By Richard Burgess
The Advocate
LAFAYETTE, La. — Ex-Police Chief Randy Hundley pleaded guilty to attempted malfeasance in office Monday, escaping jail time on allegations that he illegally monitored conversations in his secretary’s office.
Hundley and three other officers were accused of hiding a microphone in the office out of fear that the secretary, Jeanette Luque, might compromise an internal affairs investigation.
Hundley could have faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted at trial of violating the state’s Electronic Surveillance Act.
The plea deal reached Monday allowed him admit to lesser charges of attempted malfeasance and received a sentence of one year supervised probation and 100 hours of community service.
Assistant Attorney General Butch Wilson said the sentence is most likely what Hundley would have received had he been convicted at trial because
the ex-chief is a first offender with no criminal record.
The state Attorney General’s Office also dismissed charges against the other three officers.
“They were adamant they were acting on order, and we believe that,” Wilson said, adding that all three officers had agreed to testify against their former boss.
Wilson said the cooperation of the three officers helped bring “the appropriate horse to the trough.”
Hundley’s defense attorney, Jason Robideaux, maintained on Monday - as he has for two years - that the criminal case was politically motivated.
“Once the politics ran its course, it was time to cut a deal and let everyone get on with their life,” Robideaux said.
Prosecutors had alleged that Hundley directed the three officers to hide a microphone near Luque’s desk out of fear that she was leaking information to the targets of an investigation into overtime abuse.
Hundley has said he ordered a probe of the secretary but that he never signed off on the hidden microphone, something that generally requires prior court approval.
Still unclear is whether any conversation were actually recorded, a legal issue already raised by Hundley’s attorney and one that could have been pursued on appeal.
State Police obtained only six tapes and none contained intelligible audio, though investigators said some of the tapes might have been erased.
The taping occurred the year that City-Parish President Joey Durel appointed Hundley to the chief’s post but did not come to light until an investigation was made public in 2006.
By that time, federal officials had already looked into the matter but quietly decided not to pursue charges.
The criminal case began when Luque took complaints of the secret recordings to District Attorney Mike Harson, who forwarded the case to State Police.
Wilson said Luque was OK with the terms of the plea agreement.
“She wanted him to acknowledge what he tried to do, which was surreptitiously listen to her,” Wilson said.
Charged with the former chief were Brian D. Butler; Michael Lavergne, the Police Department’s former head of internal affairs; and Shannon T. Hundley, the ex-chief’s nephew.
Robideaux said that the judge requested that Randy Hundley’s community service be done speaking to law enforcement groups or police academies, but he did not know if surveillance would be a topic.
Randy Hundley entered his guilty plea under an unusual section of the law that allows for the conviction to be cleared from his record if the ex-chief successful completes his term of probation.
Copyright 2008 The Advocate