ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. -- The mudslinging started in one Southern Louisiana political race on Wednesday after one man running to be the next St. Bernard Parish sheriff ran new campaign ads that pack an explosive punch.

Barry Bernadas, Chad Clark, Wayne Landry and James Pohlmann are in the race for the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office, and now Landry is leveling big allegations against Pohlmann and his supporters.

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The controversy centers on the Meraux Foundation, which controls millions of dollars in St. Bernard Parish that are supposed to be bequeathed to charitable causes.

In Landry's campaign ads, he says he wants to know who controls the fund and how the money is spent.

"I believe that's one of the biggest issues of this campaign," he said. "It's symbolic of what goes on in our sheriff's office. It's a foundation set up to benefit all of the people in St. Bernard Parish, but the fact of the matter is it only benefited a select few."

The foundation, a Chalmette-based group that controls tens of millions of dollars in assets, land and real estate in the area, has come under scrutiny over how it was set up, how board members were appointed and how it managed money.

Landry said the board is the Who's Who of those politically connected in the parish. Last year, the foundation paid more than $500,000 in salaries. However, according to the filings, the group paid out only $353,000 to charitable causes, the largest recipients of which were the St. Bernard Parish government and a college tuition program.

Members Sheriff Jack Stephens and Chalmette Attorney Sal Gutierrez resigned from the foundation board Wednesday, the foundation said.

The Meraux Foundation declined to comment on the ads.

Arlene Meraux's daughter said her mother was pressured to sign over her fortune after Stephens ordered his chief deputy, Pohlmann, to go to Chicago and bring Meraux back to St. Bernard's Parish.

Meraux left her estate to a foundation to benefit the people of St. Bernard Parish instead of her family via the Meraux Foundation. It's an endowment that's come under increased scrutiny, and Pohlmann now finds himself in the middle of it.

The ad states Meraux's daughter, Cheryl Cannella, claims, "Jimmy Pohlmann came to Chicago and took my grandmother against her will. Their motivation was to steal the Meraux fortune."

Pohlmann released a statement Wednesday afternoon, saying, "The commercial is despicable. It is a gross distortion of the facts, and Wayne Landry knows it. I was assigned to provide security for Arlene Meraux. That's the fact. Wayne Landry has proven that he has no regard for the truth or the law in his desperate attempt to gain votes."

Pohlmann said he expected these ads, especially when he heard Landry's camp had traveled to Chicago to sit down with Meraux's daughter.

On Wednesday, Pohlmann responded, "Lies, flat-out lies."

When she died, Meraux left millions in real estate and other holdings to the endowment managed by several high-profile St. Bernard Parish residents, including Stephens. According to court documents, her daughter was disinherited.

In the ad, Cannella said, "They wanted all that money -- that's all that they wanted. And they'll do anything to get it."

Pohlmann said everything stems from a trip to Chicago in 2002.

Pohlmann said the sheriff told him to accompany Meraux's niece, Rita Gue, and Meraux's daughter home.

"The deal was she was supposed to come back. The family refused to let her come back. There was a court order issued that she was to be returned in five days. They did not comply with that court order, so I accompanied Ms. Gue to go up there and pick her up," Pohlmann said.

Pohlmann said he was just doing his job. His opponent disagreed.

"I was doing my job. It's as simple as that. Listen, we work in a paramilitary organization. When you get an assignment, you fulfill your assignment. It's as simple as that," said Pohlmann.

"Here's the problem," said Landry. "The sheriff of St. Bernard Parish, or any parish, does not have the authority to send Jimmy Pohlmann and a group of people on a private jet to go to Chicago and bring back someone against their will. And the bigger part of the problem that I have with that is if Mr. Pohlmann doesn't understand that that is an abuse of power of the sheriff's department, then that tells me he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong, between using that power, and he shouldn't be the sheriff."

"I think this is a last-ditch effort for him to rise in the polls. If he can't rise in the polls, I think he is going to take my numbers down. I think that is a desperate act, and I'm not surprised," said Pohlmann.

Pohlmann added that the the Chicago trip was made before the Meraux Foundation was even in place.

"Since it was created, I have had nothing to do with the foundation, never benefited from the foundation and have not been interested in the foundation," Pohlmann said.

Landry said the ads are just a woman telling a story that finally needs to come out.
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