When Judge Robert James moved to senior status on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on May 31, 2016, State Judge Terry Doughty of the 5th Judicial District Court (Franklin, Richland and West Carroll parishes) made one call.
That call, to U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, a fellow member of the First Baptist Church of Rayville, to express his interest in a federal judgeship, proved productive, but not right away. He was interviewed by U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and David Vitter but his nomination was not taken up by the Obama Administration.
But following the elections of Vitter’s successor John Neely Kennedy to the Senate and Donald Trump to the presidency, things changed. Follow up interviews took place, this time with Cassidy and Kennedy, and upon the recommendation of Cassidy and Abraham, Doughty was interviewed by the White House in April 2017 and officially nominated on Aug. 3.
If one follows the connections between Doughty, Abraham, and former 5th JDC Judge James “Jimbo” Stephens (since elected to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal) back far enough, some old familiar names start to pop up.
Names like former State Legislator (both the House and Senate) and now Legislative Director for Gov. John Bel Edwards NOBLE ELLINGTON, Bobby Jindal and Vantage Health Plan.
(Major League Baseball, which once held franchise rights on recycling coaches and managers, has nothing on Louisiana politicians. Edwards, when in the legislature, was a thorn in the side of Jindal but when he became governor, he couldn’t resist reappointing many of Jindal’s foot soldiers—people like like Jimmy LeBlanc, Burl Cain, Mike Edmonson, Butch Browning and Ellington.)
Now Ellington’s son, Noble Ellington, III, whose own home health care BUSINESS failed, now works as Director of Shared Savings for Vantage Healthcare in Monroe. Could politics have played a part in his hiring? We will probably never know, but the pieces were certainly in place.
AFFINITY HEALTHCARE, an affiliate of Vantage Health Plan, Inc. and which shares the same address at 130 DeSiard Street in Monroe, purchased the medical practice of Abraham’s MEDICAL CLINIC, formerly of 261 Hwy. 132 in Mangham (now the address of Affinity Health Group).
So, what’s the big deal about Vantage Healthcare?
Nothing much except back in October 2014, LouisianaVoice did a fairly comprehensive STORY about how the Jindal administration and Sens. Mike Walsworth (R-West Monroe), Rick Gallot (D-Ruston), Neil Riser (R-Columbia), and Francis Thompson (D-Delhi) conspired to circumvent the state’s bid laws in order to allow Vantage to purchase a state office building in downtown Monroe on the cheap even though there was another serious buyer interested in the property.
That building, the old Virginia Hotel, constructed in 1935, is a six-story, 100,750-square-foot building that cost $1.6 million when built. It underwent extensive renovations in 1969 and again in 1984 and was being used as a state office building when it was sold to Vantage for $881,000, a little more than half its cost when it was built more than eight decades ago. One might have expected the building, if properly maintained, to appreciate in value over the years, not depreciate by 45 percent.
The state could afford to unload the building because it owns another six-story office building containing nearly 250,000-square-feet of floor space a couple of blocks away, at 122 St. John Street in Monroe, but that seems little justification for selling the Virginia at fire sale prices.
But even with 109,000 square-feet of vacant office space available in the building on St. John, where do you think Judge Stephens and fellow Appeal Court Judge Milton Moore chose to locate their offices?
In the Vantage Healthcare building, of course.
LouisianaVoice has made public records requests to determine the cost to the state of housing the judges in the Vantage building instead of the state-owned building with all that available space but those records have not been forthcoming yet.
Regardless, someone in Baton Rouge needs to explain why the state is paying rent to a private entity for office space in a building which that entity received at bargain basement prices—from the state—as some sort of underhanded political favor—orchestrated by the Jindal administration’s circumvention of the state bid laws, aided and abetted by four North Louisiana legislators.
But the minor issue of where his office is housed doesn’t seem to be the type of thing that would bother Stephens anyway. After all, there is a photo, apparently posted on his Facebook page that shows him holding up the antlers of a deer he shot—at night? One person commented, “Illegal to hunt at night, ain’t it?” to which Stephens replied, “It’s illegal to get caught.”
And when he was running for the appellate court in 2016, there were more than 160 people who signed onto a newspaper ad endorsing his candidacy. Among them was one Donna Remides.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
In December 2013, a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans said Ms. Remides was sentenced to 40 months imprisonment for lying in order to secure loans to hide more than $600,000 in thefts from the federally-funded non-profit Northeast Delta Resource Conservation and Development Council (NDRC&DC).
She was employed as a project coordinator by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to work for the council in Winnsboro. From January 2001 to December 2010, she used the NDRC&DC accounts to pay herself $640,000 without authorization. She wrote herself and her private business checks during the 10-year period and obtained loans in the name of the council to cover the thefts.
Granted, Stephens has no control over who purchases a newspaper advertisement to endorse his candidacy. But that, coupled with the controversy over his refusal to recuse his pal Doughty from a trial involving a LAWSUIT against a bank with some questionable links to Doughty, the flippant remark about illegal night hunting, the office space at Vantage, the same personalities tying both judges to Vantage, Abraham and Ellington…
But then again, maybe that’s what qualifies both judges for their positions in the political climate in which we currently find ourselves.
Louisiana Voice 
I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt that deer wasn’t shot at night. Plenty of hunters have had it get dark on them tracking and loading a deer. I mean, I get that an admission of an actual crime on Facebook can still be admissible in court. But shouldn’t we be aware that people say things in jest on FB not knowing they will be published as proof of a grand conspiracy?
Fairness, you and I are often in agreement, but this thorough post by Tom with all the supporting financial back-room deals cause me to state Doughty’s name needs to be withdrawn. The sale of that building was underhanded and sweetheart in nature, and as a former auctioneer, I find it particularly offensive that taxpayers didn’t get maximum value on its sale through wide-open public bidding.
It’s disappointing to me that Sen. Kennedy touted him so strongly because I know he typically scrutinizes matters like this with a pretty fine-toothed cone. Nevertheless, I know he personally reads Louisiana Voice articles (and I’m sure that’s even more so the case now that Tom has made his disdain for Kennedy so public), so this article just may bring about a change.
As a strong Kennedy supporter, it is disturbing in all aspects concerning that building’s sale and, IMHO, the circumstances surrounding the sale were and are indefensible, and no smart politician (and I maintain Kennedy is extremely smart) should want his name associated with that disaster, and by touting Doughty, Kennedy’s name has become indirectly associated with it. Hence, I think you just MAY see this name get pulled.
As for Edwards sticking with Jindal’s disastrous leaders, only he can answer why he did that (though I think the truthful answer is political expediency to capture support in 2015 which he desperately had to have as the long-time underdog to win the election). The only solace I take is that, unlike some whom I know are loyal to this blog, I never had even the slightest expectations of good government from John Bel Edwards and, to quote Lloyd Grafton, who was referencing disgraced former LSPC Chairman T. J. Doss (see 3:23 mark of this video: https://youtu.be/0-X1ju-iX_s), “He lived up to my low expectations of him.”
Always ready to defend these people, aren’t you, Fairness? Tom exposes their misdeeds and you have their backs.
Let’s not forget that time back when he was in junior high, he pulled the fire alarm at school and had everyone running!!
Okay, just who are you saying pulled the fire alarm? Because it certainly wasn’t me. I’m a little more original than that. I did turn three goats loose in school with numbers 1, 2 and 4 painted on their sides. School officials spent two days trying to find number 3.
(Nah, that didn’t happen, either, but I wish I could legitimately claim it. And I’m not telling what I did to all the jocks in my P.E. class.)
Select people know and sure would hate to carry your secret to their grave without being compensated for their silence. Now, send me $1 or I talk!
I’m say it was Doughty who pulled the fire alarm! I’ve got to tell you, I wish I had thought of the goat thing back when. Along with a couple of other cohorts we did bring a pig in to the gym during a basketball game through the window of the boys locker room and spread lard all over him and released him at halftime. But had we thought about the goats, what a night!!
Tom, excellent reporting.
Tom,
Thanks for providing us with good investigative journalism. Something that has been missing in the Press for sometime now.
Tom, please research all of your facts, lest you look like an Imbecile. And careful with your opinions presenting as fact, lest you lose credibility.
Delle Tyler, it should be pointed out, is an employee of Vantage Healthplan.
Dirty politicians in Louisiana? Surely not!
It appears to me that only negative comments are posted to your site. What about those of us who have good to say about these men that are being blasted unfairly in your articles.
So, how do Doughty and Stephens have anything to do with the Vantage building???? You’ve not shown any connection with Doughty – and the only connection with Stephens is that he moved in the office “that was already there” after he won the election in October. Whatever lease is on it, Stephens would have had nothing to do with. All you’re saying is they know the people who did.
It has amazed me for years how good men run for public office, and before their sworn in good, they begin their downward spiral of corruption. Is it the power ? The money ? Whatever the case may be. Our state, and country is at a cross-roads. If we, the voters don’t wake-up, all will be lost !