Subsequent to Wednesday’s report that one of the people suing Welsh Alderman Jacob Colby Perry for defamation because Perry had caused harm to his “long-standing positive reputation in his community and parish” was himself a convicted felon, LouisianaVoice has obtained copies of the judgment, the terms of his pleas agreement and the discharge of his supervised release.
William Joseph Johnson, Jr., his sister, his mother and the Welsh police chief, using the same attorney, each filed Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) actions against Perry after Perry and other members of the Welsh Board of Aldermen raised questions about the police department’s budget and other apparent irregularities in town operations. The petitions are all strikingly similar:
Click to access 3c6d9d70-6f92-486f-8178-f23865a4d4b4.pdf
Click to access b60afd4c-5495-4c08-8937-42ee11b353a7.pdf
Click to access a376b7f0-23ca-4ec8-9e38-3a2011944359.pdf
Click to access 49ad6c5b-fc47-4d03-ad27-4f7c88f0d5f0.pdf
Johnson’s mother, Carolyn Louviere, is mayor of Welsh and is the subject of a voter recall petition.
As for Johnson’s claim of a “long-standing positive reputation,” documents from U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana, indicate that Johnson entered into a plea bargain on three of 14 federal indictments on Nov. 20, 2011.
The three charges to which he entered guilty pleas all occurred in 2006 and stemmed from his defrauding a Natchitoches hotel of $77,000 by means of identity theft. Specifically, he entered guilty pleas to:
- Two counts of bank fraud;
- Nine counts of counterfeit securities;
- Fourteen counts of aggravated identity theft.
Counts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 were dismissed as part of the plea bargain.
The charges stemmed from his theft from a Natchitoches hotel where he had gained employment using stolen identity and then proceeded to perpetrate fraud against the hotel.
He was sentenced to 34 months imprisonment on counts 2 and 9 to run concurrently, and 24 months as to count 14 to run consecutive to counts 2 and 9. He was also sentenced to five years supervised release upon release from prison and was ordered to make restitution in an amount to be determined by the court after a review of evidence and not necessarily limited to the amounts stolen from victims.
A concurrent sentence is not served but entered as a record and used in determining further sentencing. That means he was to serve only 34 months combined for counts 2 and 9. Consecutive terms are served, meaning his combined sentence was 58 months, or four years, 10 months.
At the time of his sentencing, Johnson was wanted on similar charges in Spokane, Washington, where he was said to have used identity theft to con his way into employment as financial controller for the Davenport Hotel in that city, a position that gave him access to the hotel’s financial operations.
The plea agreement was signed before Federal Judge Dee D. Drell by Johnson, his attorney, Billy J. Guin, Jr., of Shreveport, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cytheria D. Jernigan.
Johnson was paroled on March 30, 2015 and began his term of supervised release for a period of five years. On July 27 this year, on recommendation of his probation officer, Jill R. Wilson, Judge Drell discharged him from supervised release.
DISCHARGE OF SUPERVISED RELEASE
So now, his stellar reputation on the line, Johnson, along with his mother the mayor, his sister and the police chief, is going after a 24-year-old alderman for the Town of Welsh whose main concern is protecting the town’s treasury.
All things considered, who could blame Perry for being a little skittish about the town’s finances?
Louisiana Voice 
nowadays young adults the same age as Mr.Perry being 24 yrs of age are not even thinking about how a town/city is being run and this young man here IS. I give this guy the utmost respect in being an alderman and standing up to these clowns who are suing him and trying to protect the town’s treasury account. Hell, the chief is obviously a shady s.o.b. with the way he made a separate account for the traffic ticket $$ collected, and having 18 cars for a pop. Of 3,200 is astonishing. I can see maybe 10 cars. Keep up the awesome job, Mr.Perry, don’t let these clowns mess up what you’re trying hard to accomplish. BTW, kudos to yourself for reporting on all these corrupt shady people in our great state of Louisiana.
You can’t make this stuff up. Please keep us informed of the lawsuit thanks jron
There are more Cliques per capita in Welsh than anywhere else in the World’s Modern Societies. Of course, calling Louisiana a part of Modern society is a stretch. But the citizens of Welsh fight among themselves like humming birds at a feeder. Jacob Perry has an uphill battle with this entrenched territory protecting mob. Thank goodness that he has LouisianaVoice coming to his rescue. My best wishes and appreciation go to LouisianaVoice and Mr. Perry.
I hope this cliquey group of stellar plaintiffs gets hit with a million dollars in legal fees when they loose that case like the fools in Rayne did when they tried to sue another activist for free speech! It will be nice to see Perry put these pillars of society in their place and with a (bitch) SLAPP.