State Police Superintendent Col. Mike Edmonson Monday showed his true colors and they weren’t blue. (Hint: think canaries, school buses and bananas) in the wake of revelations about sending four State Troopers to San Diego last October in an unmarked State Police vehicle.
His demotion, albeit likely temporary, of Maj. Derrell Williams, head of State Police Internal Affairs, in an effort to deflect responsibility from himself may backfire with the discovery of three pages among hundreds of pages of documents that contain Edmonson’s signature as evidence he knew of the Vegas trip at least since last November.
Meanwhile, a new wrinkle has emerged, thanks to Facebook (people just can’t help letting social media get them in trouble). It seems that Michelle Hyatt posted photos of her and husband, Lt. Rodney Hyatt (one of the four who drive the Ford Expedition) at the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam during that little trip out west.
The photos have since been removed (as have every single post she previously had on Facebook), but their brief appearance raises a critical question: Was she, a civilian, riding in the state vehicle on that San Diego trip? If so, that raises all manner of liability issues and violates all kinds of state regulations.
If she was not a passenger, how did she get to those sites for the photos?
But back to Edmonson. He announced sweeping changes in overtime regulations in light of his incredibly ill-advised order to have the vehicle driven to San Diego for the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference where he was presented an award that was originally slated for another Louisiana State Trooper—a former State Trooper of the Year.
Of course, in announcing the CHANGES and throwing four subordinates under the bus in order to maintain his saintly aura, he has yet to address the circumstances of how he managed to break in line ahead of Maj. Carl Saizan, a 33-year State Police veteran and former State Trooper of the Year who was originally slated for the award until his nomination was pulled in favor of Edmonson, who was probably overdue for an out-of-state trip.
The Advocate broke the story Sunday morning followed by the LouisianaVoice story we’d been working on for two months. Monday night, investigative reporter Lee Zurik of WVUE Fox 8 TV in New Orleans aired his STORY that raised serious questions about Edmonson’s honesty in saying he was unaware of the side trip.
LouisianaVoice has copies of three documents containing Edmonson’s signatures approving expenditures submitted by Williams at Tusayan, Arizona, site of the Grand Canyon, and at the Venetian Palazzo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Two of the documents were signed by Edmonson on Dec. 20 and the other more than a month earlier, on Nov. 10.
I believe in law enforcement, that’s called documentary evidence.
LouisianaVoice made public records requests on Saturday for:
- All Training and Travel Requests completed, signed, filed and approved for authority to take the Ford Expedition (Vehicle No. 80331) to California in October of 2016;
- All authorizations for Out of State Travel completed, signed, filed and approved for out of state travel to California by each individual in LSP who traveled to California in September and October, 2016.
We have not heard back from Public Information Officer Doug Cain.
Meanwhile, Edmonson needs to explain how he can justify punishing subordinates two and three months after he signed off on the expense accounts of the senior officer making the trip in a state vehicle permanently assigned to his second in command, Special Deputy Superintendent Lt. Col. Charles Dupuy.
Edmonson told Zurik that those supervisors (including Dupuy) who signed off on the expenses of the other three troopers in the vehicle would answer to him.
The real question is: Who does Edmonson answer to? Maj. Catherine Flinchum, the one he assigned to investigate the four in the Expedition? Department of Public Safety Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc? The State Police Commission, headed by one of his troopers? Gov. John Bel Edwards?
Since it was Edwards who made the decision (at the insistence of the Sheriffs’ Association), it should be Edwards to sees to it this whole mess is sorted out.
Edmonson says he’s “embarrassed” by the Vegas trip—a trip he’s known about since November.
The governor should be embarrassed by his Superintendent of State Police, the man who is the public face of law and order and all that’s supposed to be good, honest, and trustworthy.
The fact is, he appears to be neither and it’s past time for the governor to cut his losses.
Louisiana Voice 
At CHANGES above we find this statement from Edmonson: “… the agency “is taking steps to recoup” the overtime pay and to reclassify those hours as “compensatory time.” Reclassifying the hours as “Compensatory Time” is still allowing the involved Troopers to be paid for their bogus Overtime in that they get time off WITH PAY. That is NOT “recouping” the overtime already paid. Only completely recouping the money and allowing no compensatory time whatsoever will ameliorate this sad state of affairs at LSP.
Wasn’t there some time sheets issues involving the State Police about a year or two ago? Never saw an outcome from that.
There were several supervisors at Troop D that allowed troopers to claim 12 hours for an 8 hour day. The only supervisor that did not approve that time was moved (not transferred) from supervising a shift. He is currently being forced out (retirement) and the other supervisors were counseled. One of the same supervisors was giving time off to his shift personnel for DWI arrests (get a DWI early and you could go home for the rest of the night). It was called “Brady Days” after the supervisor that instituted the reward system. Capt. Chris Gulliory was given nothing even though he approved of this. He was eventually transferred to Baton Rouge for another incident so he could keep his captain’s salary (almost a 50%pay increase) instead of being fired or forced to retire. So he drives from Sulphur to Baton Rouge at our expense daily. Look at previous LouisianaVoice articles for the “rest of the stories”.
It is sad when even law enforcement appears to be self-serving and subject to the low-brow ethics that seems to be the order of the day in Louisiana. Between the debacle of the Angola prison system which is full of cronies and crooks (and I am not speaking of the ones behind the bars) and now the State Police, it is time that a clean sweep of the upper echelons of both organizations and for men and women of honor and ethics to be appointed without regard for their political affiliation or who they know. If the Governor was smart, he would step back and appoint a blue-ribbon panel of community leaders to make informed recommendations to replace the clowns and the meetings would be held in a public forum and with full transparency. Sadly, I doubt this will happen as it is just business as usual for Louisiana politics and we will continue to be the butt of jokes both in and out of state.
If the governor was smart, he would ask Leblanc and Edmonson to resign. If they don’t, remove them. He quickly removed Charlie Melancon and his actions were far less compromising than Edmonson’s. He should sit down with the LSA and tell them that he appreciates their support, but the colonel is becoming a liability.
And, now, this story is all over the state, reinforcing the belief that state government is still fat and happy and that any new taxes would just make it fatter rather than resulting in better roads, child protection, security at correctional facilities, shorter lines at OMV, etc., and, yes, better law enforcement.
It is possible to change this culture, but nobody seems to care enough to try. I guess the governor, et al, consider making excuses an effective defense. Guess what – it isn’t. Plain common sense should tell them what is.
A positive development:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_66dee0f2-f874-11e6-8075-579a8e5705e7.html
I’m sure this will result in a new mandatory training certificate for all state employees. After Paul Rainwater got his DWI, we all had to start taking an annual defensive driving course. After the head of TAF got caught paying off a former mistress we all had to start taking an annual ethics course. Or was that the sexual harassment course? I forget. But each course has been precipitated by a high profile incident like this LSP boondoggle in Las Vegas. I currently have to take about five of these courses every year, just so in case I do something wrong LSU can say, “They took the course. We told them it was wrong. It’s all their fault.” I expect I will soon have to start taking a course on state travel rules and regs to make sure that if I take a fake conference trip so that I can go party on the taxpayers dime LSU can say, “We told you that was not allowed.” Oh, wait, didn’t you once write a story about how the LSU prez runs a company called Oxford Round Table that is in the business of hosting fake conferences just so people can go to them, have a great time touring around the UK, pretend it’s a legit work trip, and get the taxpayers to foot the bill? So maybe that could be exempted.
Yes. It. Does.
I think you have hit on a great idea here and would love to see the governor appoint such a panel with the caveat of the promise to act on whatever conclusion the panel reaches. It would give him an out with LSPA and the LSA (sheriffs?) while ridding the state of the thuggish regime at the top of LSP. This panel should include current and former members whose integrity is beyond reproach as well as everyday working people and not fat cats bent on keeping the status quo i.e. no trial lawyers or sheriffs. I will write a letter to the governor today asking him to resolve this and hope everyone will do the same.
Bob & glbridier: Logical common sense idea. However, based on my experience with a large number of blue ribbon committees over a long period of time, I have to be cynical that such a panel has a likelihood of being appointed and, am perhaps even more skeptical that any apolitical recommendations would be implemented if it was. I’ve made the mistake of being optimistic about such things in the past, but am seriously disinclined to do so in the future.
I believe the governor, other statewide elected officials, and the legislature have to develop the necessary collective guts and integrity to straighten things out and I will reserve my prediction on when and whether they ever will. If we don’t lean on them they won’t even have the incentive to act right and integrity is a personal trait no amount of cajoling can instill, so we have to look hard at who we re-elect and elect.
I was surprised to see on the news that Edwards has called for an investigation of this and other past trips taken by LSP top dogs and that this will be independent of the internal investigation by LSP. Maybe Edwards has finally felt enough heat to do something.
Former LSP Commissioner Lloyd Grafton would be an excellent person to head such an investigation. It was he while tendering his resignation to the Commission told them that he was doing so due to their lack of ethics. He has the integrity and the skills to fairly conduct such an investigation.
Excellent investigative reporting, Tom. Once again, you scooped the big media. Edmonson has to go. Thank you for your hard work.
One more thing, before my husband retired as a state employee, he sometimes traveled in a state car. We both knew it was not possible for me to travel with him in the car. I believe there may have been one exception when he was traveling in a state car to a library conference. At the time, I worked for the parish library, and I was attending the same conference, and he received special permission for me to ride with him. It was a day trip, so no overnight expenses were involved.
There’s nothing free in this world. Think about it: to claim this reward it cost the taxpayers it seems a minimum $70,000
You would think if we have so many State Officials that are #1 in their line of work, why is Louisiana always graded last in every survey done.
Maybe other States are smart enough not to take the bait (Free Award-Winning Prize)!!
Trump would have already fired his ass. Everyone here knows it 😉
It’s not as if that’s the first instance of an unauthorized person in an LSP vehicle! I assume Edmonson will blame his son for this incident (see bottom of page): http://www.lspripoff.com/Ed1995.pdf.
Yeah, right, reaching for “check in the front seat.”
Look, there is a REASON I launched JBEfraud with the IMPENDING reappointment of Edmonson:
http://www.jbefraud.com/appoint_edmonson_LSP.htm
Even I could never have dreamed it would have the sheer volume it has after only 13 months: http://www.jbefraud.com.
Run, clock, run!! We have GOT to get this guy OUT of the Governor’s Nansion!!!
Broussard – What a great observation.
Amen!!!!
KSLA TV in Shreveport is airing a long piece about this. The reporter is countering Edmondson on every point. This does not look good for him.
Edith, if that was Lee Zurik, he did his story on a N. O. station last night and it was on our CBS affiliate WAFB tonight. I also heard a report of the story on the radio several times today. The New Orleans station and the Baton Rouge station gave credit to Tom for providing info. Did KSLA?
Yes, and don’t forget Zurik will be doing a follow-up tonight that I’m sure will have to include Tom’s above documents. They granted Lee 9 minutes and 12 seconds of airtime!! That is HUGE in TV news business. I hope tonight’s segment is equally lengthy.
I did not hear the whole segment. But, there was no reference to Tom in what I did hear. I will record the 10 pm broadcast because it is usually just a rerun. I thought that I heard several questions that sounded like what Tom has reported.
“Honor Code” Edwards assigning his DOA Audit Staff to investigate. lets look into how many of those folks are closely associated with Edmonson’s Chief of Staff Charles Dupuy. It will be a whitewash and nothing will be found criminal is my prediction. Their tentacles are far reaching and everyone in State and Local Government Owes Colonel Mike and his Minions. One example is LP Gas Commissioner Alario’s attendance in San Diego on the public’s dime. How is the LP Gas Commission a part of a IACP Convention. Oh but recognize the last name and that answers it all. There are more trips with ties of other political flunkies that will surface shortly. This is the tip of the iceberg!
Again Thanks Tom for not quoting on this. You Are A Investigative Journalist!
There is so much more to this story. For instance. Notice the picture of the group. Next to Starnes is his girlfriend, Ashleigh Bossom. She is a DPS employee, but works for OMV. Interesting it would be to find out if she took annual leave for the trip? This trip was in no way part of her duties as an OMV employee.
But all this is par for the course. The 4 under investigation is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. When persons become so indoctrinated into such a system of abuse, fear, etc, at what point are HQ1, 2, and others the ones investigated?
This has been going on for years, far before JBE. I’d suggest full audit investigations involving travel, overtime, disciplinary actions, etc. Remember, email is public record. There is much to be discovered there.
Jerry Patrick (mad respect for this man) posts often on this site. I’ve known him for many years. And he knows what I speak of is true. And what’s truly sad is that there are hundreds of honest troopers who honorably wear and represent the badge.
So True Spencer, It is not the rank and file Troopers that act this way.
Edmonson and Dupy have corrupted the Agency, The LSTA, and the STATE POLICE COMMISSION!