INDReporter

Former St. Landry Parish president arrested

LPCC Booking Photo

Don Menard, the former two-term president of St. Landry Parish, has bonded out of the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center after being arrested on a charge of issuing worthless checks. According to an arrest affidavit obtained through the LPCC, Menard was arrested Friday in St. Martin Parish. A bench warrant had been issued for the former politician, who turns 60 on Friday, last July by Lafayette district court Judge Rick Michot.

Menard served as parish president from 2004 through 2011 and made an unsuccessful bid for the state Legislature during his final year in office, losing the District 39 seat to Rep. Stephen Ortego. The current charges against Menard are not his first brush with the legal system: He was investigated and cleared by the state attorney general’s office in 2013 on suspicion that he improperly used his parish-issued credit card for personal purchases during his time in office.