Louis Marcotte III, a millionaire who reigned over a Louisiana bail bonds empire, is expected to confess today to a federal racketeering charge that ties him to judges and jailers at the Gretna, La., courthouse, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Detailing the connection between Marcotte and former Judge Ronald Bodenheimer, who has pleaded guilty to funneling business to the bondsman in return for bribes, a federal document points to a second state judge who helped Marcotte.
The document identifies the jurist only as “Judge A,” but a case described matches one handled in 2001 by Judge Alan J. Green, 51, of the 24th Judicial District Court. The federal document says Judge A received $5,000 in cash in spring 2002 from an executive of Marcotte’s Bail Bonds Unlimited. Green last week agreed to pay a fine for taking an illegal $5,000 cash campaign contribution in spring 2002 from the same executive.
Judge A is said to have handed Marcotte and his company more than 400 favorable bonds in return for meals, out-of-state trips, and $10,000 cash.
Marcotte, 43, and his sister Lori Marcotte, 41, pleaded innocent yesterday to charges stemming from the government’s 4½-year probe into corruption at the Gretna courthouse. They are expected to change their pleas to guilty as part of a plea agreement reached several weeks ago.
Link: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1079601956305130.xml