The legal wrangling between the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office and Joseph Palermo Jr. over the local businessman’s $1.2 million reimbursement to the state for prosecution and investigation costs has been settled, said D.A. John DeRosier.

He said Palermo, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to possession of stolen things under $500 and operating a trailer without a valid safety inspection sticker, has turned over a check for $300,000 as a final payment — $100,000 less than the installment amount in the plea agreement — and a lawsuit he filed in East Baton Rouge Parish has been dismissed.

Attorney Karl Koch had said previously that Palermo filed suit because he believed the state had breached the terms of the plea agreement by continuing to investigate “already disposed of charges” — which DeRosier denied.

Palermo had sought dismissal of the final payment and to be given back the money — $800,000 — he had already paid and that had been parceled out to the District Attorney’s Office, state police and the state Attorney General’s Office.

But even though that legal action has been resolved, DeRosier said, there may still be other legal implications from the situation.

“Prior to us signing that settlement, the legislative auditor contacted me and wanted to know all about the litigation and the waiver of money by the attorney general,” he said.

DeRosier said Palermo’s attorneys obtained a written waiver from Attorney General Jeff Landry of his office’s share of the payment.

He said Landry’s basis for the waiver was that “there is no written agreement between the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney and the Louisiana Attorney General relative to the division of this money.”

He said Landry’s office said it wasn’t “entitled to any of the money and won’t take the money if we send it to them.”

This was despite the fact that DeRosier said personnel from the Attorney General’s Office and state police had spent “literally thousands of hours” working on cases connected to Palermo.

DeRosier said Landry had also previously not cashed a check for over $133,000 from Palermo’s second installment.

“The law says that when you get this money, you have to negotiate it. So the state police cashed their check,” DeRosier said.

“The Attorney General’s Office did not cash theirs. Landry held the check for almost five weeks, giving Palermo a chance to file the lawsuit.”

He said he stopped payment on the check because he knew Landry “was not going to cash the check and had no intention of cashing it” and was “very concerned about why he was doing that.”

DeRosier said the money was still in the checking account and would be divided equally between the D.A.’s Office and state police.

The American Press reached out the Attorney General’s Office for comment but didn’t receive a response.