Tedrick Knightshead, an assistant parish attorney who has been at the center of several controversies in that office in recent years, has resigned from his position as a senior special assistant attorney.
According to a copy of his resignation letter provided to Daily Report in response to a public records request, Knightshead submitted his resignation Nov. 1, though it did not become effective until Dec. 6, according to Parish Attorney Andy Dotson.
Both Dotson, citing personnel matters, and Knightshead decline to comment.
In his resignation letter, Knightshead cites the need to be with his family—specifically, his college freshman son, who recently moved in with him full time—as the reason for his departure.
“My kids are at an age where they need me and, honestly, I need them,” Knightshead wrote.
Knightshead’s resignation is his second in as many years. In December 2018, he resigned from his position as assistant parish attorney due, in part, to his unwillingness to follow policies implemented by former Parish Attorney LeAnne Batson in 2016—particularly one requiring the elimination of perceived conflicts of interest in an attorney’s private practice.
But on Jan. 31, what was supposed to be his last day in the office, then-interim Parish Attorney Andy Dotson filed paperwork indicating Knightshead would stay on as a senior special assistant attorney with reduced hours, according to city-parish personnel records. Dotson, who has since been appointed to the position permanently, has kept Knightshead on in that role ever since.
That might not have been unusual but for the fact that Knightshead was disciplined twice during his years at the PAO, including once for sexual harassment.
In 2012, he was suspended for a month, with a pay reduction, for unclear disciplinary reasons. Then, in 2016, an employee filed a sexual harassment complaint against him for comments he made at the office and via text message asking her to send him photos. At the time, Batson wrote him up for “inappropriate communications” in response to the harassment complaint.
In his November resignation letter, Knightshead indicated it will be difficult for him to leave the PAO.
“I truly love my co-workers and the office,” he writes. “I know there is never a good time to say goodbye to the people you love and a job you love but I feel it is a good time to move to the next chapter of my life.”
