[StBernard] Judge rules St. Bernard sheriff candidate cannot seek election

[Westley Annis]

A state judge disqualified one of five candidates challenging St. Bernard
Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens in next month's election after determining the
former FBI analyst had not lived in the parish for the past year as required
by state law. 

Barry Bernadas, 45, who is appealing the decision, has not lived in St.
Bernard since Hurricane Katrina destroyed his Meraux home more than two
years ago, state District Judge Manuel Fernandez wrote in a ruling issued
Monday upholding a court challenge filed by Stephens' secretary. 

Bernadas sold his flooded home in the Jumonville Plantation subdivision in
Meraux six months after Katrina and later bought homes in Covington and New
Orleans, according to court records.



In qualifying two weeks ago to challenge Stephens, a six-term incumbent,
Bernadas listed his address as 3000 Riverland Drive in Chalmette, his
childhood home, which he controls through a lease-purchase agreement with
his father. 

Chalmette resident and Sheriff's Office employee Petrina Imbraguglio filed a
petition last week challenging Bernadas' candidacy by claiming he did not
live in the Riverland Drive home, which is gutted and has no electric
service. 

When called to testify during a hearing Monday in Chalmette, Bernadas
acknowledged he is living in a house on General Haig Street in Lakeview, but
said it is an investment property and not his permanent home, according to
court records. 

Bernadas sought to have the one-year residency requirement waived under a
state law enacted in June 2006 to protect candidates involuntarily displaced
by a declared state emergency, such as Hurricane Katrina. 

But Fernandez ruled that Bernadas effectively waived his right to an
exception to the residency requirement when he sold his storm-damaged home
before the law took effect. 

Reached on his cell phone Tuesday afternoon, Bernadas said he has appealed
Fernandez's ruling to the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal. 

"They thought we were going to go away, but we're campaigning even harder
because we're confident this is going to be overturned on appeal," said
Bernadas, who worked for the FBI for 23 years and now owns a real-estate
investment business. 

Noting that the law does not set a time limit for how long displaced
candidates can be exempted from residency requirements, Bernadas said
"extenuating circumstances" have kept him from moving back to St. Bernard. 

"My son has a rare heart condition, and we couldn't go back to St. Bernard
because there were no hospitals open," he said, adding that doctors recently
cleared the 21-year-old to return to the parish. 

"I never changed my voter registration or the address on my driver's license
because I never, ever, ever intended to leave St. Bernard for good," he
said. 

Four other candidates are challenging Stephens in the Oct. 20 election: Kirt
Arnold, Larry Landry, Henry Maitre and Emile Pellittieri. 



****************************************************************************


I don't see the difference between residents out of the area being able to
vote and  this guy being in (he says) a temporary location.  Hell, if that's
an issue, there's a guy running for the 103rd house seat who listed his
address as being in Carriere, Miss.:  "Rob" Ruffino, Democrat,
Filed:09/04/07 30 Briar Cliff Rd.,Carriere, MS 39426.  That address isn't
even in the STATE!


It is a shame Jack had to get a flunky employee to file his suit for him.
He could have filed it himself.


Jim