LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory is asking a judge to bar candidate Monique Blanco Boulet from accusing him of corruption.
The temporary restraining order prohibits Boulet “from distributing or transmitting any oral, visual, digital, or written material accusing Joshua S. Guillory of corruption pending a hearing on the request for a preliminary injunction.”
News Ten’s Rodricka Taylor spoke with Boulet about the potential restraining order.
“Josh Guillory cannot defend his record and failure and corruption, so he’s trying to silence others from talking about it,” said Boulet.
Boulet spoke about how she believes Guillory’s feelings about the upcoming election could have contributed to this action against her.
“When incumbents who are used to having control power get threatened when their seat is at risk, they get desperate, and they will pull punches like this to try to take control back, but it will be very difficult to actually get a restraining order, so yeah, this is a sign of desperation,” said the Mayor-President Candidate. “I think it is silly playground bullying. He has run a campaign of intimidation, threats, and basic bullying across this entire parish for the last year, and now we’re in campaign mode, and he doesn’t like what’s being said, but the reality is that’s what people across the parish think.”
She mentioned every four years, citizens get an election, and they have the power to choose.
“It doesn’t matter if the incumbent doesn’t like it. The voters in Lafayette Parish will make a decision based on what they perceive and the actions that have actually gone on,” Boulet said.
Although the request is pending, Boulet said she will continue talking about corruption, waste, and mismanagement.
“That’s what we’re dealing with, and so I’m just going to continue on. There’s not been a motion granted. No judge has signed it. We will go through the process. We’ll see what the judge says. I think they will be very challenged to actually get a restraining order. So maybe it’s a campaign tactic, I don’t know,” said Boulet. “We have a lot of corruption, waste, and mismanagement in Lafayette Parish, so we will continue to discuss it as needed.”
News 10 asked about some of the matters she viewed the Mayor-President as “corruption.”
She mentioned the audit with the 29 findings.
“We don’t see audits like that in Louisiana, not in any other communities. Many of those had to do with public bid laws, with issuing money, millions of dollars with no written contracts. Still today, there’s no written contract on many of those projects that’s unlawful; flat out unlawful,” Boulet tells News 10.
News 10 reached out to Guillory’s legal for a reaction to Boulet’s response but did not get a response by news time.
