NEW IBERIA: Can Rewriting Records Change What Happened?

Just days after the New Iberia Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board held an unannounced executive session to decline an investigation into misconduct allegations, a second issue emerged—this time not as rumor or speculation, but in writing.

Petition for Investigation

On March 12, 2026, an amended petition for investigation was filed with the New Iberia Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board. A small section of that petition made a very straightforward allegation: whether an employee’s job classification — used to obtain state supplemental pay—accurately reflected the duties she performed. It read in part:

“Petitioner alleges that Delcambre has not served as a transportation officer and instead performs duties consistent with those of a records clerk, a position that does not involve inmate transport or the care, custody, or control of prisoners and does not satisfy the eligibility criteria for supplemental pay. If true, Chief D’Albor represented to a state board that an employee qualified for state funding under a classification that did not reflect the employee’s actual duties.”

The petitioner asked for an investigation. The Board went into executive session. When it returned, it declined to open an investigation.

What Happened Next

In response to a public records request, the City of New Iberia provided six personal action forms for Morgan Delcambre, each signed by Chief Todd D’Albor and Mayor Freddie Decourt. Delcambre was hired on July 27, 2022, as a provisional police records clerk. That appointment should have automatically terminated on October 27, 2022, unless the qualifications for the position were met, allowing for a probationary appointment. Then, according to a second personal action form dated January 17, 2023,  Delcambre was transferred from provisional to probationary police records clerk, effective December 1, 2022. The timeline is important. These were the only two personnel action forms in the employee’s file until just a few weeks ago.

These public records indicate that Delcambre was hired as a records clerk and continues to serve in that role.

Then, at the very same meeting where allegations were brought before the Board, multiple amended personnel action forms were presented for consideration. Those forms did not simply clarify an existing record — they altered it. The employee’s original hiring classification was retroactively revised to state that she had been a Transportation Officer from the outset. The explanation provided was “clerical error”.

The forms then claim that she remained a Transportation Officer through December of 2022, when she was transferred to the position of Records Clerk.

What Had Been Represented

To understand the timeline, you also have to understand another event — and the relationship between the two. Something else occurred on November 9, 2022, at a meeting of the Municipal Police Officers’ Supplemental Pay Board of Review. According to the meeting minutes, Chief Todd D’Albor appeared before the board and represented that Morgan Delcambre had been hired as a Transportation Officer, a position involving the transport of inmates and the care, custody, and control of prisoners.

The relationship – Morgan Delcambre is the stepdaughter of Chief Todd D’Albor, the same official who represented that she was a Transportation Officer and whose department was responsible for certifying her classification to the state in the months and years that followed. Based on Chief D’Albor’s representations, the board approved Delcambre’s eligibility for state supplemental pay. That decision was not a one-time event. It became an ongoing certification process.

What Was Certified

To receive state supplemental pay, a municipal police employee must meet the eligibility requirements. The municipality is responsible for certifying each month that the employee continues to meet the requirements outlined in Louisiana law in order for them to receive state funds. Louisiana law specifically excludes certain classes of people from receiving state supplemental pay, such as Records Clerks. Louisiana revised statute 40:1667.1 D.(1) provides:

For purposes of this Part the following classes of persons, whether or not duly commissioned as police officers or having the power to make arrests, shall not be deemed to be a municipal or tribal police officer entitled to additional pay out of state funds:

(1) Personnel employed primarily to perform purely clerical or nonenforcement duties, including but not necessarily restricted to the following types of duties of persons: typographical; office machine operators; switchboard operators; filing clerks; stenoclerks; stenographers; dog pound keepers; school crossing guards; and secretaries except those classified under the municipal fire and police civil service law and those classified as secretary to the chief of police in a classified municipal police employees civil service system or a classified municipal employees civil service system created by legislative Act.

These are not informal submissions. Each form required verification and carried a printed warning that the submission of false information could constitute criminal conduct:

“The submission of false information could constitute a criminal offense, including but not limited to, Filing a False Public Record, a violation of R S. 14:133; Theft, a violation of R.S. 14:67; False Swearing, a violation of R.S. 14:125; and Malfeasance in Office, a violation of R.S. 14:134. Submission of false or misleading information may also subject you to personal liability for repayment of any funds paid as a result of such statements.”

With multiple individuals involved, it could easily rise to the level of criminal conspiracy as well.

This is something that has been talked about year after year at Chiefs of Police conferences. “Don’t go to jail for $600.00 a month!” “Lying on that form is a crime.”

Yet month after month, the City of New Iberia submitted forms to the State of Louisiana identifying Delcambre as a Transportation Officer. Those forms bore the signatures of Secretary Adelia Mercier, Chief Todd D’Albor (occasionally Assistant Chief of Police Brandon Williams), and Mayor Freddie DeCourt.

We reviewed the warrants submitted to the State of Louisiana between January 2023 and February 2026. Each month, a separate certification falsely affirmed the same thing: Delcambre was a Transportation Officer in the state of Louisiana.

The Truth

Inside the department, however, documents reflect something different. From the time of her hiring in July of 2022, Delcambre was classified as a Records Clerk, a designation that remained consistent as she progressed from provisional to probationary and ultimately to permanent status (although that record would not be created until 2026).

The difference between those roles is not subtle. A records clerk performs administrative work — processing reports, maintaining files, and assisting the public. The duties are outlined in the Classification Plan prepared by the local Civil Service Board and approved by the Office of the State Examiner.

However, a transportation officer is responsible for the custody, movement, and control of prisoners. Civil service classifications make that distinction clear. The duties do not overlap.

Two Realities, Side by Side

For years, those two versions existed simultaneously. One within the City of New Iberia and another in the monthly certifications sent to the state. There is no indication in the available record that the discrepancy was addressed in 2022 or in the years that followed. It persisted through repeated submissions, each one tied to continued payment. Nor is there much room to claim this was a simple “clerical error” that persisted for four years.

One in particular, which was submitted to the state in March of 2023, listed several officers who held ranks as simply “police officer.” Someone painstakingly took the red pen to the form and marked up each, correcting the varying ranks: Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Chief. Yet, no correction was made to the entry, which read: Delcambre, Morgan Lancon — Transportation Officer — $600.00.

The discrepancy was formally raised on March 12, 2026, when the Board declined to investigate. And at the same time, the personnel record was amended — retroactively — to match what had already been represented to the state. The correction did not occur when the alleged error was made, or during the years the classification was used. Only after an investigation was requested was the error addressed.

The Larger Question

At $600 per month over approximately 38 months, the excess total amount paid under that classification is at least $22,800.00 in public funds. Those payments were made based on repeated certifications that the employee met the eligibility requirements tied to that classification. If those certifications were inaccurate, each submission would raise serious legal concerns under Louisiana law. Those payments were not issued once, but repeatedly. Each one followed a certification, each one tied to the same classification, each one carrying the same warning. And each one, if done with the knowledge of its falsity, could constitute a separate criminal offense for the parties signing the form.

There are explanations that could account for what occurred.

One is that this was a “clerical error” that went unnoticed for years. That would require believing that the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the administrative staff all failed to recognize that an employee performing records clerk duties every day was, in fact, something else entirely.

It would also require ignoring the obvious. Delcambre regularly used an email signature identifying herself as part of the “records division.”

What do you believe?

The public is left with two competing explanations. One requires believing that an employee who identified herself as a records clerk and was never assigned a weapon, restraints, or a transport vehicle was nevertheless functioning as a Transportation Officer. The other requires believing that the individuals responsible for certifying her status knew exactly what they were doing when they submitted those certifications to the State of Louisiana.

Some have already chosen a side. But regardless of what one chooses to believe, the sequence of events does not change. An investigation was requested. Then the records changed. And with those changes, the need for an investigation disappeared.

Government records are meant to reflect reality. Oversight bodies exist to test that reality when it is questioned. But when the response to a formal complaint is not an inquiry, but a revision, the question is no longer about what happened. It is whether truth in government depends on facts — or on who has the authority to rewrite them.

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