Witnesses say Armond Duhon tried to intimidate

FRANKLIN — A state district judge refused Thursday to reduce the bail for Capital Management theft suspect Armond Duhon after witnesses testified about alleged attempts to intimidate witnesses.
Duhon’s bail remains at $500,000, and he remains in the parish jail. Duhon appeared before Judge Anthony Thibodeaux this morning for a hearing to reconsider a bond reduction for Duhon.
Duhon is one of three people accused in what authorities say was a scheme to steal money, real estate, mineral rights and artwork from Capital Management. Company officials say the scheme lasted 30 years or more and may have netted tens of millions of dollars.
Duhon is charged with racketeering and multiple counts of theft over $1,500 and money laundering. He was arrested in June.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Vines said a bill of information charging Duhon with witness intimidation is in the works.
Capital Management spokesman Marwan Mohey-El-Dien testified Thursday that he saw Duhon at Morgan City’s Waffle House in June. Mohey-El-Dien said Duhon threatened to shoot him with an AK-47 and made a motion with his hands as though he were shooting a rifle.
Later that day, Laura Guarisco, Mohey-El-Dien’s wife and a member of the family that founded Capital Management, said she was at the Hellenic office building in Morgan City when a relative called to tell her that Duhon was standing outside the building. Guarisco called her husband, who told her to stay inside.
Guarisco said she realized that since Duhon had been charged with so many crimes, he didn’t have much to lose. So, Guarisco said, she took the threat against her husband seriously.
Dean Duplantis, the general manager at Hellenic Inc., testified that in March 2014, Duhon had called to say he wished he knew who had informed on his wife, Karen Duhon, who is also charged in connection with the Capital Management case. Armond Duhon said he wanted to “take them out.”
Duhon’s attorney, Ed Jones, said the $500,000 bond is excessive for the crimes with which Duhon is charged.
Vines argued that Duhon is accused of stealing millions, just as his wife is, and Karen Duhon’s bond is $350,000. Vines said Armond Duhon also faces an intimidation of witnesses charge that Vines is in the process of billing against him. Vines said Duhon clearly meant to strike fear into the people to whom he was talking.
District Judge Anthony Thibodeaux said he has “been made aware” of surveillance video from the Waffle House that would contradict Mohey-El-Dien’s version of events there. But Thibodeaux hasn’t seen the video yet.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.