BATON ROUGE — A man who billed a city-parish program for controversial children’s events involving a gang member accused of murder has been charged in a corruption investigation targeting city-parish government.
Roderick Shannon, 50, was charged by the attorney general’s office with felony theft and two counts of filing or maintaining false public records.
The AG’s office investigation has led to several other arrests, including the arrest of former assistant chief administrative officer Courtney Scott, who worked for then-Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome.
Broome has not been accused of wrongdoing in the investigation.
Shannon’s charges are based on bills he submitted four years ago for sponsoring “MADD Marvin Gun Safety with the Constable” and “MADD Marvin’s Mechanic Workshop for the Kids,” according to an attorney general’s office news release.
At the time of the events, “MADD Marvin,” whose real name is Marvin Payne, was awaiting trial in a 2021 murder in which one man was shot to death and another wounded. The charges were later dropped.
Payne is currently awaiting trial in a drug case in which a group of people were charged with possession of 10.6 pounds of heroin and 9.28 pounds of cocaine with intent to distribute.
Shannon was paid $3,041.66 for sponsoring Payne’s events, which targeted children. The attorney general’s office said Shannon did not sponsor those events involving Payne.
The payments were made through the city-parish “Safe, Hopeful, Healthy BR” program, which was part of the Mayor’s Healthy City Initiative and seems to be at the center of the attorney general’s investigation.
Shannon remained in Parish Prison Monday afternoon.
The attorney general’s office said the investigation is ongoing.
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