Ex-St. Bernard Parish President Sues Successor for Alleged Smear Campaign

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro is suing his successor, Dave Peralta, accusing him of orchestrating a politically motivated smear campaign that culminated in an unauthorized raid on a storage unit Taffaro used.

In a suit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Taffaro claims Peralta used a housing discrimination probe of the parish by the Justice Department as a pretext for having a sheriff's deputy seize documents from his storage unit last month.

The suit also claims Peralta conspired with another parish official to leak false allegations of wrongdoing by Taffaro to news organizations and Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration, which hired Taffaro after Peralta defeated him in a November 2011 runoff.

Taffaro is seeking more than $2.7 million in damages.

Peralta didn't immediately respond to a call for comment.