MEET JUSTIN PAYNE
August 12, 2015
BREAKING: Thibodaux police chief stepping down
August 12, 2015
A little over a year ago Trina Marie Bourg responded to criminal allegations against her by saying her work is recognized throughout south Louisiana, that she had nothing to hide, and that she was innocent until proven guilty.
Monday morning, before a U.S. District Court judge, the former Terrebonne Parish court system interpreter proved her own guilt, on the day her trial was to start, with a plea.
Kenneth Polite, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, announced that the 45-year-old Bourg pleaded guilty to all five counts of an indictment charging her with crimes involving solicitation of illegal payments from undocumented immigrants and their family members.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan set sentencing for Nov. 4; Bourg could receive up to 20 years and a fine of $250,000 on each count, Polite said.
“Bourg, while providing Spanish interpreting services for attorneys employed by the Public Defender’s Office, identified clients facing criminal charges who were subject to potential removal from the United States,” an accusatory statement filed with the court states. “Bourg then initiated contact with the client, or the client’s family, outside of the presence or knowledge of their court appointed attorney and falsely represented to the client or the client’s family that for a certain amount of money, she could bribe federal immigration officials not to seek federal prosecution or initiate removal proceedings against the client.”
According to the court papers, Bourg charged clients or their families between $2,000 and $4,000 and said she would use the money to pay federal immigration officials in order to secure the client’s release from immigration custody.
Her plea was to “knowingly devising a scheme and artifice to defraud undocumented Hispanic aliens,” papers filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office state. “Through false material misrepresentation (she) was able to accomplish her scheme through lies, misrepresentations, coercion, and threats.”
Although the case was federal, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives initially gathered evidence against Bourg, resulted in outreach by Department of Homeland Security officials who sought additional victims other than those who initially came forward.
“She was in her position telling these people she controls the system, through bragging and intimidation, and these people were easily manipulated,” Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said, after learning of Bourg’s plea. “When these people are coming from another country they are vulnerable. They have no knowledge of American law, our people, our Constitution or our freedoms. This really was a shakedown, nothing but a shakedown and a con game.”
Payments totaling $5,000 were solicited from one client in 2011, court papers state. For a payment of between $12,000 to $20,000, Bourg had offered “to marry one of her clients in order to improve his immigration status.” She also attempted to have a client transfer his vehicle title and other property to her, according to information developed by investigators.
Court papers note that at no time were immigration officials implicated in the investigation, “nor is it believed that any federal officials were complicit.”
In a statement issued after Bourg’s plea, Polite praised the work of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security personnel in McAllen Texas and in Houma who worked on the case, as well as the Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division, and Larpenter’s detectives.
Polite’s Fraud Unit Chief, Assistant U. S. Attorney Brian M. Klebba and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marquest Meeks were in charge of the prosecution.
Evidence that would have been presented had the case gone to trial included conversations of telephone recordings, telephone records and records of wire transfers relevant to the case handled through J.P. Morgan Chase.
