CFO claims he was fired after looking into Sheriff Hutson's Mardi Gras hotel rooms

NOLA ^ | 3/30 | Mike Pearlstein

[nickcarraway]

.One of four top executives dismissed by Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson last week is disputing Hutson's claim that a shake-up was already in the works and said he may go to court to file for whistleblower status.

Hutson said at a press conference Tuesday that the dismissals were part of a "reorganization" as she approaches her one-year anniversary on the job.

But an attorney for David Trautenberg, the sheriff’s former chief financial officer, claims that his client “was fired shortly after launching an internal, financial investigation into the use of hotel rooms paid for by OPSO over the Mardi Gras holiday, along with the propriety of a cash donation made by a third-party company to OPSO covering the costs of those hotel rooms.”

The lodging controversy, in which more than a dozen top deputies were put up in high-end hotels during Carnival, came to light in media reports shortly after Mardi Gras.

Hutson said the news reports about the hotel stays had "nothing to do with the changes that I'm making. None. This is all about us moving forward as an organization.”

But multiple sources inside the sheriff’s office said the top executives who were put on notice Friday and fired Monday were blindsided by the sudden dismissals.