Former Opelousas Mayor Reggie Tatum Sentenced In Overtime Pay Scandal

The morning started out with a 20-year prison sentence for former Opelousas Mayor Reggie Tatum, but it ended with the sentence being suspended by a state district judge and Tatum being put on probation for two years and being ordered to serve 34 hours of community service, according to our news partners at KATC.

In May of 2018, Tatum was facing 15 felony charges related to overtime payments that investigators say were fraudulent. The payments were made by the city after the August 2016 flood event in Acadiana. The 15 counts included felony theft, forgery, malfeasance, injuring public records and filing false public records. But that was reduced to a conviction in September of one count of malfeasance in office, four counts of filing false public records, one count of theft over $1,000 and four counts of forgery. The state dismissed four counts of injuring public records and one count of forgery.

Tatum is now a convicted felon. His attorney plans to appeal.