ABBEVILLE — Several residents along with a Vermillion Parish citizen's group filed a lawsuit against the Vermillion Parish Police Jury and Industrial Development Board accusing the groups of having illegal meetings about SpaceX according to a report by Acadiana News First.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleged the jury and board used a variety of mechanisms to keep the public unaware of what they were doing for SpaceX despite the project being presented as a huge opportunity for the parish. 

Officials are accused of eight separate violations of the Louisiana Open Meetings Law, with three of those violations attached to the Vermillion Parish Industrial Development Board. 

The lawsuit claimed that on July 15, towards the end of a meeting, the police jury approved accepting the Vermillion Parish Industrial Development Board with the agenda allegedly changing mid-meeting.

A related land deal was also reportedly involved in the potential violations. 

It's also alleged that after the police jury signed a settlement agreement with ExxonMobil, the Governor's office allegedly sent a staff member to collect every copy of the agreement so citizens couldn't review the deal. 

Since the board's resurrection, citizens accused it of meeting in secret, a direct violation of the Open Meetings Law. 

Plaintiffs asked the court to vacate all actions taken during the meetings in which the violations occurred, potentially reversing the Exxon deal and the resurrection of the industrial board.