City advised not to take action against employee

Published 12:56 am Friday, May 7, 2021

ST. MARTINVILLE — The St. Martinville City Council called a special meeting for Wednesday to consider taking action against a city employee who will be going to trial later this month on a September 2019 charge of sexual battery.

Instead, the city’s legal counsel advised council members that they did not have enough proof one way or the other to take action against City Public Works lineman Cassius Bourda in the matter.

“From what I have heard, this is a case of he said/she said at this point,” said City Legal Counsel Allan Durand about midway through the 90-minute meeting. “There hasn’t been any evidence to prove or disprove the allegations being made.”

Bourda was arrested in 2019 and charged with one count of sexual battery resulting from an incident that occurred while Bourda was on his lunch break. According to the arrest report, which St. Martinville Police Sgt. David Vincent read to the council, Bourda drove his city vehicle to meet the woman making the battery claim at a relative’s house and sat in the passenger seat of her car.

According to the woman’s statement, Bourda then attacked her, touching her forcefully and inappropriately under her clothing. St. Martinville Police Chief Ricky Martin added that the victim had some blurry photos taken in the car with her phone that she used to bolster her claims.

In Bourda’s statement, he agreed with most of the story, but said it was the woman who grabbed his hand and put it on her body and over her vagina in order to make the accusation against him. According to Vincent’s reading of the statement, Bourda said that after grabbing his hand the victim was untying her bikini bottom when Bourda got out of the car, returned to his city truck and left the scene.

Mayor Pro Tem Craig Prosper said his concern was the city’s liability in having an employee under accusation for a sex crime working as a lineman who may have to visit schools, churches, and private residences as part of his day-to-day work. He also said that Bourda meeting the woman during the workday using a city vehicle placed the city in an awkward position.

“I can tell you what he did do,” Prosper said. “He put the people of the city in a bad predicament by putting himself in this position.”

Prosper also said that Bourda himself should have reported the incident to his supervisor right away to avoid any issues. Martin said that when Bourda was first questioned a week later, he did not seem to think anything was wrong, admitting that he had met with the victim on the day of the alleged assault before relaying his version of events.

Bourda is also facing criminal charges of domestic violence and child endangerment resulting from an incident in November 2019 which are also slated to be taken up during his trial later this month.

Bourda’s lawyer, Michael Daspit, said that any proposed action against his client was not warranted because he had not yet been convicted of any crime. He also claimed the action was politically motivated after Bourda spoke at a meeting on April 4 where the council declined to hire a new lineman for the city’s electric department.

“For a year this was not serious enough to address,” said Daspit. “Now, a month later, it’s the subject of a special meeting.”

Previously, however, Prosper had laid out his conversations with Mayor Melinda Mitchell going back to Bourda’s original arrest about what action the city should take. He also said the subject had come up in March, prior to the April 4 meeting, when another city employee was terminated from his job at the city’s parks.

“I spoke to the mayor about this a little over a month ago, before that meeting,” Prosper said. “After he was arrested (in 2019), we decided to wait until formal charges were brought. I asked the mayor about it some 10 months ago after I heard that charges were ready. Then I asked her again about four months ago.”

District 4 Councilman Juma Johnson said he was inclined to not take any action against Bourda, instead casting the complainant as a woman scorned seeking revenge.

“It’s not like he is going around snatching people up,” Johnson said. “This woman called upset because Bourda slept with someone else. It sounds to me like it’s a setup from the jump.”

Daspit said that the civil case against Bourda on the domestic abuse and child endangerment charges had previously been thrown out. That case had gone before 16th Judicial District Court Judge Suzane DeMahy in December of 2019, but DeMahy did not find the victim credible.

“Mr. Bourda’s criminal attorney Harold Register is confident that he will win out.” Daspit said.

Prosper also asked Bourda how many times he had previously been charged with some sort of sexual assault. Bourda did acknowledge he had been charged previously, but did not give a number.

The only member of the public to speak at the hearing, Wilson Thompson, said that he knew both Bourda and the complainant.

“She said she was going to get even with Cassius,” Thompson said.

Prosper made a motion to suspend Bourda without pay until after a verdict in his trial. That motion died for lack of a second. District 1 Councilman Mike Fuselier was going to suggest another motion to have Bourda terminated if he was found guilty, but did not when other council members pointed out that he could be found guilty of a less severe crime that would not merit termination.

The council eventually voted to adjourn, leaving the matter as is until after Bourda’s trial is complete.