LPSO cutting down on boat launch vandals

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Twelve people have been arrested in Lafourche Parish over the last six months for damaging boat launches, according to a press release from the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.

According to LPSO spokesman Sgt. Brennan Matherne, most of the problems have been at the Sanchez Boat Launch in Choctaw. He said there have been a number of cases of people doing donuts and peeling out in the large, shelled parking lot at the launch.

“While that may not, on the surface, seem like a big deal,” Matherne said, “the problem is that it forces the parish to have to regrade the parking lot and that costs a few hundred dollars every single time they have to do it.”


Matherne said if the lots aren’t regraded, motorists may damage their boats and trailers when driving over the gouged lots.

The danger isn’t limited to the parking areas, Matherne explained.

Expensive solar panel lights illuminate the parking lots at night and one has already had to be replaced because of damage from flying shells. He said debris launched by spinning tires could also hit bystanders.


Problems aren’t limited to the Choctaw Boat launch, Matherne said. Visitors have had their car windows smashed and gas stolen at the Butch Hill Boat Launch in Raceland. The spokesman said problems there may be more severe because the launch is in a remote area on the other side of the levee along Bayou Cut Off.

Matherne credits footage from surveillance cameras and public tips for the recent arrests.

“It’s the type of crime where people say, ‘Really? Why are you doing this?’” he said. “And these residents are just fed up with this happening … People can’t stand this type of behavior.”


Lafourche Parish Councilman Michael Delatte, whose district includes Choctaw, said the spat of reckless driving and vandalism and the resulting arrests have spurred other councilmembers to consider placing cameras at other boat launches.

Delatte said the problems at the Sanchez and Butch Hill boat launches are not restricted to Lafourche Parish. Similar incidents have occurred at the Bayou Chevreuil Boat Launch in nearby St. James Parish.

The councilman believes younger people are responsible for the crimes. According to the sheriff’s office, however, of the 12 who have been charged, only two were juveniles.


Trey Falgoust, 19, of Thibodaux, was the most recent person to be charged with simple criminal damage to property and reckless operation of a motor vehicle after admitting to reckless driving at the Sanchez Boat Launch in Choctaw, resulting in property damage.

Matherne said the incidents at the launches have happened mostly on weekdays during the early evening hours.

If arrested, these cases usually result in charges of reckless driving and property damage. Matherne said although the charges are misdemeanors, they are still crimes.


“We’re not just insinuating we will catch you. We will catch you,” he said. “We’re not bluffing.” •

Launch vandalism