BATON ROUGE — Two women, including a former top administrator for former mayor Sharon Weston Broome, arrested in connection with a widespread city-parish corruption probe, pleaded not guilty in an East Baton Rouge Parish courtroom Wednesday morning. 

During an arraignment overseen by Judge Jermaine Guillory, former Broome employee Courtney Scott and Veronica Mathis, whose company assisted Broome's "Safe Hopeful Healthy Baton Rouge" program, each pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy, theft, bribery, money laundering and public contract fraud, with Scott also accused of malfeasance as a government employee.

WBRZ previously reported that Scott, who worked for Broome until July 2024, oversaw Broome's "Healthy City" initiative, which benefited from the use of federal COVID-19 relief funds.

The program was intended to reduce violence in the city. Mathis’ company received city-parish funds totaling more than $50,000 and allegedly nearly $200,000 in kickbacks.