COVINGTON, La. (WGNO) — St. Tammany District Attorney Warren Montgomery announced a guilty plea from a woman accused of conspiring with Tangipahoa sheriff’s deputies to sell marijuana and cocaine.
The woman is identified as 47-year-old Rose P. Graham of Hammond. The deputies are identified as Johnny Domingue and Karl Newman. According to the DA’s office, Domingue pleaded guilty last month as is awaiting sentencing while Newman faces charges in both St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.
Here’s how Montgomery’s office says Graham’s case went down:
On August 14, 2015, Domingue and Newman were working as part of a U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency task force when they executed a search warrant on Graham’s home in Hammond. There, they found more than $3,000 in various drugs and two stolen guns.
But then, according to prosecutors, Domingue and Newman decided to get into the drug business with Graham. It all ended when Graham met a buyer, who was in fact an undercover officer, at a Madisonville bar for a five-pound marijuana sale. Prosecutors say Domingue provided the drugs. They also say Graham negotiated another sale of ten pounds of pot that would be provided by Domingue. Prosecutors say Domingue was suspicious that the buyer was an officer and told Graham not to go forward with the sale. Graham did sell the drugs but to another customer.
Last January, state troopers searched Domingue’s home in Maurepas where they found evidence bags containing a variety of drugs like oxycodone and cocaine hydrochloride as well as packaging for prescription pills. Prosecutors say the evidence bags had been signed over to Domingue by Newman. Some of the drugs were obtained through a prescription drug take-back program.
As part of her plea deal, Graham is agreeing to cooperate with their investigation. She could get up to 15 years in prison for each of the charges she pleaded guilty to committing. She’ll be sentenced in October.
