John Young says Aaron Broussard, sentenced to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in a payroll fraud scheme and to accepting bribes from a parish contractor, can continue to collect his retirement benefits.
Young says a constitutional amendment approved last fall that prevents an official who is guilty of public corruption from collecting retirement benefits does not apply to the former parish president because the amendment didn't take effect until Jan. 1, 2013 and is not retroactive.
But no health benefits are being paid to either Broussard, Wilkinson or Parker, Young said.
Broussard, former parish attorney Tom Wilkinson and Broussard's ex-wife, Karen Parker, have been ordered by the presiding judge to pay back money to Jefferson Parish as part of their sentences handed down Monday in a federal public corruption case.
Broussard has been ordered to pay $280,000, Wilkinson $214,000 and Parker $160,000. But where does that money go?
"It would go back to whatever fund it came out of, probably the general fund," Young said.
