EAST BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) – It’s been a long day for St. Bernard Parish President David Peralta who was indicted by a Baton Rouge grand jury on 6 counts of using campaign money to support his alleged gambling habit.
The state says Peralta gambled away the money at Harrahs, Hollywood Casino, the Silver Slipper and the Grand Casino Biloxi.
Peralta’s attorney says they filed their own lawsuit against the attorney generals office because they believe the state is using bogus testimony to indict him.
Peralta didn’t waste anytime. He had until noon Thursday to turn himself in, but he took care of that and was out of prison by 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after posting a $15,000 bond.
Peralta’s attorney, Martin Regan, say they will be in East Baton Rouge district court Thursday morning and will ask for an arraignment so a trial date can be set. Regan says they want to get this taken care of as soon as possible because Peralta is running for office this fall to hold onto his seat as parish president.