Plaquemine man pleads guilty to alligator violations

BATON ROUGE - A Plaquemine man pleaded guilty to false swearing and theft of alligators in the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish on Sept. 12.

Judge Richard Moore accepted the guilty plea from John Boudreaux, 52, and sentenced him to one year of supervised probation, 30 hours of community service, fined him $100 plus court costs and ordered him to pay $5,000 for the cost of prosecution.

Louisiana Department Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Enforcement Division agents arrested Boudreaux on Oct. 14, 2011.

Agents started the investigation in September of 2011 after receiving a tip from an alligator hunter about a man illegally acquiring alligator tags from the department. Agents found that Boudreaux forged signatures on alligator tag applications in order to obtain the rights to hunt alligators on land that he did not have permission.

According to LDWF records, Boudreaux illegally obtained 150 tags and harvested 149 alligators in West Baton Rouge and Iberville parishes since 2001.

An alligator hunter must either own land or have permission to hunt alligators on land that is classified as wetland habitat in order to qualify for alligator harvest tags.

LDWF issues harvest tags for property containing sufficient alligator habitat capable of sustaining an alligator harvest. Wild alligator tags can only be issued to licensed alligator hunters and are nontransferable.

Agents participating in the case were Sgt. Ronnie Hebert, Sgt. Dusty Rhodes, Sgt. Louis Burnett and Senior Agents Jerry Stassi and Ladd Turner. Assistant District Attorney Steven Danielson prosecuted the case.