Stan Barre, a former undercover cop and confidant to some New Orleans mayors, was good at conning the city out of money and schmoozing with the best of them. That all helped make him a pretty good FBI snitch.
By Gordon Russell and Frank Donze
New Orleans Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS – On a hot day in the summer of 2007, a sweaty-palmed Stan “Pampy” Barre fidgeted as he watched FBI agents cut crude holes in his $1,500 tailored Italian suit, planting a bug that would shortly be used to record a conversation with New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas.
The hasty alterations took place in a small building at Houston’s Hobby Airport, where Thomas was expected en route to New Orleans and Barre was going to pretend to run into him by chance.
Facing a potential 11-year jail term after skimming more than $1 million from a City Hall energy contract, Barre had told the feds about bribing Thomas in a separate scheme five years earlier — and then agreed to fly to Houston, “wire up” and buttonhole the popular councilman. He did it in hopes of landing a shorter sentence.
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