Courtney Scott
Introduction
Courtney Scott is a former top administrator for former Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome who was indicted by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury in a wide-ranging public corruption probe of City Hall affairs. Scott, who oversaw Broome’s “Healthy City” initiative, was named in nine counts including conspiracy, theft, bribery, money laundering and public contract fraud, and stands accused of malfeasance as a government employee.
Background Information
Scott worked for Mayor Broome’s administration until July 2024, when she resigned after being accused of beating a man outside a Baton Rouge nightclub — an incident that surfaced publicly when a video of it emerged after a lawsuit was filed. Her exit from the administration followed that accusation, months before the corruption probe reached her.
Her portfolio in the administration was the “Healthy City” initiative, an arm of Broome’s broader “Safe Hopeful Healthy Baton Rouge” program, which benefited from the use of federal COVID-19 relief funds and was behind the mayor’s “Summer of Hope” events in 2024. The program was intended to reduce violence in the city.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Indicted in a City Hall corruption probe. Scott faces nine counts including conspiracy, theft, bribery, money laundering and public contract fraud, plus malfeasance. The charges are accusations in a pending case, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, a grand jury indicted Scott in nine counts as part of an attorney general’s office probe that has ensnared multiple figures from Baton Rouge city government. The same panel brought eight charges against Veronica Mathis, whose company provided assistance to the “Safe Hopeful Healthy Baton Rouge” program; Mathis was booked into prison around 9:45 p.m. that night. Scott oversaw the Healthy City initiative that benefited from federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The Advocate newspaper reported that Mathis’s company received city-parish funds totaling more than $50,000 between 2020 and 2024. East Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Aaron Moak, reacting to the indictments, said: “That’s a program that was under the previous administration, look several things came before the council, we approved it for what it was supposed to be for, what happened with that, you know it’s a bad thing.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
The indictment was the second wave of a probe that had already resulted in the indictment of five people with ties to the Capital Area Transit System, including Metro Council member Cleve Dunn Jr. The day before Scott’s indictment, a former CATS administrator and a CATS contractor pleaded not guilty to charges alleging they made fraudulent reports about pre-agreed-upon contracts to defraud CATS of tens of thousands of dollars.
Legal analyst Franz Borghardt told the station he anticipated more indictments: “When it comes to public corruption, when it comes to criminal enterprises, you’re looking to get justice for everybody, but there is always a bigger fish.” For the Healthy City program, the indictment of its overseer converted an anti-violence initiative into an exhibit in a corruption narrative.
Current Status
Scott faces nine counts — conspiracy, theft, bribery, money laundering, public contract fraud, and malfeasance as a government employee — from the February 25, 2026 grand jury indictment. The attorney general’s probe is ongoing, and the case proceeds through the courts. The reporting did not record her arraignment or plea, and the broader investigation was, at latest coverage, still expected to produce more indictments.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Scott’s departure from the Broome administration in July 2024 — the nightclub-beating accusation and resignation — was the first fall; the nine-count indictment is the second, and the one that could end in a prison term. The Healthy City initiative she oversaw, funded with federal relief money and branded as the city’s hope for reduced violence, is now the program at the center of a corruption probe. Whatever the courts decide, her name is attached to both incidents in the public record: the video outside the nightclub and the grand jury’s nine counts.
Sources
- WBRZ, “2 with ties to BR’s ‘Safe Hopeful Healthy’ program charged in AG’s public corruption probe,” February 25, 2026. source