Senator Airs DA Grievances
by RICHARD BURGESS - Advocate (excerpt)

NEW IBERIA — State Sen. Troy Hebert took his case against 16th Judicial District Attorney Phil Haney directly to the public at a town hall meeting on Monday. “We have a District Attorney’s Office that has some issues, some problems,” Hebert told a crowd of about 50 that gathered Monday at Willow Wood Park near New Iberia.

Hebert, no party-Jeanerette, laid out in detail for the audience his version of what sparked an apparent feud between the senator and the district attorney, saying it began with issues surrounding a controversial expansion of a landfill near Acadiana Regional Airport in New Iberia. Hebert had proposed legislation last year that would have blocked the landfill, but Haney testified in a legislative committee against the bill, arguing that it would upset a settlement the parish had reached to ongoing litigation over the landfill that gave the parish more control over the operation.

Hebert told the crowd on Monday that Haney gave “false testimony under oath” to the committee by testifying that the Federal Aviation Administration did not object to the settlement. Hebert pointed out that a few weeks after Haney testified before the committee, the FAA sent a letter to the parish that was critical of the settlement and stated that it might jeopardize federal funding for the airport.