FBI INVESTIGATING STRAIGHT AND NARROW DRUG CENTER

A cash-strapped, taxpayer funded drug treatment center set up by a Baton
Rouge judge is under investigation by the FBI, U.S. Attorney Brian Jackson
said Friday.

Agents want to know how government grant money was spent at the Straight
and Narrow Drug Treatment Center on Quida Mae Drive, a program of the East
Baton Rouge Parish Juvenile Drug Court, he said.

"We're looking into the grant application itself, and the manner in which
federal funds provided through the grant were spent by the treatment
center," Jackson said.

Jackson declined to say if a grand jury had issued subpoenas for records at
the center. He said subpoena power "is part of our normal means of
investigation."

Jackson could not say how long the investigation might take.

Juvenile Court Judge Pam Taylor Johnson set up a juvenile drug court with
$400,000 from federal grants, along with another $102,000 of state money.
She got the grants in late 1999, and they were intended to last through
June 30, 2002.

Records show that it costs at least $23,000 a month to run the center. Less
than $60,000 is left from the grants.

A recent series of articles in The Advocate revealed that much of the grant
money has gone to the salaries of the two men running the center for Johnson.

Peter Q. John, the top man at the treatment center, makes $67,692 a year.
John, 30, is a lawyer with his own practice. He has acknowledged that he
does not work full-time at the center, but contends that he has full-time
responsibilities there.

John hired his roommate and longtime business partner, Ferlenzo Holmes, 39,
as treatment director who makes $50,000 a year.

Neither man is a licensed counselor. They supervise three other people who
make a total of $79,150 a year.

John also hired the mother of his child to do clerical work at the center
on a contract basis. She works for $10 an hour and was paid more than
$10,400 from the grants from October through June. She also works at John's
law office.

The Advocate articles also showed that about $25,000 of grant money was
used by John, Holmes and others to travel to meetings around the country
from January 2000 until the middle of March this year.

Johnson did not return phone calls Friday. John at first declined to
comment, but then said he didn't know anything about the investigation.

"I believe half of what I read and not much of what I hear," John said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI are not the only agencies interested
in knowing how grant money was spent at the center.

State Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle recently said his office would probably
look into the center after other auditors reported records there are in
such a mess they could not render an opinion on Juvenile Court's financial
statements.

Jackson, the U.S. attorney, said the FBI investigation into the treatment
program started several months ago, but declined to say why. However,
auditors have noted payroll problems with the first person Johnson hired to
coordinate drug treatment for the juvenile drug court, Rebecca H. Ferguson.

She is a full-time city-parish employee in the Division of Juvenile
Services. The auditors said they could not tell from her time records if
she was working for the drug court during hours she was doing her
city-parish job.

From May 1999 through May 2000, Ferguson made $15,540 from drug court
grants, audit records show.

Johnson said she did not intend to open a treatment center, but that a lack
of qualified providers in Baton Rouge forced her hand.

Johnson then used the grant money in May 2000 to set up Straight and
Narrow, the only treatment center in the state run by a drug court. The
other 31 drug courts statewide farm out treatment to local providers.

Ferguson was dropped from the drug court payroll about the same time that
Johnson established Straight and Narrow.

Johnson became a Juvenile Court judge in 1995. In March 1997, the U.S.
Justice Department gave her a $20,000 grant to plan the drug court. But
statements she made on that grant application got her into trouble.

The Louisiana Judiciary Commission, which probes misconduct complaints
against judges, said Johnson made untrue or misleading statements on the
planning grant application she sent to the Justice Department in 1996.

That application said several local leaders had agreed to serve on the drug
court planning committee. None of the people listed had agreed to serve,
the commission found.

Part of the Judiciary Commission investigation also dealt with Johnson's
handling of public money.

The commission accused Johnson of sending clerical-level workers to
seminars in San Destin, Fla., and Reno, Nev. The seminars were not "even
peripherally" related to their jobs, the commission alleged.

The Judiciary Commission recommended the Louisiana Supreme Court publicly
censure Johnson. However, she narrowly dodged public reprimand when the
Supreme Court voted 4-3 against the Judiciary Commission recommendation.