Feds Seek Insurance Funds from Former Louisiana Mayor

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A federal magistrate has ordered the garnishment of money from a life insurance policy owned by former Ball, La., Mayor Roy Hebron, who is serving a four-year prison sentence for defrauding a federal agency.

The Town Talk reports U.S. Magistrate Judge James D. Kirk signed the order on June 5 to cash in $32,429, the surrender value of the insurance policy, to help pay restitution to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In early 2011, Hebron pleaded guilty to one count of defrauding FEMA by overbilling for Hurricane Gustav cleanup in 2008. He was sentenced in May 2011 and ordered to pay FEMA almost $131,000 for money stolen.

By December, Hebron had paid only $7,000 toward his debt, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Shreveport notified Hebron that prosecutors intended to garnish his life insurance policy with Jackson National Life Insurance Co.

Hebron, who is serving the sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Fla., was notified in January and February that he was entitled to a hearing on the garnishment, according to court documents.

Hebron and a former town of Ball clerk were sentenced to jail time in the aftermath of a federal grand jury indictment in 2009 that charged a total of five town employees, including former police Chief Jay Barber, defrauded FEMA. Another employee was charged directly by prosecutors.

All but Hebron and former Clerk Brenda Kimball pleaded guilty early in the case and received probation.