Multiple sources tell Eyewitness News that attorney Roy Rodney, a confidant of former Mayor Marc Morial, has agreed to a misdemeanor plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney. Rodney is expected to plead guilty to one count of failing to file a tax return.

WWL-TV.com

It is expected that former Mayor Marc Morial confidant Roy Rodney will agree to plead guilty to one count of failting to file a tax return.

Sources said the plea deal does not require Rodney to cooperate or provide any other information to investigators.

The deal ends a nearly four-year investigation into Rodney’s business dealings.

“To be put under the microscope for so many years and for the government to invest such resources into the investigation and to come up with their equivalent of very little is interesting,” Dane Ciolino said.

Ciolino, a Tulane law professor, said Rodney’s plea agreement resembles the deal made by Jacque Morial in September when the former mayor’s brother admitted to failing to file tax returns for three years. He was sentenced to probation and six months of home detention.

“Given the misdemeanor count that Mr. Rodney will plea guilty to, it's highly unlikely that he will receive any jail time,” Ciolino said. “So, like Mr. Morial – Jacques Morial – I think it's likely to see he will get a probated sentence.”

And Ciolino said today’s agreement may signal the investigation into the former mayor and his close associates could be coming to a close.

“Obviously, Mr. Rodney and Jacques Morial were very close confidants of the former mayor,” Ciolino said. “And the fact that neither one of them was able to provide any information of any use to the government in its investigation of Marc Morial, I think, is probably telling about the course of that investigation.”

Rodney's attorney Eddie Castaing, as well as U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, would not comment.