NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A Fox 8 investigation uncovered two Gretna-based state judges spent $48 thousand in taxpayer money to travel and stay in resorts while attending conferences.
Fox 8 obtained records from the Louisiana 5th Circuit Appeals Court, which show the court reimbursed Judges Judge Gravois and Marc Johnson a combined $48,213.57 for travel to both in-state and out-of-state conferences since July 2021.
The court reimbursed Johnson $22,010.18 and Gravois $26,203.39.
The other eight judges on the bench spent a combined $47,539.54 in that time.
Johnson’s destinations included Hawaii, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, while Gravois traveled to Napa, New York City and Sandestin.
The judges took the trips legally, leveraging Louisiana’s judicial reimbursement system.
Fox 8 showed the data to Rafael Goyeneche, a good government watchdog and the President of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
“Those two judges apparently have a greater appetite for exotic travel than the rest of the court,” he said.
Louisiana Supreme Court rules require judges to earn 12.5 continuing education hours a year. Five of those hours must come from attending a Louisiana Judicial College conference.
If a judge is at least 65 years old and elected, only the Louisiana Judicial College credit is needed.
The college’s website offers on-demand training for credit hours as well as a calendar of continuing education opportunities both in Louisiana and elsewhere.
Fox 8 asked Goyeneche if there’s an argument to be made for traveling abroad for continuing education.
“No, if there was, it would be built into the rules. So these rules don’t require that you travel out of state, don’t require that you go to Napa,” he said.
show
FOX 8 INVESTIGATES
In March 2022, Gravois attended and taught at a Louisiana Bar Association Seminar in Napa. He asked the court for $4,195.19, and he received at least $3,419.99.
Not counting the session Gravois taught, he could have earned 12 continuing education hours during the Napa trip.
In April 2022, reimbursement records show he attended a judicial college seminar in New Orleans for just $88. The seminar offered 6.25 hours of credit.
If Gravois attended all the possible sessions, he could have earned more than 18 hours.
Gravois is more than 70 years old and thus only needs the five judicial college credit hours a year.
However, reimbursement records show the court paid out another $4,078.15 for another judicial college seminar that June in Sandestin.
$2,975 helped pay for Gravois’ stay at a beach home named My Beach Alibi. The online listing for the home shows it sleeps 22 people with access to the beach.
The court reimbursed him the maximum daily lodging rate, $425, allowed by the state supreme court for the trip. The classes were held at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort.
In a letter, the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Judicial Administrator acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic limited housing options for that conference.
The cost and availability of resort rooms for that year are unclear, but Gravois attended the conference again in 2023 at the same resort.
The conference only charged $364 for a room.
In October 2022, Judge Marc Johnson expensed an average of nearly $600 a night for his stay at the Couples Resorts Jamaica while attending the Louisiana Judicial Council/National Bar Association continuing education program in Negril.
The records he submitted to the court showit he flew with a guest and booked the Verandah Suite.
Fox 8 showed the records to State Rep. Jerome Zeringue (R-Houma).
“I don’t see how they can expense the falling in love again package,” he said.
In 2023, Zeringue unsuccessfully pushed for a bill that would require the Louisiana Judiciary to adopt federal standards on travel reimbursements.
If Judge Johnson’s Jamaica trip had been reimbursed at a federal rate, the maximum reimbursement for lodging could have been $211 a day.
The Jamaica trip cost taxpayers $2,552.11.
“You can see how it provides some element of distrust on the fact that the public, when they see this and say, well, you see that there’s this, you know, politicians taking advantage of the process,” Zeringue said.
The Fifth Circuit Clerk of Court, Curtis Pursell, told Fox 8 the court does impose a $5,000 cap per year on conference travel as part of a $40,000 budget for the whole court (which includes eight judges).
He said the cap went into effect in April 2023 but has been informally followed since 2013.
Court reimbursement records show Gravois and Johnson both repeatedly spent more than $5,000 annually since 2021.
Pursell said judges can spend more than $5,000 if the rest of the court approves.
“$5,000 per judge, $40,000 for the entire court is very, very generous and I don’t see a need why that threshold needs to be exceeded for any judge going forward,” Goyeneche said.
Pursell said the approval records are not subject to disclosure.
“If they’re paid for by public dollars, they should be public records,” Zeringue said.
Johnson and Gravois both declined interviews, instead sending statements saying they followed all state laws and Louisiana Supreme Court rules.
Zeringue said he didn’t propose a federal cap this legislative session because lawmakers aren’t eager to take on the courts.
“I can assure you I have two more years in my term and my intent is, is to work on this issue and try to address it before I’m out,” he said.
Until there’s a change, judges will have the financial runway to take flights to vacation destinations for conferences.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.
Copyright 2025 WVUE. All rights reserved.
