When State Police Capt. Barry Branton, a supervisor with a previously unblemished record, approved a Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) on fellow Troop D Lt. Harlan Chris Guillory, it did not seem to matter that Guillory was indeed found to be abusing prescription drugs while on duty.
Instead, Guillory was subsequently promoted to captain and made Commander of Troop D while Branton was placed on administrative leave and demoted the rank of lieutenant. He appealed and eventually reached a settlement by agreeing to accept the demotion in exchange for having the suspension expunged from his record and his receiving full back pay.
But the bottom line was Branton was demoted for initiating a PMP out of concern for the professionalism of a fellow officer.
That stands in stark contrast to the decision not to punish a state trooper in Washington Parish after he and his brother, a DEA agent, were reported to have threatened a Metairie lawyer with bodily harm, imprisonment, and closure of his law practice—all over the issue of the attorney’s having parked his vehicle near their deer stand in December of 2012.
Michael Gahagan, a Metairie immigration attorney, on Tuesday provided LouisianaVoice with a three-page affidavit he filed with the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office following a December 21, 2012, confrontation with State Police Captain Kevin Devall and his brother, Drug Enforcement Agent Page Devall.
Both men are the sons of Hammond Police Chief Roddy Devall who is said to be a strong supporter of State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson.
Gahagan told LouisianaVoice that he was “assaulted, threatened, and abducted by the brothers after they blocked his truck which he said was parked on the roadside next to a hunting lease controlled by the Parish Line Hunting Club. Gahagan said he was a member of the club and was hunting from his deer stand around 4 p.m. on December 21 when he heard an all-terrain vehicle drive up to his truck and stop and then leave after a few minutes.
He said he climbed down from his deer stand about 5:15 intending to drive home only to find his truck blocked by Kevin Devall’s full-sized white pickup truck and a black trailer. When he asked the brothers, who were standing nearby, to move, they approached him cursing and grabbing the front of his shirt with their faces touching his.
He said he broke free and began walking backwards down the road that led away from his truck and into the woods in an effort to get away from them. He said as he walked backward, he extended his hands in front in an effort to keep them at arms’ length. All the while, he said the brothers were screaming threats at him. Page Devall yelled that he was a DEA agent and that “I kick in doors for a living” as he repeatedly “reached out and put his finger in my face and pushed my face,” Gahagan said.
Kevin Devall, he said, boasted that “I make the laws in Louisiana” and that he “would throw me in jail for the rest of my life and take away my law license if I didn’t do what he said.”
Fearing that he would be severely beaten or even killed, he considered drawing his handgun that he was carrying in his back waistband. He said he is a registered concealed carry permit holder and that if the two had not been police officers, “I would have defended myself and shot and killed them in order to prevent a beating and escape the attack and illegal detention.”
Because the two men were police officers, he said, “I chose not to draw and fire my handgun,” he said. “I did not use deadly force to defend myself because I was afraid what would happen to me after I was arrested by other police officers for shooting a police officer in self-defense.”
He said after about 45 minutes of repeated threats from the two, Kevin Devall ordered him into the Devalls’ ATV “so that he would drive me back into the woods and show me where he would allow me to park my vehicle.”
Before getting into the ATV, Gahagan was ordered by Paige Devall to disarm “or we will never let you leave,” he said. Gahagan said he removed his handgun and placed it into his truck and locked the truck. “Then Paige Devall gave me a full-body pat down (without probable cause or reasonable suspicion that I had committed any crime).”
Gahagan said he was then driven “several miles” into the woods and shown where he would be allowed to park.
He said he was finally allowed to leave the area around 8 p.m., nearly three hours after his ordeal began.
Following the confrontation, State Police Internal Affairs conducted an investigation of the allegations during which Gahagan was administered a polygraph test but neither of the Devalls were required to take a polygraph.
That was similar to the case of State Police Lieutenant John Cannon who was accused by a woman of twice paying her to have sex, once in the rear seat of his patrol car. The woman was given a polygraph but Cannon was not even though he did admit to twice having sex with her while on duty but denied paying for sex.
Two other significant events followed Gahagan’s encounter with the Devalls, he said.
First, Parish Line Hunting Club discontinued the Devalls’ membership at the hunting lease and after Gahagan filed a formal complaint against Paige Devall with his employer, DEA, Gahagan, his wife and his law practice were subjected to IRS audits. “I had never been audited by the IRS before in my life,” he said. “It seems awfully coincidental that I would be hit with three simultaneous audits at that particular time.”
LouisianaVoice has made a formal public records request to State Police for Kevin Devall’s personnel file and all Internal Affairs investigative reports on him.
Here is the sworn affidavit Gahagan filed with the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office following his encounter with the Devalls (Warning: this document contains graphic language that may be offensive to some): AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL GAHAGAN
Nor was the 2012 incident the last time that Kevin Devall has had a complaint filed against him.
About 16 months later, on April 22, 2014, the estranged wife of St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta filed a formal complaint against Kevin Devall for the manner in which he investigated her report that her husband, a former police officer, had forced her to perform oral sex on him and then raped her the previous October. Here is her formal complaint: SHARON PERALTA COMPLAINT
Sharon Peralta said Devall, instead of arresting her husband, was laughing and joking with Dave Peralta on the front lawn and that her husband was never handcuffed but instead was allowed to walk around the front lawn freely. “I was told to leave and they would handle things from there,” she was quoted as saying by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. She said Dave Peralta subsequently intimidated her into dropping charges against him. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/state_police_probe_sharon_pera.html#incart_email
It took exactly five days after Mrs. Peralta’s charges were made public for State Police Internal Affairs to clear Devall of any improper conduct in the manner in which he conducted his investigation. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/04/state_police_clear_captain_of.html
But on April 23, a St. Bernard Parish grand jury indicted Dave Peralta on a charge of sexual battery, which could have carried a 10-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors dismissed that case on a technicality in April but in August of this year, Peralta was re-indicted by a St. Bernard Parish grand jury that accused him of using parish employees to help him stalk his ex-wife as well as other offenses. In September of 2014, he was indicted by a St. Tammany Parish grand jury on charges of felony stalking and in May of this year, he was indicted by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury on three counts of filing false reports and for perjury.
LSP appears to be permeated by a culture of corruption that runs deep and wide. It is complicit in an unholy brotherhood within law enforcement agencies that diminishes their effectiveness and destroys public confidence. Reports such as these LouisianaVoice posts demand an independent, full-scale, comprehensive investigation that includes local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. If wrongdoing, illegal activities and corrupt practices are uncovered, the responsible parties at every level should be prosecuted and receive the harshest punishment if convicted.
There are no public employees more accountable to the taxpaying public for abiding by our laws than those who are sworn and paid to enforce them.
Well said earthmother.
“If wrongdoing, illegal activities and corrupt practices are uncovered, the responsible parties at every level should be prosecuted and receive the harshest punishment if convicted.”
By what agency?!?
In answer to my own question –
http://www.forward-now.com/2014/01/05/walter-lee-and-hows-and-whys-of-corruption-prosecution/
Found this while perusing Tom’s Blogroll list.
Sadly, I think the LSP is the most corrupt agency/department in state government. I’d say a majority – maybe – of troopers are good honest men and women, but the culture of corruption starts at the top and pervades through most of the management.
The majority of troopers are respectful, law abiding men and women who became police officers because they wanted to serve and protect and became troopers because they wanted to be the best, unfortunately you have a Col. who protects himself by promoting personnel who show their loyalty by doing his dirty deeds or who know of his dirty deeds and cover for him. The promotions list should have a disclaimer reading “Good Troopers needs not apply” or “Wanted: Troopers willing to go outside the law or sacrifice their self respect and dignity to get a promotion”. The next Governor needs to clean house to get the stink out.
Unfortunately the Louisiana Sheriffs Association which controls Edmonson is reported to be seeking guarantees from the Gubernatorial candidates to reappoint Edmonson to his position. Even if there is a change, those within the agency have all advanced within the same system so, short of looking outside there would be different faces but the same questionable practices that have tarnished the badge and reputation of a once proud agency.
Thanks for exposing still another example of corruption within LSP which has become common under the Jindal administration. The shame of it is that the many dedicated and honorable state troopers have been forced to endure this administration much to their embarrassment. I agree with earthmother that there needs to be an independent investigation into the goings on at LSP. Their internal affairs section is a joke. It consists of people Col. Edmonson himself put there and is headed by the wife of Edmonson’s chief of staff. The troopers are afraid to come forward with reports of wrongdoing because of their track record of killing the messenger. I surely hope that the candidates for governor are reading your blog. It is the only hope we have of cleaning up this mess.
It is not just LSP, there are Jindalites in each Executive agency, all spouting their conservatism, and playing to the ignorant and prejudiced. ron thompson
Abuse after abuse.
Whenever hard right wingers and Fox Fake News types rant about “Big Brother” “big gov’t” “federal overreach,” etc., they always bring up anecdotes and abstractions that distract from the reality: 99+% of law enforcement abuses happen right in our own backyard by local yokel cops and state police (for the most part, way overcompensated fascists of the Interstates).
And no wonder–it seldom even makes the mainstream news, much less results in any consequences.
These State Police are out of control. The next governor is going to have a full plate with all of the problems facing the State of Louisisna.
As Moe said in UNCIVIL WAR BIRDS (1946): “Brother, you all ejaculated a mouthful.” 🙂
Sorry if this offended anybody, but I didn’t make this up. It was just one of many controversial things lines in this non-PC 3-Stooges short. Hey, it’s Friday and sometimes we gotta laugh to keep from crying, right?