METAIRIE, La. (WGNO) – Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand signed the recall petition that aims to force Parish President Mike Yenni from office during Tuesday evening’s National Night Out Against Crime.
It happened at the night out event in the Pontchartrain Shores neighborhood of Metairie.
Yenni is under fire for sending inappropriate text messages to a 17-year-old boy. He has apologized and confessed to using bad judgement and to making a mistake.
This morning, Yenni asked the Jefferson Parish Council to accept his apologies and let him “get back to work.” The council responded with a vote of no confidence in Yenni, but it’s a move that holds no legal weight.
“The mistakes I have made will never be repeated,” Yenni said in his address to the council. “That is not just my promise to the people, that is my promise to God.”
Normand has said that he was an early political supporter of Yenni, but the day after the parish president used televised commercials to confess, Normand called for Yenni to resign. The parish council and other elected officials and groups are also calling for Yenni to step down.
In an interview with Anne Cutler on Oct. 16, Normand said the fact that the underage boy was still in high school really crossed a line for many people, himself included.
“We live in a crazy society, and there are not many boundaries left, in many respects,” Normand said. “Unfortunately for him, I think what he admitted to was a boundary that was still intact.”
Yenni has made it clear that he will abide by the will of the people regarding the recall petition, but said he has no plans to resign.
While the sheriff signed the petition at the night out event and has made his position clear, he has said previously that he doesn’t believe Yenni committed any crime by texting the teen.
Watch Normand’s interview below: