NEW ORLEANS — Grammy-winner Irvin Mayfield and his partner Ronald Markham have begun their court-ordered 500 hours of community service for stealing more than $1.3 million from New Orleans’ public libraries.
City records show Mayfield designed an “artist-in-residence” program through the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission to train young musicians and will run the program for free as a part of his sentence.
An email from Mayfield sent to NORD and federal court officials in February lays out Mayfield’s vision for the program and says, “Irvin Mayfield will serve as the inaugural artist in residence from April 2023 (to) April 2024, launching, guiding and creatively directing three cultural programs.”
Those three programs are:
- “The Creative Studio,” focused on studio recording and engineering, a songwriting and rap program and storytelling through photography;
- “NOLA Voice Project,” featuring a singing contest akin to “The Voice” and a city-wide choir;
- “NOLA Band Project,” where Mayfield and Markham provide music lessons, master classes, workshops and lectures.
The February email says Mayfield would serve as the artist-in-residence and Markham would be the “Volunteer Team Leader.” It says they plan to exceed 500 hours of community service with a full one-year commitment.
NORD has been reporting Mayfield’s service hours to the U.S. Probation Office in federal court. From Mayfield’s release from a halfway house in January through the end of May, he logged more than 78 hours toward the 500 hours of community service ordered by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey.
Emails obtained through a public records request show Zainey’s judicial assistant first laid out the community service plan on Jan. 12, 2022, as Mayfield and Markham were reporting to prison to serve 18-month sentences. Her email assumed the duo would move into halfway houses in April 2023. Instead, Mayfield moved to a halfway house in September 2022 and was released from custody Jan. 9, 2023, more than eight months early, based on good behavior.
The duo also began paying $1.1 million in restitution at $500 a month.
WWL-TV’s exclusive investigation in 2015 and 2016 showed how Mayfield and Markham used their positions at the New Orleans Public Library Foundation to direct more than $1 million in library donations to their own jazz orchestra. They pled guilty in 2020 to pocketing the money and lying to cover it up, using it instead to pay for their six-figure orchestra salaries, for Mayfield’s luxury travel and hotel stays, for a gold-plated trumpet, a Saks Fifth Avenue shopping spree and the performance fee at Carnegie Hall, among other expenses.
