Another Bill of Information and Guilty Plea in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in Operation Illegal Motion

BATON ROUGE, LA—United States Attorney David R. Dugas announced today that LEONARD P. JACKSON, age 45, of Prairieville, LA, was arraigned before U.S. District Court Judge James Brady and pleaded guilty to a two count Bill of Information filed against him.

Count One of the Bill of Information filed against JACKSON charges that from about 2006 until October of 2009, JACKSON, while serving as a law enforcement officer with the Baton Rouge City Police Department, conspired with others to engage in bribery by soliciting and accepting payments from individuals with criminal and traffic matters pending in Baton Rouge City Court with the promise that the charges would be dismissed or otherwise “fixed.” Count Two charges that on September 17, 2009, JACKSON accepted a cash bribe payment in exchange for using his position as a police officer to collect a $10,000 gambling debt on behalf of an individual. JACKSON faces a maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each count.

The charges against JACKSON resulted from Operation “Illegal Motion,” an ongoing investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office with the cooperation of the Louisiana Office of Inspector General, the Louisiana State Police, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigative Division and the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Criminal Investigations Division. The cases are being prosecuted by Deputy Criminal Chief Corey R. Amundson and Assistant United States Attorney M. Patricia Jones.

JACKSON is the fourth individual to plead guilty as a result of Operation “Illegal Motion.”

For further information, contact David R. Dugas, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana, or Lyman Thornton, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, at (225) 389-0443.