NEW ORLEANS -- The warden of the Orleans Justice Center has been suspended as the sheriff’s office investigates her for possible payroll fraud.
Maj. Nicole Harris was suspended earlier this week as the internal affairs division investigates possible payroll irregularities, spokesman Blake Acuri confirmed.
The investigation was launched over concerns about whether Harris’ daughter was working all the hours at the jail for which she was paid, multiple sources said.
Harris’ daughter worked for jail’s disciplinary department, which is responsible for ruling on alleged violations by inmates.
Harris, a sheriff’s office employee since 2002, was assigned to the position of warden about a year ago. Her suspension marks more turmoil at the top of an organization that has been hard hit by personnel controversy and turnover over the past few years.
Harris was appointed to the post after the heir apparent to the position, former Capt. William Short, was fired after failing a drug test.
Short was flagged for the positive drug test by former Human Resources Director Johnette Staes, who herself was fired in February when it was learned that she had been criminally charged with bouncing checks years earlier. The charges against Staes were dropped, but they cost her a Louisiana gaming employee permit when she failed to disclose the matter to state regulators.
Staes had been hired by the jail’s court-appointed compliance director, Gary Maynard. Maynard was forced to resign in January after jail monitors issued a series of scathing reports about conditions at the jail, which has been under a federal consent decree since 2013.
As part of the consent decree, elected Criminal Sheriff Marlon Gusman was stripped of his day-to-day duties of running the jail in 2016 in favor of a compliance director. The director, who essentially runs the 1,300-bed parish jail, is selected by U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, who is overseeing the consent decree.