Latest Weather Blog
Charges dropped for Ascension Parish councilman accused of submitting requests in parish president's name
Related Story
GONZALES - Several months after Ascension Parish councilman Aaron Lawler was accused of submitting document requests in the parish present's name, landing him charges of impersonation and identity theft, the attorney general's office said those charges were dropped.
A spokesman with Attorney General Liz Murrill's office said that after officials had reviewed the evidence and met with witnesses, they "determined that Mr. Lawler’s actions did not meet the elements of the offense to be able to prove the charges.”
Lawler was accused of the charges back in November 2023 and had turned himself in to parish deputies.
The Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office said deputies began investigating reports of a person impersonating a high-ranking public official in early September. The investigation showed this person filed multiple public records requests under the name of Ascension President Clint Cointment. Lawler reportedly used personal devices to submit the requests under Cointment's name.
According to Lawler, members of the parish president's administration were not following public records request guidelines. When he brought to this to their attention, it was never looked into. He decided to take matters into his own hands.
"I asked the administration to check it out and do their jobs, but they refused. So this was a way to show that they weren't doing their jobs," he said.
Lawler says the charges were absurd and a personal vendetta against him from Clint Cointment since the two have had issues in the past.
"I had ethical and legal concerns about things he was doing and things the administration was doing. I was not shy about calling him out on it," he said.
Although he was confident that the charges wouldn't go anywhere, he says that the case took a toll on his family.
"This was done knowing it would hurt my family. The parish president could've stopped this early on and he didn't. That's how I know it was a personal thing," he said.
Deputies did not specify what the public records requests entailed.
News
