The offenses are listed as misdemeanors but Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office is spending a lot of state resources pursuing the wife of a blogger who once criticized the Terrebonne Parish power structure.
And apparently, he’s not above being used by others to do their dirty work for them.
Wayne Anderson, a Houma Police officer, you may remember, had his home raided some time back by Sheriff Jerry Larpenter who seized his and his children’s computers.
Here are links to a few of the stories that appeared online then:
https://reason.com/blog/2016/08/12/louisiana-sheriff-doesnt-like-critical-b
Anderson and his wife Jennifer, promptly filed suit in federal court and after the presiding judge chewed on Larpenter’s backside for a while, Larpenter decided to SETTLE with the couple for an undetermined amount but which is believed to be about $250,000. Also settling were co-defendants Parish President Gordon Dove and the parish government after a $50,000 settlement of their part of the litigation.
Lesson learned, right? Don’t mess with people’s right to freedom of speech.
Well yes and no.
Jennifer Anderson subsequently was arrested for DWI. Deputies said she had a child in the vehicle at the time but she insists there was no child in the car with her. It’s not for us to say whether or not she was drinking and driving. That should be decided in a court of law, but it should be done so properly and according to legal procedures. Instead, what has ensued is a series of missteps on the part of prosecutors and those blunders have shown just how vindictive the local power clique can be when crossed.
District Attorney Joseph Waltz, Jr. recused himself from the DWI matter because he was prominently mentioned in Wayne Anderson’s blog Exposedat. That was the proper thing to do and the case was referred to Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office.
But when the Assistant Attorney General handling the case, one Angad Ghai, failed to appear for Anderson’s arraignment on four separate occasions, 32nd Judicial District Court Judge John Walker dismissed the case. Dismissals usually are handed down after two misses but the court gave the state every opportunity to prosecute its case in this matter. LouisianaVoice, by the way, was told Monday (June 12) that Ghai is no longer employed by the attorney general’s office.
LouisianaVoice does not condone drinking and driving and this is not a defense of Jennifer Anderson by any stretch. But when prosecutors neglect to show up in for courtroom proceedings not once, not twice, not three times, but four times, then the onus is on them.
Over and done on a technicality, right? Wrong. It’s not a technicality when prosecutors are negligent—or inept. Accordingly, Attorney General Jeff Landry should have simply tucked his tail, admitted his office’s incompetence and skulked back to Baton Rouge.
But no. Landry is an ego-driven politician, so he sent Assistant Attorney General Molly Lancaster into the fray to re-file charges on March 15 of this year—15 months after Anderson’s Jan. 20, 2017, arrest.
It was the classic example of re-filing as a means of judge-shopping and this time the AG got a different judge, Judge George Larke. We don’t know if that was an advantage to Landry or not. It really doesn’t matter.
What does matter is who initiated the new charges.
That would be the parish president, Gordon Dove, which makes no sense since he is not an attorney and, on the surface of it all, has no dog in the hunt. But that wouldn’t stop Dove.
For a little background on Dove, consider this:
- Dove is a former legislator who not only served on the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment but was its chairman of that committee.
- Dove also was owner of Dual Trucking Co. which was cited by the Montana Department of Environmental Equality for dumping oilfield radioactive waste from the nearby Bakken Oilfield.
How ironic.
- But wait. Dove also owns Vacco Marine, Inc., which was the subject of several investigations, negative reports, citations, and compliance orders by and from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over a period of several years.
More irony.
- And while serving on the House Natural Resources Committee and while sitting as a member of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, he joined with 12 other members of the Natural Resources Committee in passing an amendment to a Senate bill that made the prohibition against suing oil companies for damages to the state’s wetlands and marshes retroactive.
Still more irony.
For a more complete dossier on Dove, go HERE.
But now we have Gordon Dove who is so concerned about the safety and welfare of the good folks of Terrebonne Parish (if not the good folks in Montana) that he goes out of his way to pursue charges (which had already been dismissed) against a woman whose husband had the audacity to criticize the political structure of the parish, a structure that features Dove in the mix, along with others already mentioned.
And they’ve got good ol’ Jeff Landry carrying the water for them while the attorney general ignores citizen complaints about the Jennings City Council’s refusal to allow citizens to speak at its meetings without prior approval of a secret “pre-meeting” where the agenda is drawn up.
(LouisianaVoice will have more on that in the days to come. But the point is that Jeff Landry likes to cherry-pick the causes he fights for, generally opting to help political allies and ignore anyone who can’t advance his career.)
The June 11 hearing on the continuance motion for Anderson’s case was one for the books. Anderson was arraigned, she wasn’t arraigned. No one knew for sure. The court’s minute clerk’s records said the case was allotted to Division A, another official said Division B. No one knew for sure (It was finally determined the case was allotted to A).
And during all this, Anderson was somehow never served with any notice of Landry’s renewed efforts.
But never mine, Jeff Landry is happy to dance the two-step with Gordon Dove.
Isn’t it rich, isn’t it queer
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns – send in the clowns
Don’t bother they’re here.
—Frank Sinatra: Send in the Clowns
Louisiana Voice 
Why is Louisiana such a quagmire of corrupt politicians? I know. MONEY. But why are there no controls over the pools and pots of money seemingly everywhere around the state? INTERNAL CONTROLS AND ACCOUNTABILITY ARE LESS THAN A JOKE IN THIS STATE.
Jeff Landry thinks he is Donald Trump. MONEY is the key, and the Repugnants have most of it. But we must not give up. love always ron thompson