MADISONVILLE — The son of U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) may have landed in legal hot water for an alleged party held at a neighbor's house.
James Preston Kennedy is the target of a lawsuit by neighbors who accuse the 20-year-old of throwing a party at their house while they were away from home. The couple alleges that the incident caused thousands of dollars worth of damage, claiming that they returned home to not only find it “ransacked and damaged,” but also found many of their personal possessions missing, stolen or broken.
Other neighbors in the area are shocked by the events as well.
“I'm shocked, I mean total disrespect,” community member Pamela Love said. “You trust someone to come into your home; it's just mind-blowing.”
The neighbors, Steven and Heidi Fisher, claim to have asked James Kennedy to feed their dogs while they were on vacation in August 2016. Instead of returning home to find their house in peace, however, they said they found it damaged. In order to figure out what happened, the couple said they reviewed the footage from their home-security system. When the couple reviewed the footage, they saw James Kennedy throwing a huge party that lasted into the early morning hours.
They said they also witnessed in the footage the partygoers who were invited by their neighbor smoking, consuming alcoholic beverages and having sexual intercourse in multiple rooms of their home, including the master bedroom and a child's bedroom.
The Fishers made the Kennedy family aware of the party and the damages caused by the bash. The Kennedys responded by assuring them that the damages, which includes paying for the damage done to the property as well as the replacement of lost, stolen and broken items, would all be taken care of. The Fishers allegedly agreed to accept an amount of money that is far less than the actual amount the damages in an effort to avoid a lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, nothing has been paid for and the settlement offer was rejected by Great Northern Insurance Company, despite having a representative of the Kennedys' insurance company assess the damage.
The lawsuit was filed in the same month as John Kennedy's election to the U.S. Senate. According to the suit, the Fishers are seeking the damages from James Kennedy, who lives with his parents, instead of Sen. Kennedy himself.
According to the Fishers' attorney, Rene Frederick, the timing of the lawsuit had nothing to do with the election. Frederick claimed that the timing was because of the breakdown of settlement negotiations with the insurance company, making the filing of the lawsuit in December a necessity.
A spokesperson for the Kennedy family gave no information on the lawsuit, only saying that the issue was a “personal family matter.”