Defendants referred to the program – which covers Lafayette, Acadia and Vermilion parishes — emerge with clean criminal records, provided they complete certain requirements. Often, the requirements are courses provided by private companies that receive a fee from each participant.
In his guilty plea, Guidry said he took money from four vendors. Since Guidry entered that plea, District Attorney Don Landry said, he has stopped using the four vendors his office had been using: Lake Wellness Center, Burton Services, C & A Sudden Impact and Acadiana Monitoring & Evaluations.
Hillar Moore, the district attorney for the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge, has also paused his office’s relationship with C & A Sudden Impact based on Guidry’s admissions. Guidry was an employee of Moore’s office, where he ran diversion programs, until December 2021. C & A was the only one of the four vendors named in Lafayette that was used by his office as well, Moore has said.
The Advocate is interested in talking to defendants or lawyers who have gone through these diversion programs. If you’d be willing to talk about your experience, please email Claire Taylor at ctaylor@theadvocate.com.
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