DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS FOR LYING

BATON ROUGE, LA – United States Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr., announced today that Cherie Marie Courtney, age 42, a resident of Plaquemine, Louisiana, was sentenced by Chief Judge Ralph E. Tyson of the U.S. District Court to serve two years in federal prison for perjury.

The charges were the result of Courtney’s false testimony at the trial of Shawn Decareaux Kilgarlin in October 2003 on charges of mail fraud and obstruction of justice in connection with Kilgarlin’s fabrication of drug test results regarding two employees of a scaffolding company. As a result of Courtney’s false testimony, Kilgarlin was acquitted of one of the counts of mail fraud; she was, however, found guilty of one count of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.

The case was investigated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and was prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel M. Patricia Jones and Senior Deputy Criminal Chief Corey R. Amundson.

United States Attorney Cazayoux pledged to investigate and vigorously prosecute others who undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system by committing perjury or otherwise obstructing the administration of justice.

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