BATON ROUGE — EBR Schools Superintendent LaMont Cole knew someone was after him, according to his arrest warrant. Someone who knew, or thought he knew, damaging information about Cole and was prepared to share it.
“This n***** told [redacted name]. He knows I’m getting a kickback from both of you and he plans to expose us. Something is wrong with him,” Cole texted Terral Jackson, according to the warrant.
Cole was indicted Wednesday, Aug. 5 on two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit public bribery, malfeasance in office, and money laundering of $20,000 or more. He was a Metro Council member when the alleged crimes occurred and even served as the Mayor Pro Tem during some of the timeline outlined in the warrant.
On Thursday morning, the first day of school, Cole turned himself in at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. He posted $15,000 bond and was released a few hours later. He smiled, shook his head and told reporters “respectfully, no comment” as he got into a waiting Range Rover.
The School Board meets at 5 p.m. Thursday.
Cole’s indictment is part of a sprawling corruption investigation started by the FBI and handed off to the state Attorney General. The investigation has resulted in indictments including those of Metro Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr., and Courtney Scott, who was Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s assistant chief administrative officer.
This phase of the investigation appears to focus on contracts Cole voted to approve and alleged kickbacks that resulted.
Terral Jackson and his wife Erica Jackson, who run The Broad Innovation Marketing Firm, were previously indicted in the probe. In that indictment, the Jacksons were accused of crimes involving Capital Area Transit System contracts. Investigators say payments were routed to a company connected to Dunn. Dunn and the Jacksons have pleaded not guilty in that case.
The Jacksons were indicted again Wednesday along with Cole for their alleged involvement in contracts with the city-parish anti-blight program and the “Mayor’s Healthy City Initiative.” Both turned themselves in alongside Cole on Thursday morning. Their bonds were set at $10,000 each.
Those programs received millions in state and federal funding, some as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
They are accused of participating in “schemes to defraud multiple publicly funded programs” from 2021 to 2024, according to arrest warrants.
Cole is accused of voting in favor of those contracts and of advocating for the hiring of Terral Jackson as a community outreach worker in the anti-blight program.
Investigators say the Jacksons’ marketing firm was paid more than $500,000 from the healthy city initiative between June 2022 and October 2023. Terral’s wife Erica served as the registered agent for that company.
They say Cole used his position to “influence the termination” of the city-parish Department of Development blight specialist manager “after she began questioning” Jackson’s performance.
In August 2022, Cole and Jackson sent messages to each other about those questions and about a delayed payment that had resulted. Jackson said it was “time to go around her bro,” the warrant said.
The manager’s contract was not renewed in 2023, and Cole messaged Jackson to say “F*** with the bull, you get the horns!!!”
The warrant alleges that text messages between Cole and Terral Jackson show “Cole agreed to take bribes (kickbacks) from proceeds of various City-Parish contracts.”
In one text message exchange, Cole texts Jackson at 1:20 a.m. saying “Just took care of you in a MAJOR way which means I just took care of us.”
The warrant says FBI agents interviewed Cole and he denied that he had steered contracts to Jackson or used his job on the council to influence those contracts.
“When confronted with the messages discussing splitting of contract proceeds, Cole denied accepting money but admitted to the conversations,” the warrant said.
The warrant quotes Cole as saying “I agree conversations took place. I don’t agree I took money.”
The warrant said investigators discovered evidence they say shows that Cole received “at least $40,000 in cash and gifts (bribes) from Jackson.”
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