Louisiana Voice

The St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office has been rocked by two embarrassing incidents within a matter of two weeks, one of which involved the quiet firing of a deputy reportedly on the take from drug dealers in the parish.

While Holden Matthews, 21, arrested in connection with the ARSON of three African-American churches in St. Landry, was not an actual employee of the sheriff’s office, his father, Roy Matthews, is a deputy.

Though the arrest of Holden Matthews does not constitute a black eye for the department—his father and the department cannot reasonable be held responsible for his actions—an April 3 letter by Sheriff Bobby Guidroz is another matter.

In that letter, Guidroz informed former deputy William Davis “Billy” McCauley that he was being terminated for malfeasance in office, “effective immediately.”

Guidroz said in his letter that “information was obtained from an individual arrested on narcotics charges by the sheriff’s office in reference to you being paid a monthly fee for information from the sheriff’s office.

“An internal investigation was initiated and you were placed on administrative leave without pay on March 20, 2019, pending the outcome of the investigation.

“The investigation revealed that you committed malfeasance in office.”

Additional information obtained by LouisianaVoice indicated the department was first alerted following an arrest on February 19 of a drug dealer known locally as “Goldmouth,” who revealed that McCauley was a paid informant of his.

McCauley, sheriff’s detectives learned, would provide confidential departmental information to Goldmouth in exchange for drugs and/or money.

Recently, LouisianaVoice was told, a bag of clothing which included McCauley’s sheriff’s deputy uniforms was found discarded on the Eunice High School campus. McCauley was said to have no children of high school age or family attending the school as a possible source of the uniforms.

Speculation is the uniforms were given to Goldmouth to use and once McCauley was fired, he had no further use of the uniforms.

There has been no indication of any criminal charges filed against McCauley—only his dismissal from the department.

Efforts to contact Guidroz were unsuccessful because of the Good Friday holiday.