Panel Grants Parole to Tracy Nicholson, Orders Restitution and Treatment Conditions

The Committee on Parole voted to grant parole to Tracy Nicholson, who is serving a 13-year sentence and is classified as a third-felony offender, placing her with the Louisiana Parole Project under conditions intended to ensure restitution and ongoing treatment.

Nicholson told the panel she had stolen $54,902 from a former employer and pleaded remorseful. Warden Kristen Thomas and Department of Corrections staff described Nicholson as a minimum-custody trustee who works at DOC headquarters, has completed extensive programming and maintains her prescribed medications. Carrie Myers of the Louisiana Parole Project said the organization would provide long-term housing, employment assistance and social-work oversight.

Assistant District Attorney Randall Meyer and the victim, Leslie Keating, told the board they would not oppose a grant so long as Nicholson pay restitution in full by her good-time date and remain under diminishing-sentence conditions to preserve payment obligations. The board set restitution payment and reporting conditions as part of the grant. The board also required continued substance-abuse evaluation and compliance with any recommended treatment.

Board members said they were persuaded by Nicholson’s record of programming and support yet mindful of the victim’s losses. The vote was unanimous among panel members present, with conditions focused on restitution compliance, substance-abuse evaluation and community supervision.

The board’s action allows Nicholson to be released to the Louisiana Parole Project with monitoring and financial conditions intended to ensure payment of outstanding restitution and compliance with recommended treatment.