fgazette.com Community news site for Union Parish Louisiana
STAFF REPORT editor@fgazette.com
The Union Parish Police Jury’s response to the Farmerville Gazette acknowledges that public money has been spent to house Union Parish prisoners in detention facilities outside the parish. The amount of that expense remains to be established from the records.
This is a follow-up to last week’s article about those costs and the Gazette’s efforts to obtain the financial records. The Gazette filed suit against the Police Jury on October 23 in the Third Judicial District Court to compel production. A hearing has been set for Friday, October 30, 2026.
After the suit was filed, the Police Jury’s attorney, Trevor Fry of the Alexandria firm Gold, Weems, Bruser, Sues & Rundell, emailed the Gazette a link to what he described as an initial production of records. The email is dated Friday, October 23, 2026, at 10:20:46 p.m. Central time.
Fry said the production included invoices, billing reports, transmittal letters and an Excel report concerning checks associated with facilities in Claiborne, Lincoln, Madison and Morehouse parishes. He described the report as covering May 1, 2024, through October 23, 2026.
His email also cautioned that the accounting report could not simply be totaled to establish housing costs. Some checks appear more than once because a separate entry is listed for each invoice a check paid. Some invoices also include medical or other charges along with housing expenses. Fry said those entries and charges were still being checked and would be clarified in a supplemental response.