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S u n d ay, au g u S t 17, 2025
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Change in police chiefs roils Golden Meadow Investigators say previous chief deleted records after losing election
BY JOSEPH CRANNEY | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By LESLIE WESTBROOK
Lafayette Fire Chief Robert Benoit smiles as he talks about his career Wednesday at the Lafayette Fire Department in Lafayette.
‘It felt good helping people’
Lafayette fire chief says goodbye after 32 years on the job BY CLAIRE TAYLOR | Staff writer When Robert Benoit heads to work Monday morning, for the first time in 32 years he won’t be reporting to the downtown fire station as chief of the Lafayette Fire Department. Instead, he will report to Acadian Ambulance, where he will be working full-time as fire liaison supervisor.
The position, he said, will keep him connected to the fire services. Acadian Ambulance was looking for someone with his credentials and relationships with fire departments across the state. Benoit’s last day with the Fire Department was Friday. People asked Benoit why he stayed with the department for 46 years when he could do something else
making more money or retire. “I would always say, ‘God placed me here for a reason. When it’s time for me to go he’s going to let me know,’ ” he said. “He let me know.” Some may not know, but in addition to leading the fire department, Benoit has been involved in ministry. He was ordained at his church
ä See FIRE CHIEF, page 9A
GOLDEN MEADOW — On Michelle Lafont’s first day as the newly elected police chief of this tiny speed-trap town and shrimping community on the way to Port Fourchon, the door of her Town Hall office wouldn’t budge. You’ve got to be kidding me, she thought. Her predecessor, former Golden Meadow Police Chief Troy Dufrene, had locked the keys inside the office Lafont after losing the November 2024 election by an excruciating nine votes, she said. That wasn’t all. The day after Dufrene lost, state criminal investigators say he began deleting computer records pertaining to the Police Department’s citations, calls for service, theft complaints and warrants. He also deleted administrative records like payroll sheets and fuel reimbursement reports, investigators said. Dufrene continued doing so throughout his remaining 55 days in office — jeopardizing some 12 years’ worth of records, according to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office. Dufrene later apologized for his actions, explaining that he “felt the data belonged to him,” an investigator wrote. He was arrested Aug. 6 on charges of computer tampering, injuring public records and malfeasance — all felonies.
ä See CHANGE, page 8A
Redefining their future
Cierra Chenier was 9 when Hurricane Katrina hit. A resident of New Orleans East, her home and nearly everything inside was destroyed in the storm. She stands in the now-vacant New Orleans East yard where she grew up playing.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina shaped the lives of children in New Orleans, who have now grown up
BY DESIREE STENNETT | Staff writer Cierra Chenier doesn’t like to leave New Orleans. Not after being forced out after Hurricane Katrina drowned the city. Not for too long. Not when so many family members, childhood friends and countless others moved and never found their way back. She was 9 when Katrina turned her
WEATHER HIGH 94 LOW 76 PAGE 6B
whole world — everyone’s world — upside down. In the years that followed, she and thousands of other children came of age in a new kind of New Orleans where they were suddenly divorced from the neighborhoods that formed generations of identities.
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
ä See KATRINA, page 6A
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................2B Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 48
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