LouisianaVoice has received confirmation that the Legislative Auditor’s office has served subpoenas on the New Orleans Roosevelt Hotel in connection with its ongoing investigation of Louisiana State Police (LSP) management practices under former Superintendent Mike Edmonson.
Confirmation was received first from one of the principals of the historic, 116-year-old hotel and subsequently from Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera, who declined to provide any specifics as to what investigators were looking for.
But it’s not difficult to figure out.
Considering an Oct. 11 LouisianaVoice STORY about complimentary hotel rooms given Edmonson and other LSP command personnel and State Fire Marshal personnel by two other New Orleans hotels, a good bet would be that auditors are looking at one of two possibilities:
- Were state police given complimentary rooms at the Roosevelt Hotel in violation of state ethics laws that prohibit state employees from accepting anything of value as a gift, or
- In cases where the state may have paid for the rooms during events like Mardi Gras, did anyone other than LSP personnel stay in the rooms?
Questions are pretty much limited to those two options.
Of course, “anyone” could simply refer to wives or other family members, which would be a violation in itself, or it could be other “guests.”
Rumors have circulated for months that officials of both LSP and the State Fire Marshal’s office loved to party hearty in New Orleans and female companionship and booze often were parts of the equation.
One source, when LouisianaVoice only asked if the wives and girlfriends of fire marshal personnel were also allowed to stay at the hotels free of charge, volunteered, “Oh, yes. Wives, girlfriends and other female guests.” (Emphasis his.)
Because Purpera could not go into detail as to what his investigators were looking for, he naturally also declined to speculate as to who, if anyone, else may have stayed in rooms assigned to LSP personnel.
Nor would he offer any insight as to whether he was trying to make a determination as to identities of hotel guests or attempting to learn if LSP personnel simply accepted free rooms from the hotel.
On one hand, state employees may have been accepting free rooms, a clear ethics violation. On the other, the state may have paid for rooms for state employees who were on temporary duty in New Orleans but who then allowed others to share the rooms—on the state dime.
From our vantage point, there doesn’t appear to be much distinction between the two insofar as flouting the ethics rules for public employees is concerned.
Such was the attitude that was allowed to permeate LSP during Edmonson’s nine years as Louisiana’s top cop.
Congratulations Mr.Tom, you did it!!! You were on their trail like a fly on honey and you finally got the right person’s attention.
These parasites are finally going to get their “special day.”
What a reporter you are and have always been!!
WEE DOGIE, Edmonson be gone and maybe a few more will be joining him.
God is good!!
They need to look at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel and the Royal Sonesta Hotel. Those are also involved.
Well My, My, My, the story on LSP keeps on giving, 9 years of corruption is still unfolding. Good Job Tom, lets hope Mr. Purpera’s results don’t fall on deaf ears!
OH!—-THIS IS Louisiana
In 2010 when a Super Bowl and Mardi Gras were a week apart, some of the boys in blue stayed at the seminary on Carrollton and were bused to the Quarter while rooms in the Quarter were assigned on a “politician friend” basis by those in charge.
Some of the seemingly “acceptable” transactions state employees execute willy-nilly are genuinely mind-boggling.
When I was at the FDIC, examiners could accept complimentary coffee during work hours, and that was just about it. Ironically, I don’t drink coffee, so that was inconsequential to me.
I remember the very first bank at which I was assigned, the lead examiner (who was, at the time, the ONLY certified fraud examiner we had in the Baton Rouge Office), literally (I’m not making this up) called the FDIC Regional Office in Memphis and asked an Assistant Regional Director if it would be acceptable to participate with the bank staff in a pre-Thanksgiving meal being provided to all of the bank’s staff on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
Their response: “Absolutely NOT!” Ironically, they then added that, if there were any leftovers that had not been consumed the next day and had been refrigerated that, if we were offered to partake in those leftovers, FDIC management would have no objection to us participating, which we did.
What a contrast, huh?