BATON ROUGE — Four people were arrested at the end of a hunting license scam that ran for more than two years and used documents to pass off regular people as disabled veterans.

John Ballard Jr. and his sons Brian and Trevor were arrested Monday for allegedly falsifying public records to receive disabled veteran hunting licenses. Kara Meek, the Office of Veteran Affairs employee who approved their applications, was also arrested.

According to arrest records, an internal investigation by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries revealed the Ballards received Disabled Veteran Hunting and Fishing Licenses.

The licenses are approved for military members or Louisiana National Guard members and are free for life. None of the men were disabled servicemembers, but Brian Ballard did serve in the Louisiana National Guard.

Regular lifetime Hunting and Fishing licenses in Louisiana cost $500 for state residents. The applications were approved by Meek, a Veterans Service Officer who lives in Bossier Parish.

John Ballard, a 49-year-old from Denham Springs, applied and was approved for the disabled veteran's license in July 2022. Nearly a year later in June 2023, Brian Ballard and Trevor Ballard applied for disabled veterans' licenses.

All three were approved by Meek, who told LDWF investigators that she "knowingly and intentionally falsified applications to obtain the three licenses fraudulently, knowing the individuals were not disabled veterans," arrest paperwork said.

The distribution of the fraudulent licenses was not discovered until Dec. 26, 2024, when a compliance check on the three men's licenses revealed their fraudulent origins.

When confronted by LDWF's law enforcement division, the eldest Ballard said the error must have come from within LDWF's licensing system.

The Ballards were all booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on one count each filing false public records. Meek was booked on three counts of injuring public records. Injuring and filing false public records brings up to a $5,000 fine and five years in jail for each offense.