U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that DARRYL B. STEWART, age 49, of Houma, pled guilty today to one count of theft of government funds.
According to court records, STEWART was the Narcotics Unit Supervisor for the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office (TPSO) during a time period when the TPSO applied for a received two separate federal grants from the Department of Justice. The two grants were for personnel overtime and equipment to support a Multi-Jurisdictional Narcotics Task Force. From 2009 through 2012, STEWART claimed and approved his own overtime from the two grants. The Federal Bureau of Investigation began to look into the billing and discovered through documents and interviews that STEWART occasionally claimed overtime for the two federal grants at the same time that he was working private security details. There were other instances where STEWART claimed federal overtime hours from the grants but he did not actually participate in the narcotics enforcement work. The amount that was improperly billed totals $15,925.
STEWART, who resigned from the TPSO on or about April 12, 2016, faces a sentence of up to ten (10) years in prison, up to $250,000 in fines, and up to three (3) years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle set sentencing on September 7, 2016.
U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its handling of the matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. Rivera is in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
