Louisiana Voice

The year was 1993 and the empire of high-rolling financier Steven Hoffenberg’s empire, built on an elaborate $500 million Ponzi scheme rivaled only by that of Bernie Madoff, lay in ruins, thanks to the efforts of the late John Hays, the chain-smoking, whiskey-drinking publisher of Ruston’s Morning Paper, a free-distribution shopper thrown in 25,000 driveways every Wednesday night.

Hays, in 1976, started his tabloid publication that offered a weekly map of garage sales in the area as the result of a running battle he had with Ruston’s Mayor—and cousin—Johnny Perritt, and after Tom Kelly, publisher of the larger daily newspaper where I cut my own journalistic teeth, The Ruston Daily Leader, rejected one of Hays’s letters to the editor in which he desired to protest a local tax issue.

By the time Hoffenberg came along with his TOWERS FINANCIAL CORP. investment scheme, Hays had already exposed a couple other smaller Ponzi Schemes: the so-called Pine Tree Caper and the $55 million ALIC Investment scam, shutting them down in their tracks.

Hoffenberg ended up being sentenced to 20 years in prison—he actually served 18 of those, unusual in today’s system of jurisprudence—and was ordered to pay a $1 million fine and $463 million in restitution to his victims. Following his 2013 release, he settled a civil suit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for $60 million.

It’s not as though Hoffenberg didn’t have friends in high places: he did. Among those who went to bat for him were Ben Barnes, a business ally of former Texas Gov. John Connally; Thomas B. Evans Jr., a former co-chairman of the Republican National Committee in Louisiana; Victoria Reggie, the daughter of a prominent state judge and the future wife of Ted Kennedy; Mickey Kantor, who would go on to serve as President Clinton’s trade representative; Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud and one JEFFREY EPSTEIN, who he described as the “mastermind” behind the fraud of an insurance bond scheme and the “technician” of a Wall Street stock manipulation scheme.

Hoffenberg claimed in court documents that Epstein was intimately involved in the Ponzi scheme. Epstein left Towers Financial before its collapse and was never charged for his involvement.

That’s probably because Hoffenberg did not turn evidence against Epstein in the beginning, claiming—perhaps even fearing—that Epstein “had traction” with the U.S. Department of Justice. “You cannot grasp the magnitude of [Epstein’s] controlling effect,” he said of his one-time partner. He said Epstein had worked up a “detailed plan” to turn Towers Financial into a major player in funding money products around the world and to do so “illegally.”

From discovery of the Towers Investment scam through sentencing of Hoffenberg, Hays never let up. He kept relentless pressure on Hoffenberg and SEC regulators alike. The small-town editor Hays made such an impression on the professional news reporters that The New York Times published a two-page profile on him on April 4, 1993.

Hays CEASED PUBLICATION the Morning Paper a decade later, in July 2013, ending 37 years of hard-hitting journalism, when his cancer spread, weakening him to the point he could no longer pursue his craft. He DIED in August 2014. Wife Susan moved back to Austin, Texas, from which that had come way back in the 1970s, to be near their daughter.

It was with feelings of nostalgia mixed with sadness that I learned this week that the Ruston City Council is considering condemning John and Susan’s former home in Ruston. The house that John built himself—he was a contractor in a previous life—has not been lived in since Susan left 12 years ago and has fallen into disrepair.

As I reminisced about those heady days when journalism was real and the rewards tangible, I couldn’t help but wonder what new scandal, what other scam, he might have uncovered had he lived and continued publishing what was derisively called “that rag” in its earliest days of existence but which would live to gain the respect of a publication like The New York Times.

Who is Rock Bordelon?

Bordelon, of Bossier City, holds an LPN license, owns major interests in three subdivisions in Indiana, a hunting lodge in Texas, an ATV park, an outdoors reality TV show, a private plane, a ranch in Colorado, 15 HOSPITALS in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, seven home health companies, eight rehab centers, at least 40 clinics and treatment centers scattered all over Louisiana (though some of those appear to exist only on paper).

He also hobnobs with Donald Trump Jr. and singer Ted Nugent and has poured tons of cash into the campaigns of Louisiana politicians, primarily Republicans—all while accumulating tax liens, lawsuits unpaid vendors and a mountain of debt.

Truth is, in Ruston alone, he purchased the GREEN CLINIC but didn’t get around to paying the group of doctors he owed about $70,000 each in the transaction for about a year and even then, the doctors were forced to hire an attorney to do a little arm-twisting. Several doctors have since left the clinic and at the 70-bed North Louisiana Medical Center, also in Ruston, there is sufficient staffing for only about 10 patients—but occupancy rate is only about 25 percent anyway—because of a wholesale exodus of employees. Meanwhile vendors go unpaid to the tune of some $31 MILLION.

Willis Knighton, a hospital based out of Shreveport, is currently building a facility along I-20 to fill the void being created by NLMC’s deficiencies.

Besides facing trial for false Medicare billing, Bordelon’s company, Allegiance Health Management (it SETTLED the Medicare claim against four of its hospitals in 2018 for $1.7 million), is facing IRS tax liens at its hospitals in MINDEN ($2.4 million), RUSTON ($2.7 million) and an eye-popping $17.7 MILLION in connection with its Acadian Medical Center in Eunice.

Altogether, the IRS claimed last October that six Allegiance facilities in Louisiana combined to owe more than $34 million.

Bordelon attributes his financial woes to changes in Medicare payments instituted in Washington, but at least one newspaper, The Leader in the Arkansas counties of North Pulaski, Lonoke and White was BRUTALLY BLUNT in proclaiming “The sleazy chief executive” [Bordelon] drove Jacksonville’s North Metro Medical Center “into the ground.”

On the other hand, it could be a matter of growing too much too quickly—a classic case of over-extension.

That’s being generous. One person whose job it is to investigate Medicare/Medicaid fraud in states other than Louisiana, said he was unfamiliar with Bordelon or his company but said, “Look for the existence of rehab centers. That’s one of the ways fraud is perpetrated by operators. That’s usually a red flag,” he said.

He could be right. A spot check of a couple of Bordelon’s facilities indicated at least some of his entities might exist in name only.

A Ruston clinic, for example, has a clinic that ostensibly houses a geriatric psychiatric treatment facility. It is supposedly located on the top floor of the old Health South Building across from Green Clinic. The only problem is, the entire building—including the top floor—is unoccupied.

Then there’s Allegiance Home Health of West Central Louisiana whose address is given on its web site as 3177 U.S. 71 in Campti, Louisiana. The big problem there is that address appears to be an empty lot.

Doctors who left or retired from Green Clinic subsequent to its purchase by Bordelon and Allegiance include:

• Dr James R. McWhorter
• Dr. Magee
• Dr. Tonya Slusher
• Dr. Candace Moak
• Dr. Kenneth-Metoyer
• Dr. Rochelle Robicheaux-Metoyer
• Dr. Tommy Smith
• Dr. Paul Novakovich
• Dr. Joshua Mandrell
• Dr. David Osafo
• Dr. Shane Phillips
• Dr. William Sanders
• Dr. Charles Tanner (deceased)
• Dr. Jeffrey Weeks
• Dr. Dionne Nolan

It’s no secret that the natives around Ruston are getting restless, more than a little impatient with the turn of events at NLMC. An online forum, Ruston Rants, lends sufficient evidence of that sentiment.

One resident wrote, “Allegiance has killed Green Clinic Northside,” adding the ownership “is slowly killing the old Green Clinic. There are barely any doctors in the main clinic and the surgery center isn’t much better with staffing.”

Bordelon took it upon himself to respond, saying that both NLMC and the clinics were being “tweaked. Healthcare has been broken in Ruston for many decades, that’s not new.”

By Paul Spillman, guest columnist

Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby has spared college football a disaster of near biblical proportions by declaring for the NFL supplemental draft and foregoing the final year of college eligibility he recently won in an injunction against the NCAA. That injunction issued by visiting judge Ken Curry in a Lubbock, TX courtroom prevented the NCAA from ruling Sorsby ineligible for the 2026 season for gambling on college football and on his own team.

Sorsby’s decision to enter the supplemental draft diverts a crisis college athletics did not want and was not prepared for. Removing those who gamble on their own team to protect the integrity of competition has been a guiding principle in all of sport for more than a century. By issuing an injunction preventing the NCAA from enforcing that rule the court threatened the integrity of all sports at every level and took dead aim at the NCAA as a rule enforcing body.

The fallout included hypocrites getting exposed, a pissing contest between two state Attorneys General, congressional grandstanding, and nearly every interested party giving themselves an infarction in outrage. Not to mention providing an occasion for a few cheap shots at LSU.

In the immediate aftermath of the injunction Texas Tech booster and main money-man Cody Campbell was quick to defend the Red Raiders and the ruling, even taking a shot at LSU saying if this had happened here no one would care. It’s important to note Campbell is close to Senator Ted Cruz and is the driving force behind the pooling of media rights in college athletics. College football fans may recall during the 2025 season commercials that ran during every college game warning of a coming crisis and the need to address it. Vague and ominous it referred to no specific issue nor was attributed to any group. Those commercials were paid for by Cody Campbell who apparently believed himself to be a savior of college athletics. Until the Sorsby mess exposed his hypocrisy.

But hypocrite boosters weren’t the only self-serving parties to get in on the action. Texas Attorney General and candidate for Senate Ken Paxton sent a letter to the Big 12 conference office shortly after the ruling warning the conference of legal action if it sanctioned Texas Tech. Not to be outdone Oklahoma Attorney General and candidate for governor Gentner Drummond fired off a letter to conference officials the next day threatening legal action if the Big 12 didn’t sanction Texas Tech and laying out the legal argument for the conference’s authority to do so and offering the services of its office against Paxton. This provided as good an example as any of why college athletics should loathe any involvement by any politician of any stripe. Politicians have their own agenda which they are utterly devoted to. Issues like governing college athletics are pieces to be used in pursuing their own agendas, not something to be addressed for its own sake. The issues facing college athletics won’t be solved by politicians because politicians don’t solve problems. They use them to further their own agendas.

That’s especially true of Congressional politicians. Ted Cruz is pushing the Protect College Sports Act as a solution, claiming the bill grants the NCAA an antitrust exemption and thus prevents rulings such as the Sorsby injunction. But Cruz didn’t become a US Senator by being truthful. He knows good and well this injunction does not prevent the NCAA from enforcing a rule due to antitrust violation. The ruling grants the NCAA authority to enforce rules but declared the punishment was too great for the crime, imposing its own two-game suspension on Sorsby instead of permanent ineligibility. That’s not the same as saying the NCAA doesn’t have the authority to enforce rules. Nor would the Protect College Sports Act prevent student athletes from suing to regain eligibility, providing any other judge an opportunity to overrule the NCAA. But few expect a US Senator to give a straight, honest answer to any question.

Nor was Cruz the only yapping dog. Our own Steve Scalise mucked up the debate claiming he could have passed the SCORE act in the House before congressional realignment swept the nation and proved that politics is a blood sport. Scalise made the rounds to right-wing media outlets hitting only the points that drive right-wingers crazy and gaslighting everyone. Scalise said, “One thing that a lot of schools and student athletes told us is they don’t want to be forced into being employees of the school and then ultimately being unionized. And that’s one of the big differences between the House and Senate bill that’s got to get fixed.” In all the debate over legislation, public comments, and this recent scandal not one word has been spoken publicly about unionization. An internet search will bear out that truth.

Other than Texas Tech officials and fans, the general consensus was it would be a disaster for college football had Sorsby suited up this fall. Some schools would have refused to play Texas Tech and the conference would surely have attempted at least to impose sanctions. Curry’s ruling granting Sorsby an injunction provided days-worth of content for talking heads, podcasters, and You Tube content creators and all of it was negative, with a few more shots at LSU. One podcaster noted LSU had pursued Sorsby before he committed to Texas Tech and that details of LSU’s offer to Sorsby had been leaked online. He speculated on the circus LSU would be right now had Sorsby signed with the Tigers, with Lane Kiffin as head coach and the governor inserting himself into the fray. That he’s probably correct gives that cheap shot a little extra “oomph.”

So what happens now? There is tremendous pressure to pass the Protect College Sports Act more so that Congress is seen to be doing something than to actually address the issues. As detailed previously the legislation grants the “voluntary” pooling of media rights if 75% of member institutions vote for it. But if the bill becomes law, it will be the catalyst for the Big Ten, the SEC, Notre Dame, and whoever else wants to come along to break away from the relic that is the NCAA, an organization the courts no longer have any respect for and that has outlived its usefulness. None of those schools are going to share their lucrative media deals with anyone else.

The logic is simple. If Notre Dame, at any time over the last 100 years, had wanted to share media revenue it could have joined the conference of its choice. And still could right this moment. But it hasn’t. It has remained a football independent because it can. Notre Dame is simply not going to share media revenue. Nor will the Big Ten and the SEC agree to an exception for Notre Dame but not for themselves. Those schools will break away, form a super-conference, adapt to the modern world in ways that allow them to enforce rules, and leave the NCAA to die of natural causes.

But all of that is in some future season. Today college athletics is thankful to enter the 2026 academic year with the ugliness of the Sorsby scandal in the rear-view mirror and clear roads ahead. For a week or two, anyway.

The most vile, evil man in America (no, not Donald Trump, but the architect of most of Diaper Don’s malicious, sub-human acts) is now openly advocating the suspension of HABEAS CORPUS, the very bedrock on which the American Republic was founded 250 years ago.

Folks, this is the first step to the complete eradication of freedom. This ain’t a sky is falling scare tactic, it’s all too real. Civil liberties, freedom of speech, press, assembly and yes, even religion, are at stake here.

This is the one outrageous maneuver of many we simply cannot—must not allow to take place. Habeas corpus is the age-old right to force the government to justify, before a judge, why it has locked a person up. It is enshrined in Article I of the Constitution.

Oh, to be sure, what Stephen Miller, that spawn of Satan, is advocating is the suspension of habeas corpus for unauthorized immigrants but don’t think for one nano-second that is just a first step, that it could—and would—be expanded to any other group or person perceived by this bedbug crazy administration to be an enemy of the state.

It is such a horrific idea that an obscure attorney serving as White House secretary, dared to write a SECRET MEMO to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles back on April 29 that said, in carefully-couched lawyerly vernacular, the administration was playing with fire with the very Constitution serving as tinder.

This is way past renaming the Kennedy Center after himself or painting the Reflecting Pool blue or a giant arch or a billion-dollar ballroom or cage fights on the White House lawn or even those “86/47” messages. All those things, irritating as they might be, are nickel and dime stuff compared to this. This is major league tampering with the very foundation of our government and it cannot stand.

Donald Trump’s ego is being fed by this monster Miller and that man knows no restrictions. Ruling vicariously through Trump, Miller will stop at nothing until he has trampled every right we have to vote, eat, think, breathe and speak. He is Hitler without the charm and charisma. He is Idi Amin without the benevolence. He is David Duke without the robe and hood.

But after all that, he must—MUST—be made to understand that he is a mortal man who is required to live by the laws of this country and that his desire to set aside those laws are something that can just never be.

Never.

“I (elected or appointed individual) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution and laws of the United States and the constitution and laws of this State; and I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as (elected or appointed position), and according to the best of my ability and understanding. So help me God.”

The foregoing is the so-called “loyalty oath” to which all Louisiana State hires or elected officials must fill out—in writing as a condition of employment or elective office.

The second part of the oath reads, “A person may be temporarily employed for fifteen days, and if the above statement is not filed by the fifteenth day, he shall be discharged.”

The loyalty oath has been around since the end of the Civil War and were first adopted by state and federal governments as “test oaths” which the Supreme Court said exceeded a pledge of future loyalty when it struck down the law in 1867. That decision established the principle which continues today: loyalty oaths cannot be used o punish people retroactively for past beliefs or associations. The court considered that a violation of the First Amendment.

With the advent of the Cold War, the most aggressive expansion of loyalty oaths was undertaken with a demand that public employees swear they were not members of the Communist Party or any organization advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. That, it turned out, was called a “negative oath” which led to a wave of litigation with the so-called “affirmative oath,” which ask for a pledge of future support of the Constitution and the law, emerging as the oaths administered today. The difference is that today’s oaths do not typically demand that one disclaim membership in any group.

State Sen. Tony Guarisco of Morgan City attempted in 1986 to scrap the oath because of what he considered as a violation of the First Amendment.

“It never got out of committee,” he remembers. “I was the only ‘yes’ vote. Committee members ridiculed a young LSU professor who was the only person to testify. He testified in favor of the bill.”

The loyalty oath was weaponized as a result of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, which in turn was spawned by McCarthyism and his Red Scare tactics. Two of the members of the HCUA were from Louisiana: U.S. Reps. Ed Willis of St. Martinville, the committee chair, and F. Edward Hebert of New Orleans.

Since the [State Senate] committee wanted to keep the law in place, I asked the governor’s appointees who required [Senate] confirmation, “Are you now or were you ever…”

One appointee, he said, stormed out of the committee room yelling that Guarisco had called him a communist.

“The loyalty oath is still in effect,” Guarisco said, “but it’s hidden as part of R.S. 42:52 (ed seq) that people such as college professors have to sign.

“Years ago, a young, highly sought-out English professor from another state was recruited by USL (not ULL). He declined to sign the oath and was not hired.”

Guarisco, 87, served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1976-1988. He received his law degree from Loyola University in New Orleans.

First elected in 1975, he sponsored a bill to permit physicians in Louisiana prescribe marijuana for therapeutic treatment of glaucoma and in treatment by chemotherapy. Gov. Edwin Edwards signed his bill into law and the Marijuana Control Board was created to monitor the law but the panel never functioned and was abolished in 1989 by Gov. Bubby Roemer who eliminated many other inactive boards and commissions.

He was an early supporter of the failed Equal Rights Amendment and he created and served as the first Senate parliamentarian, designing a process for confirming gubernatorial appointees. He founded the Endowed Chairs for Eminent Scholars program in higher education and the LSU Endowment for Excellence, pioneered admission standards for LSU, and laws regarding open meetings and public records. He was the lead author on legislation to prevent punitive damages against the press. In 1981, he was the floor manager for the impeachment and removal of state Senator Gaston Gerald of Greenwell Springs, convicted of extortion.

He was succeeded in the State Senate by future Gov. Mike Foster in 1988.