Natchitoches Parish President John Richmond and his wife Kathy Richmond. Courtesy of Facebook.
Natchitoches Parish President John Richmond said he’s relieved a Parish Grand Jury has dismissed assault charges that were filed against him by Latorria Freeman, an opponent in his re-election campaign. He said after a headline reads a parish president is accused of something…
“I’m very thankful that they worked their way to the bottom of this and saw that there was no merit to the accusations and returned a verdict of ‘no true bill’,” said Richmond.
Richmond failed to garner enough votes and Freeman, a Democrat, is in the runoff with Independent John Salter. When asked if the accusation railroaded his re-election campaign, he said we can all play “Monday Morning Quarterback…”
“I can’t imagine that it helped the situation at all, and I always felt like that was something that probably was at the bottom of all this, somebody trying to vie in for a seat in an election,” said Richmond.
Salter had the most votes in the October primary with almost 28 percent of the votes, followed by Freeman with 27 percent and Richmond in third place with 24 percent.
Freeman filed charges claiming Richmond put his hands on her and pushed her during a supposed altercation at the Natchitoches Jazz/R&B Festival in May. Richmond only recalls a conversation with his accuser.
“Three hours after the conversation she pressed charges against me. Obviously, there were witnesses who saw everything that transpired and sworn statements by those witnesses and there was nothing to corroborate what she was saying happened,” said Richmond.
Richmond said he and his wife Kathy are rooted in their faith and they plan to remain in the area and move forward.
When LRN asked Freeman for the opportunity to give her side of the story she responded with “no comment.”
Comments