Pubdate: Sat, 11 Aug 2001
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2001 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Christopher Baughman

FBI INVESTIGATING STRAIGHT AND NARROW DRUG CENTER

A cash-strapped, taxpayer funded drug treatment center set up by a Baton 
Rouge judge is under investigation by the FBI, U.S. Attorney Brian Jackson 
said Friday.

Agents want to know how government grant money was spent at the Straight 
and Narrow Drug Treatment Center on Quida Mae Drive, a program of the East 
Baton Rouge Parish Juvenile Drug Court, he said.

"We're looking into the grant application itself, and the manner in which 
federal funds provided through the grant were spent by the treatment 
center," Jackson said.

Jackson declined to say if a grand jury had issued subpoenas for records at 
the center. He said subpoena power "is part of our normal means of 
investigation."

Jackson could not say how long the investigation might take.

Juvenile Court Judge Pam Taylor Johnson set up a juvenile drug court with 
$400,000 from federal grants, along with another $102,000 of state money. 
She got the grants in late 1999, and they were intended to last through 
June 30, 2002.

Records show that it costs at least $23,000 a month to run the center. Less 
than $60,000 is left from the grants.

A recent series of articles in The Advocate revealed that much of the grant 
money has gone to the salaries of the two men running the center for Johnson.

Peter Q. John, the top man at the treatment center, makes $67,692 a year. 
John, 30, is a lawyer with his own practice. He has acknowledged that he 
does not work full-time at the center, but contends that he has full-time 
responsibilities there.

John hired his roommate and longtime business partner, Ferlenzo Holmes, 39, 
as treatment director who makes $50,000 a year.

Neither man is a licensed counselor. They supervise three other people who 
make a total of $79,150 a year.

John also hired the mother of his child to do clerical work at the center 
on a contract basis. She works for $10 an hour and was paid more than 
$10,400 from the grants from October through June. She also works at John's 
law office.

The Advocate articles also showed that about $25,000 of grant money was 
used by John, Holmes and others to travel to meetings around the country 
from January 2000 until the middle of March this year.

Johnson did not return phone calls Friday. John at first declined to 
comment, but then said he didn't know anything about the investigation.

"I believe half of what I read and not much of what I hear," John said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI are not the only agencies interested 
in knowing how grant money was spent at the center.

State Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle recently said his office would probably 
look into the center after other auditors reported records there are in 
such a mess they could not render an opinion on Juvenile Court's financial 
statements.

Jackson, the U.S. attorney, said the FBI investigation into the treatment 
program started several months ago, but declined to say why. However, 
auditors have noted payroll problems with the first person Johnson hired to 
coordinate drug treatment for the juvenile drug court, Rebecca H. Ferguson.

She is a full-time city-parish employee in the Division of Juvenile 
Services. The auditors said they could not tell from her time records if 
she was working for the drug court during hours she was doing her 
city-parish job.

 From May 1999 through May 2000, Ferguson made $15,540 from drug court 
grants, audit records show.

Johnson said she did not intend to open a treatment center, but that a lack 
of qualified providers in Baton Rouge forced her hand.

Johnson then used the grant money in May 2000 to set up Straight and 
Narrow, the only treatment center in the state run by a drug court. The 
other 31 drug courts statewide farm out treatment to local providers.

Ferguson was dropped from the drug court payroll about the same time that 
Johnson established Straight and Narrow.

Johnson became a Juvenile Court judge in 1995. In March 1997, the U.S. 
Justice Department gave her a $20,000 grant to plan the drug court. But 
statements she made on that grant application got her into trouble.

The Louisiana Judiciary Commission, which probes misconduct complaints 
against judges, said Johnson made untrue or misleading statements on the 
planning grant application she sent to the Justice Department in 1996.

That application said several local leaders had agreed to serve on the drug 
court planning committee. None of the people listed had agreed to serve, 
the commission found.

Part of the Judiciary Commission investigation also dealt with Johnson's 
handling of public money.

The commission accused Johnson of sending clerical-level workers to 
seminars in San Destin, Fla., and Reno, Nev. The seminars were not "even 
peripherally" related to their jobs, the commission alleged.

The Judiciary Commission recommended the Louisiana Supreme Court publicly 
censure Johnson. However, she narrowly dodged public reprimand when the 
Supreme Court voted 4-3 against the Judiciary Commission recommendation.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens