Galliano businessman cleared

Galliano businessman Lincoln Martin Jr. was cleared of charges last week stemming from numerous forgery and money laundering charges brought in February 2006.

Martin, who has maintained his innocence, was cleared of all charges when the state Attorney General’s office requested the case be dismissed.

District Judge John LeBlanc granted the motion.

After numerous postponements, the case never made it to trial.

Martin was initially charged with taking money from USA Labor Inc., which provided labor crews to local shipyards and construction companies at the time. Some 331 counts of forgery and money laundering were filed in Lafourche Parish, and 67 counts of forgery in Terrebonne.

With the Lafourche charges formally dismissed, the state is filing to have the pending charges in Terrebonne dropped as well.

The case against Martin crumbled after two state handwriting experts were unable to verify that the signatures on the documents in question were his. Also, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s office expressed concern that a prior relationship existed when the charges were filed between Martin’s former business partner and the investigator assigned to the case by former Attorney General Charles Foti’s office.

Defense attorney Arthur “Buddy” Lemann praised Caldwell’s office for dismissing the charges. “The new attorney general should be applauded for doing the right thing in this case. It should never have been brought forward by the former attorney general,” he said. “There was a clear relationship between Mr. Martin’s former partner and the former attorney general’s investigator. The political connections on the inside were obvious.”

According to sources, Martin still retains a 50 percent ownership in the labor company.