St. Landry Parish to receive settlement in Kroger opioid lawsuit

ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY) – St. Landry Parish is getting a settlement from a Kroger opioid lawsuit in the next few months.

Kroger organized a nationwide settlement worth $1.2 billion for overprescribing opioids. St. Landry Parish is one of the parishes a part of the lawsuit. "It helps our parish to have this revenue, but it helps the parish itself by trying to help the people within the parish," Parish President Jessie Bellard said.

The parish has taken part in a few drug-related lawsuits in the last few years, receiving settlements worth $150,000 per year for the next 18 years.

District Attorney Chad Pitre said this money allows them to fund their Second Chance Program, which identifies non-violent drug offenders who need rehabilitation. "There are certain criminal defendants that would benefit much better with mental health counseling instead of incarceration," Pitre said. "We're finding those, and it's not a lot of them, but the ones that we do, enrolling to complete the Second Chance program. It saves on jail space for more violent offenders to house them."

Parish President Jessie Bellard said this benefits those affected by drug addiction and the community. "I'm not here to tell you that this is going to solve the problem. It's not," Bellard said. "But if we do a lot of these programs that help solve a little bit at a time, then we're going to be better at what we're doing, you know. Hopefully we can break some type of cycle and have a better parish by doing it.”

The amount of money the parish will receive will be determined by who else settles with Kroger and will receive the money in the coming months.

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