The ongoing soap opera of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), which in no way resembles its membership makeup of a little more than a year ago, continues unabated.
In a relatively short time, the commission has undergone a complete membership turnover, has seen two commission chairmen resign under pressure, a member resigning in protest over what he called a lack of integrity on the part of fellow commissioners, the resignations or removals of other members, and the forced resignation of its executive director.
Now that former executive director, Cathy Derbonne, is back with a vengeance—and with an attorney known in Baton Rouge for taking on the establishment in a take-no-prisoners frontal assault.
Derbonne and her attorney, Jill Craft, have filed suit against the Louisiana State Police Commission, claiming that then-Commission Chairman T.J. Doss, commission member Jared Caruso-Riecke, Louisiana State Police upper command (including then-Superintendent Mike Edmonson) conspired to force her from the job she had held for eight years.
She claims in her lawsuit that the reprisals started after she initiated an investigation into reports that members of the commission and the Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) had violated regulations against political activity by making monetary contributions to several political campaigns, including that of Bobby Jindal and John Bel Edwards.
She alleges in her petition that Doss was sharply critical of her at the LSTA convention held in Lafayette in June 2016. She claims that Doss said the furor over the political contributions were her fault and that she “had lost her mind.”
She says a year later, on July 14, 2016, Doss was detailed from his job in Troop G in Shreveport to Baton Rouge headquarters “with the purpose of closely monitoring and observing (Derbonne’s) daily routine,” and the following day he appeared unannounced in her office to ask when was the last time she had been evaluated “which petitioner (Derbonne) understood was a threat.”
When she brought an unlawful pay increases of as much as 32 percent for Edmonson and four of his top deputies to the attention of the Legislative Fiscal Office in September 2016, many of her administrative duties were taken from her by the commission through the efforts of Doss.
She said on Jan. 7 of this year she received an anonymous letter warning her that Doss, by then elevated to commission Chairman, was leading a “secret charge” for her removal. Five days later, at the Jan. 12 commission meeting, she was told that the commission had the necessary votes to remove her. They pressured her to resign, saying they would humiliate her in public.
She did resign but says in her lawsuit that she was harassed and “constructively discharged” in reprisal for her engaging in activities protected under state statute.
She is requesting a trial by jury.
Only two members, Jared-Riecke and Eulis Simien, Jr., remains from the commission membership that convened on Jan. 12. The commission’s primary function is to consider appeals of disciplinary action against state troopers. But like the administration of former Superintendent Edmonson, it has been rocked with one controversy after another which has made it nearly impossible for it to formulate any cohesive action other than damage control and finding new creative ways to embarrass the Edwards administration.
The emboldened LSPC was EMPHATICALLY warned this would happen on 2/22/17, and they basically said, “We don’t give a rat’s a—.”
Given the quote on the final two lines of paragraph 17 of the litigation, which I am replicating at this time:
“On July 19, 2016, during a telephone call with the Chairman of the Gaming Control Board (Ronnie Jones), DPS General Counsel Blackburn (now deceased) and DPS Counsel Williams, while Petitioner was present but unbeknownst to the Gaming Control Board Chairman (Ronnie Jones), he (Jones) stated that the Governor’s office had told Petitioner to “shut the f up” after Petitioner had previously complained about the unlawful constitution of the Commission.”
Given that revelation, it is my personal opinion that the LSPC proceeded forwarded on the DIRECT orders of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards!!
Tom, I want to compliment you on your extended years of coverage of LSP. I know these last 24 months haven’t been easy because, even giving Gov. Edwards the benefit of the doubt (which I’m sorry, given the content of paragraph 17 of the petition, I’m not even remotely inclined to do) at a bare minimum, his LSPC appointees have been a colossal embarrassment for him.
The Advocate did cover this episode, but I believe your post, even though I know you support Edwards, has more “meat.” Here’s the link for the Advocate feature if anyone wants to read it for comparison:
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/courts/article_70442024-f62c-11e7-a8ae-af8697e4ac91.html.
Perhaps now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt why the LSPC keeps punting on playing hardball with T. Taylor Townsend on issuing a report:
http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=1277
Any such report would implicate Townsend and Gov. Edwards, both of whom can run but they can’t hide!!
Well, I know Tom’s a Rock ‘N Roll fan, so I think it only appropriate to pay a musical tribute to Gov. Edwards on this one:
Thank you, Tom Aswell! You have my utmost admiration on being to let the chips just fall where they may, and whenever you need ANY court record that I can lay my hands on, you KNOW you have it (no matter what the subject matter or who the lawsuit entails) just has been the case for the near five years we’ve now known one another, all as a result of me typing in “Bobby Jindal Corruption” on Google within days of the Murphy Painter trial!
Happy New Year!
Seems these boards and appointees are nothing but corrupt. Why not do away with ALL of them? Why do we have to have an appointee at each office agency and board? Why not save this money?
Makes a ton of sense to me, and Gov. Edwards hinted that just such action may be forthcoming in the 2018 session regarding occupational licensing: http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=1310
The evidence continues to mount that creation of this separate civil service system for one group of state employees was a bad idea. I recently spoke with a legislator who was in full support of the legislation that created it and he says, in retrospect, doing so was one of his biggest mistakes. We pretty much all know this now, so why can’t even one legislator have the courage to offer legislation that would enable we the people to vote to return these employees to state civil service? It is possible more state troopers than we know would support this because they can see the problems better than anybody.
Great point, Stephen, and I questioned Col. Reeves on that very subject at his recent BRPC appearance. I will isolate that segment of the video and get it uploaded and provide the video for everyone to see within the next couple of hours.
Here are LSP Col. Reeves’ sentiments on his confidence on the LSPC: https://youtu.be/i5tQiowVizg
Thanks, Robert. He knows the language of the bureaucrat well – give the appearance of answering without really saying anything.
If the Executive Director was receiving this kind of retaliation and bullying from the the State Police, can you just imagine what the troopers and employees that refused to go along with these type of activities went and currently go through. Society asks why good people or why good police offers don’t speak up about the bad ones. This is why. In the last years of my career, I was moved around to different, now no longer exsistent positions, for refusing to allow illegal activities.
Your point is well-taken. One of my sources during the entire “Edmonson Amendment” scandal (actually BY FAR my best source as it was he and HE ALONE who guided me on obtaining Edmonson’s personnel file and exposing his numerous past disciplinary infractions) was so adamant that his name NEVER be exposed nor made public that, in order to ensure his confidence in that regard, I kept his phone number at which I could contact him on a physical sheet of paper (not stored on my phone) in a location that only I know where to find it.
We’ve spoken several times since, including right after I released the post on Tom’s blog, and he said even he learned something new because he said, and I’m quoting: “We were lied to.” Asked to elaborate, he said they were all told that Edmonson was a PASSENGER and not the driver in the infamous “you need to be cognizant of your condition when operating our state vehicles” incident: http://www.lspripoff.com/Ed1994.pdf.
Would welcome the idea of a non corrupt, elected official. Must be very far and few between. An honest person going in must become corrupt, or, as it sounds in your experience, become unemployed. We seem to have a lot of what I call, NOBLE CAUSE CORRUPTION. That pretty much covers The Malfeasance. I was threatened, anonymously of course, to stay out of HIS Parish, or no one would know what happened to me. Typical Good Ol’ Boys!!!
How did Edmonson want Doss to handle Ms. Cathy Derbonne?? Simply, watch the video of the Vermilion Parish School Boards reaction when teacher Deyshia Hargrave questioned the pay raise of the superintendent that made national news. She was unlawfully arrested for questioning the money. Handcuffed, dragged on the floor like a mop, and jailed for asking questions about the cash. We are lucky to have video cameras, because this poor lady would have received the beating of her life at the station. If Edmonson was still in office, this Vermilion Parish officer would have been hired by LSP and promoted to captain in 2 years or less. Edmonson and his #2 man (the HITMAN) make me vomit. To the good troopers ====== the video saved this good teacher. Video and guilt-ridden rank of LSP will also prove Ms. Cathy Derbonne is telling the truth. Please RECORD, RECORD, RECORD and save yourself. Don’t be foolish. A lie detector or policy will not save you when someone like THE HITMAN coming looking for you. RECORD and VIDEO all of it.
One close friend, upon first reading The Advocate’s article on this matter (see link above) said, “Robert, that article is weak!”
Mustian is a damn good reporter. I firmly believe he had a muzzle placed on him. Consider:
1. The article was buried on the website and hard to find.
2. It has alread scrolled off such that you can’t find it by looking on the main webpage.
3. The headline is boring.
4. For the first time in YEARS, I bought a hard copy of the paper, it’s in the center of page 3A with little to draw your attention to it (no photo, bland).
The Advocate’s owner, John Georges, who, at a BRPC meeting soon after he bought the paper for $38 million (an amount which the previous owners characgterized as “way more than this paper is worth”), said, “We will no longer endorse candidates because, every time you do, you make someone mad.”
Georges, long-time Democrat and long-time close friends with Edwin Washington Edwards, isn’t about to allow John Bel Edwards to be humiliated or cast in a negative light if he can control it (which he obviously can).
Loyal Louisiana Voice readers may recall Tom acknowledging this fact 3 1/2 years ago:
https://louisianavoice.com/2014/08/12/advocate-publisher-protects-video-poker-interests-in-suck-up-editorial-sen-alarios-daughter-in-law-given-cushy-dps-job/
Well My, the corruption at LSP never ends and the new Colonel is just along for the ride. He has made No Changes to right the WRONG of Edmonson!
Not only has Reeves not made changes, he’s been a part of decisions that didn’t enforce the law or bring integrity to LSP. He has watched as high ranking officers were disciplined with slaps on the wrist for such things as malfeasance in office and felonies such as misusing LSP systems. He then likes to claim it was “under Edmonston”, but when discipline happens under Reeves’ watch and with Reeves’ signature on the dotted line……well, if it quacks like a duck, it’s usually a duck!
Reeves is no different and has no more integrity than Ole Ed. Still backing the corruption in Troop A and sweeping as much as he can under the rug. Give him a little more time, he will likely embrace the good ole boy life just like the rest!
It’s unfortunate but I hope her pockets are deep. These state agencies can fight for years and are defended for free by the AG’s office. It doesn’t matter if they are guilty or broke the law, the AG’s office doesn’t care. They just see it as a chance to reward their lawyer friends With million dollar contracts to defend.
Can we get at least one outstanding member of our State Legislature to propose legislation to place the State Police back under State Civil Service like every other agency in this State. Not to mention, a separate Commission, a Duplication of Services, and another layer of Bureaucratic spending! The State Police Commission has been dysfunctional for many years and now is consumed in corruption.
Why are they still investigating a complaint filed almost two years ago about illegal Campaign Contributions? COULD IT BE THE GOVERNOR WHO APPOINTED THEM WAS THE RECIPIENT OF A PUBLIC ENDORSEMENT AND MONEY FROM THE LOUISIANA STATE TROOPERS ASSOCIATION?