More Questions surface as trial set to begin in alleged rigging of LHBPA elections
 
NEW ORLEANS - August 31, 2011 - Former Kenner Judge Sean Alfortish is set to stand trial next week, accused of rigging an election to remain president of the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association while raiding the organization for lavish perks.

But on the eve of the Sept. 6 trial, two civil lawsuits and scrutiny by LHBPA’s new board have raised new questions about Alfortish, including evidence of self-dealing in repairing the group’s headquarters after Hurricane Katrina.

Stanley Seelig, a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, was elected as the new president of the LHBPA, a non-profit group that gets a percentage of track purses to support the state’s horse-racing industry. Since he took the reins as president in April, Seelig said most of his time is spent fixing problems left behind by the previous administration.

Some of those problems will be presented at next week’s trial when Alfortish faces a 29-count fraud indictment. But Seelig and the new board are finding new questions --- and very few answers --- about $500,000 in hurricane repairs to the group’s headquarters on Gentilly Boulevard.

“When the hurricane hit, they just started grabbing money out of those accounts and spending it wherever they wanted to,” Seelig said.

Accounting for the hurricane repair money has proved difficult.

“There aren’t proper records available to us,” Seelig said. “And without seeing all those records, it’s difficult to see what was and what wasn’t done to the building.”

Canceled checks show that more than $400,000 was paid to two companies: Roughneck Construction and Jeff’s Trash Hauling.

The bulk of the money went to Roughneck, which state records show was owned by Alfortish’s brother-in-law, Ronnie Sylvester. Sylvester declined to be interviewed for this story, but he did acknowledge that Roughneck once occupied a desk inside his Kenner clothing store.

Seelig said Roughneck had a single employee: Jeff Alfortish, brother of the former LHBPA president. In addition to being Roughneck’s only employee, he also owned Jeff’s Trash Hauling, which removed debris during the repair work.

State records show the company was formed by the Alfortish brothers. Its address was listed at 1112 5th Street in Gretna. At the time, the building housed Sean Alfortish’s West Bank law office.

The federal criminal case, which already netted guilty pleas by two former employees who agreed to testify against Alfortish, was sparked by the civil lawsuits. Attorney Madro Banderies filed one of two lawsuits, which are still pending against Sean Alfortish and the old board.

The suits also helped expose questions about the hurricane repairs.

“When you look at this, the only conclusion you can come to is that HBPA was looted by these people,” Banderies said. “Mr. Sylvester’s company, Roughneck, abruptly went out of business when we subpoenaed him to come to court with records. Mr. Alfortish claimed under oath in a courtroom that all the records were destroyed.”

With no documents to detail the work, the new board has used depositions and discovery from the lawsuits to try and piece together what happened to all that money.

One LHBPA employee, Sheila Menard, stated in a deposition that while Roughneck was repairing the group’s headquarters, Sean Alfortish used the same workers to repair his house Kenner.

“They’d come to Sean’s house,” Menard stated. “Some days here (at LHBPA headquarters) and some days there.”

Jeff Alfortish could not be reached for comment, but in a deposition he portrayed himself as a Roughneck employee who merely followed orders. Sean Alfortish, through his attorneys, declined to comment.

Read more: Mike Perlstein / Eyewitness News WWLTV