Landry reappoints Southern University board member who had quit in plea deal

Four years after the Rev. Donald Ray Henry resigned from the Southern University System Board of Supervisors as part of a plea agreement, Gov. Jeff Landry has reappointed him to the same board. 

Henry was forced to resign from his position on the board overseeing the nation’s only system of historically Black universities after a guilty plea for falsifying public records, WBRZ-TV reported in 2020.

The charges were brought against him after it was found his voter registration and homestead exemption were for two different addresses in Ascension Parish. Henry did so to remain eligible for his membership on the board, the district attorney told The Advocate when he was charged in 2018. 

Henry was also cited for misdemeanor simple battery in 2018 following a violent altercation at his day job as the executive director of the Lafourche Basin Levee District, WBRZ reported. 

Henry could not be immediately reached for comment.

Kate Kelly, a spokeswoman for Landry, has not yet responded to a request for comment for this report. 

Henry was originally an appointee of Gov. Bobby Jindal to the Southern board.

Landry appointed four other new members and one previous member. 

Domoine Rutledge, a Baton Rouge attorney and Landry donor, will return to the board. He previously served as its chairman from 2019-21. 

The other new members are Christopher Masingill, who leads an economic development agency in St. Tammany Parish, Quincy Cawthorne, a Lafayette-based attorney, Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn and Reggie Abraham, an ExxonMobil operations supervisor. 

The Southern University System is one of four higher education systems in Louisiana, which each have their own governing boards.