CANDIDATE EXPLAINS SIGNATURE ON SEARCH WARRANT

BATON ROUGE - More than 17 years ago, the St. Martin Sheriff's Office
found a substantial amount of cocaine underneath the house of a
candidate in the 3rd Congressional District race. But Jeff Landry says
that's only half the story.

Landry, a businessman and attorney from New Iberia, said the illegal
drugs belonged to a roommate and the 1993 documents linking him to the
incident are being spread around by his opponent in the Oct. 2
Republican primary.

Landry also said he willingly signed the warrant allowing law
enforcement officials to search the property at 123 W. Berard St. in
St. Martinville.

At the time, "there was a bunch of guys living in a rent house,"
Landry said, and it could have been any one of them who answered the
door that day and was asked to sign a search warrant.

"I have never been accused of anything in relation to this. I've never
been arrested. I've never used illegal drugs. Hey, I didn't even
inhale," he said, laughing.

All of the roommates, including Landry, were employed by the St.
Martin Parish Sheriff's Office.

Landry, though, handed in his deputy badge a few months
later.

"But I did stay on as a reserve deputy until 2004," he
added.

According to the 1993 search warrant, arrest records and affidavits,
the cocaine belonged to a jailer, Towaski James, who was involved with
others in stealing illegal drugs from the sheriff's evidence room.

The search warrant resulted in law enforcement officials discovering
more than 100 grams of cocaine underneath the Berard Street house.
Today, that would bring a street value of $10,000 or more.

Landry also pointed to a letter written by District Attorney J. Phil
Haney, who represents Iberia, St. Martin and St. Mary parishes. In the
letter, dated Thursday, Haney wrote that Landry has never had a
conviction or arrest related to drugs and that he had personally
reviewed the Towaski James case.

"Nothing therein suggests that Mr. Landry was involved in any criminal
activity whatsoever," Haney writes in the letter.

Brent Littlefield, Landry's campaign manager, said the campaign
welcomed the opportunity to "clear the air" because Landry's opponent
in the Republican primary runoff, Houma lawyer Hunt Downer, "has been
spreading rumors" and asking reporters to pick up the story.

Late last month, Landry came within less than a percentage point of
winning the first GOP primary outright, but Downer kept him just below
the 50 percent threshold.

"Mr. Downer's continued attempts to assassinate and assail Jeff
Landry's character will fall on deaf ears not only because the attacks
are false, but because they are coming from a desperate politician who
people now realize says one thing and does another," Littlefield said.

Buddy Boe, Downer's campaign manager, rejected the assertion that the
Downer campaign had been shopping the story.

"Jeff can try to divert attention from the issue at hand," Boe said,
"but the issue isn't his attempt to distort my relationship with the
press, it's Jeff's possible connection and history with cocaine."

Downer is an attorney from Houma who previously served as speaker of
the state House and a major general in the Louisiana National Guard.

Attorney Ravi Sangisetty, also from Houma, is the only Democrat
running in the 3rd Congressional District and already has a spot in
the Nov. 2 general election.