NAPOLEONVILLE - Assumption Parish Chief Deputy Bruce Prejean has been demoted and disciplined one week after he admitted to having a lengthy affair with Judge Jessie Leblanc. 

That disclosure made a mess out of the cases he investigated and she presided over. At least 600 of them are under review since the judge was sworn in dating back to 2012. The demotion comes with a $6,000 pay cut for Prejean.

"As a result of internal findings relative to the aforementioned issue, on January 17, 2020, Bruce Prejean's rank was reduced to captain over the Uniformed Patrol Division and his compensation was reduced by $500 monthly," Sheriff Leland Falcon said.

That reduction in pay is relative to the pay raise he received when he was promoted to the position of chief deputy. 

All of this came to light last month when Judge Jessie Leblanc refused to sign a warrant. At the time, Sheriff Falcon said she told him that she had a personal relationship with Prejean. That prompted Falcon to alert the district attorney for Assumption Parish, who notified about 20 defendants about the possible conflict. 

When the WBRZ Investigative Unit broke the story about the letters going out, Judge Leblanc told WBRZ that her conflict was with an undercover agent, not Bruce Prejean. Prejean was also asked by the sheriff, who said at the time the relationship was purely platonic. 

In the weeks following that story, Sheriff Falcon submitted to a lie detector test which showed his version was accurate. Prejean then also confessed to a lengthy affair that went on for years with Judge Jessie Leblanc. 

When we reached Leblanc by phone last week, she claimed Prejean was being "dishonest."

Leblanc has not been seen in public since this scandal broke, and an ad hoc judge was appointed by the Supreme Court to hear her cases at least until Wednesday of this week.