The head of a private investigator firm and a former St. Tammany Parish District Attorney supervisor both pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to conspiracy to buying and selling criminal records.

The plea deal leaves both Covington’s Vicky Munn, 42, former supervisor of the worthless check division, and Todd Kelly, 40, former head the Barnett Group of New Orleans, facing up to five years and a $250,000 fine when sentenced May 14.

Both Munn and Kelly, a Traverse, Mich. native, were indicted last June by U.S. Attorney Jim Letten after evidence showed Munn sold 48 criminal records to Kelly’s firm and its parent’s company Covington-based Barnett Group Product Liability. The companies, at their client’s request, researched and compiled criminal histories, including “rap sheets” of various individuals. To get an inside track, Kelly tapped Munn for access to the histories only accessible by authorized law enforcement officers.

Munn, in her role as a supervisor in the worthless check division, tapped into a nationwide criminal database that holds Social Security numbers, bank statements and other private information, which she then sold to the private investigator firms.

Federal law prohibits anyone other than “legitimate law enforcement” officers from using the FBI-operated National Crime Information Center record database, better known as NCIC.

“For example, I couldn’t use NCIC to investigate my son’s girlfriend,” Kathy English, a Letten spokeswoman said. “It’s for legitimate law enforcement purposes only.”

Munn, who sold the records between January 2003 and May 2004, earned about $7,380, less than $5,000 of which came from Kelly, according to the bill of information

“There is no evidence, however, to suggest that any of the district attorney’s files were compromised,” Letten wrote in a bill of information released Friday.

Kelly’s parent company’s firm operated by Charles E. Barnett Jr. of Covington, was also indicted last June.

He originally pleaded not guilty, but is scheduled to offer a “change of plea” Wednesday, Jan. 29 in front of federal Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, according to court records.

District Attorney Walter Reed suspended Munn May 21, 2004, when the FBI launched its investigation. She was fired Sept. 17.

Someone who answered the phone at the Barnett Group at 200 Greenbrier Ave. in Covington refused to comment.

The firm’s Web site said Barnett founded the firm in 1985, and shortly thereafter it became the largest investigative business in Louisiana, expanding to Nashville, Tenn. and Jackson, Miss.