Louisiana’s campaign finance reports can be very revealing—and awfully embarrassing—when certain contributors are linked to business relationships with the candidate.
And just as eye-opening can be an accounting of how campaign funds are spent.
Take Jerry Larpenter, the sheriff of Terrebonne Parish these past 30 years, for example.
From 2012 through 2017, a period of six years, Larpenter dished out more than $130,000 in campaign funds to pay for golf tournaments, golf tee shirts, embroidered shirts for golf tournaments, camo hats and koozies for golf tournaments, golf trophies, golf bags, insurance for golf tournaments, cups for golf tournaments, signs advertising golf tournaments, guns for golf tournament prizes, food for golf tournaments, cracklings for golf tournaments, golf tournament brochures and envelopes, food for golf tournaments, and $15,482 paid to Web Corp. of St. Charles, Missouri, for bulletproof vests for deputies (the only problem with that is Web Corp. is a web design company, not a bulletproof vest company).
Some of Larpenter’s campaign contributions were also rather interesting. There was $2,500 from City Tele Coin of Bossier City back in 2014. City Tele Coin, according to its WEB PAGE, provides telephone services for correctional facilities. There has been considerable discussion on the Louisiana Public Service Commission about the high rates charged inmates’ families for collect phone calls by these companies.
Another $4,500 came from Anthony Alford Insurance. Tony Alford’s company held a contract with the sheriff’s office and with the Terrebonne Parish Council for insurance coverage. Alford and Dove are business partners in a company called PALOMA ENTERPRISES. With Dove as a business partner while simultaneously serving as parish president, such a business arrangement between Alford and the parish council would appear to be an ethics violation.
Moreover, Larpenter’s wife Priscilla is listed as an officer for both ALL PROPERTY & CASUALTY SERVICES and A&L PROPERTY & CASUALTY SERVICES. Alford is also listed as an officer for both companies.
Louisiana Workforce of St. Francisville (now defunct) and Security Workforce, LLC, of New Roads, both run by Paul Perkins, combined to contribute more than $6400 to Larpenter’s campaigns. The two firms provided prison labor for local jails to hire out to businesses, a practice many equate to legalized slavery.
Perkins is a former BUSINESS PARTNER and subordinate of former Angola warden Burl Cain and current Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc. Before Louisiana Workforce went under, David Daniel worked as a warden for the company while it contracted with the West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office for prison labor. The sheriff of West Feliciana is Austin Daniel, David Daniel’s father.
Louisiana Workforce was at the center of a controversy in 2010 when a state investigation revealed that documents were being FORGED to alter dates on work release agreements. In all, 68 documents were altered or signatures forged so that they would pass state inspections. A 2016 STATE AUDIT called for better oversight of the program.
Correctional Food Services, Inc. of Dallas, about which precious little is known (the company does not have a Web page), but which is presumed to provide food for prisoners, contributed $3,760 to Larpenter’s campaign.
But the most curious contribution was the $3000 from the Terrebonne Men’s Carnival Club of Houma. Larpenter’s campaign finance report indicated that the $3000 came from a “winning ticket” purchased from the Krewe of Hercules.
But if there’s one thing that can be said of Larpenter, it’s that he is not short on imagination when it comes to spending other people’s money.
Take the old FLOWER FUND, run for years by Larpenter—and his predecessor. It was run in a manner eerily reminiscent of Huey Long’s legendary “deduct box,” the scam that required state employees to contribute a percentage of their state salaries to Huey’s campaign fund whether they liked it or not.
The flower fund was a virtual clone of the deduct box and while Larpenter didn’t initiate the practice—it was already in place when he became sheriff—he carried on the tradition in the grand tradition of his old boss, the late Sheriff Charleton Rozands.
Each month, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office’s 299 employees “contributed” $1 of their pay checks to the flower fund which was occasionally used to actually purchase flowers but which more often went for gifts for the sheriff at Christmas, on his birthdays and on boss’s days. Larpenter was the only member of the sheriff’s department who did not contribute to the fund.
Larpenter became sheriff in April 1987 and the practice continued at least until 2001 and it wasn’t until 1999 that employees learned for certain through an attorney general’s opinion that the “contributions” were not mandatory.
In the interim, flower fund expenditures included:
- $1,462.41 for s stereo system for Larpenter;
- $1,000 for Larpenter’s account at a furniture store;
- $978.53 for a trolling motor, two batteries, and accessories for Larpenter’s birthday;
- $183 for building materials from Lowe’s (records indicate it was spent for Larpenter’s Christmas present);
- $631for fishing gear as a gift for Larpenter;
- $44 for a gift for Larpenter’s first wife;
- $186 for hunting gear;
- $220 for fishing equipment for Larpenter for a Boss’s Day gift;
- $60 for perfume;
- $258 for a man’s watch;
- $400 for the purchase of a trolling motor for Larpenter as a combination Boss’s Day and birthday gift;
- $585 for nine watches from the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association, which Larpenter said were gifts for 20-year employees of his office;
- $110 for flowers for a memorial for a deputy who died in the line of duty.
Following the attorney general’s opinion and a federal investigation into the practice, Larpenter announced that the fund would no longer be used as a slush fund for gifts for him but would instead be used to benefit his employees and to fund two scholarships.
He added that while flower fund money would no longer be used to purchase gifts for him, it did not mean employees could not “put in” themselves to buy him gifts.
Now that’s subtle.
Louisiana Voice 
Sounds to me like the good Sheriff needs ole Col. Mike “the weasel” Edmonson over there helping him keep the books balanced.
Edmonson cooked the books so long while with the State Police, even the road troopers where calling him, and his cronies at LSP HQ. the Louisiana State Mafia.
Edmonson scammed the state tax payers for a HUGE amount of money over his career with the State Police, and in the end walked away scot-free, with a fantastic retirement, no prosecution for the crimes he committed, a clean record, and still holds his badge, and State Police commission card.
Only in the State of Louisiana can the scum rise to the top, commit any crimes they want, and just walk away.
Simply Amazing
P.S. And remember where you heard it, “this good Sheriff will just walk away too”. Why ? Because the Rule of Law doesn’t apply to those at the top in the State of Louisiana.
Tom, in the above article you mentioned that prisoners were being overcharged for phone minutes at local prisons. That is a big-time, ongoing scam. Another thing that is amazing, is the scam these Parish Sheriffs all over the state are running by making inmates buy every item they need while incarcerated from the Prison Store.
They charge these inmates 10-15 dollars for a cheap two-dollar pair of flip-flops. Every item these inmates are forced to buy through the Prison Store is inflated to the tenth power.
Who has to pay for these outrageously inflated items? The poor inmate’s family, and if the families can’t come up with the money, the inmate simply does without.
I’m a retired Law Enforcement Officer having spent decades on the job, and I want criminals behind bars, but this scam these Sheriffs across the state are running needs to be shut down.
Louisiana leads the entire nation with the numbers of persons incarcerated. That statistic alone should run up a huge red flag. Why? Because it is a very, very lucrative business venture.
These Parish Prisons get $30.00 or more per day to house these prisoners, but they’re making the big bucks on phone minute kickbacks and even more on their unbelievably marked-up prices on everything from toothbrushes, toothpaste, Honey Buns, Little Debbie snacks, flip-flops, and everything in between. Families are not allowed to provide their family members with anything, but they are allowed to put money on the inmates account at the Prison Store.
Tom, there is one hell of a story here if you could claw it out.
Like I said I’m a retired cop, I know what’s going on in these Parish Prisons, and it’s nothing short of robbing these poor parents of these inmates at gun point, and it needs to be stopped.
These Parish Sheriffs want every youth whose family is not in the “political clique” locked up for as long as they can hold them. It’s simply a money-making business, and the inmates are their cash cows.
These Parish Prison systems are crooked as hell, and have been for years. All I can tell you if you have young kids, and have no political stroke, I’d be hooking to a U-Haul, and finding me another state to hang my hat.
Unreal. This is some backwater Hazzard County mess!!
The Sheriff receives $24.39 per day for a state inmate, $3.50 for a Parish inmate. That does not cover cost. No Sheriff actually has a profit on their jails. They simply try and reduce their loss. The State makes money however, by housing inmates in Parish jails because state cost per day is near $40 so the state saves about $16/day per inmate. Yes, money is made on telephones and commissary, but that is applied against cost. The people who furnish phones and commissary are the ones actually making money.
Perhaps Zoe can explain why there has been such a scramble to build all these prisons by sheriffs and private concerns alike if they’re losing money. Could it be the lucrative work release programs where the jailer keeps 60 percent (or more) of the inmate’s earnings…and then gets the rest through the commissary?
Zoe would be a bit naive to think there isn’t some sort of “arrangement” between the sheriffs and the commissary and phone company owners.
D. Munson, your dead-on with your point that “if these prisons are losing so much money, why is there such a scramble to build more”. Another point Mr. Munson, why does the State of Louisiana have more prisoners jailed than any other state in the U.S. ? I hate to lay it out here like this, but FBI statistic prove that Hispanics make up 18% of the total U.S. population, but commit over 50% of the crime in the nation.
With that being factual, and Texas having the largest Hispanic population in the U.S., how is it that the State of Louisiana with a much smaller population of all races than Texas has a higher prison incarceration rate than much larger Texas, and all the other States in the U.S.
You can bet your last dime in your pocket, that these Sheriffs, and everyone else involved in the prisons are making money hand over fist.
As for Zoe1970, without a doubt, he’s got his hand deep in the prison scam, or he’s closely tied to someone that has. Like I said in my above post, I’m a retired Louisiana Law man with several decades of working on the inside, from the days when the only jail in the Parish was the one at the Court House.
Back in the early days, inmates families were allowed to bring items the inmates need, beyond what was provided by the Parish, and State. The items were closely inspected, and sure from time to time a small amount of contraband was overlooked.
Then came the big push to build prisons all over the state, and naturally the excuse used by the Sheriff’s that run them, was parents could no longer bring any items to their loved ones that where incarcerated due to introduction of contraband into the facilities. This was all a lie. Hell, there’s more contraband in the prison systems now than there ever was.This new rule was simply to force the inmates, who they barley feed enough garbage, to keep a dog alive would have to resort to supplementing their diet with food items purchased threw the prison store.
Such as $4.00 honeybuns, $4.00 Romain Noodles, $15.00 flip-flops, $4.00 candy bars, and the list goes on, and on. The bottom line is these Sheriff’s, and all the top Officials connected to these prisons are getting fat, and I mean really fat !
One prime example is the prison up in Franklin Parish, Louisiana, Why does Louisiana State Representative Steve Pilant, who was also a three term Sheriff in Franklin Parish own a HUGE amount of stock in that prison operation, and has since it was first constructed ? Is the good Representative in it just so he can lose money ? Go figure !
The Louisiana Prison scam is BIG BUSINESS, and one with very deep roots, involving people at the top of State Government !
Tom, I talked to a gentleman just last night that works in upper management at one of the Parish Prisons in North Louisiana, and he said “the Sheriff’s connected to all of these Parish Prisons in the State of Louisiana are making a fortune off of inmate phone cards, Prison Store profits, and kick-backs from Prison food, and material suppliers”. He went on to state that “The Sheriff in Franklin Parish Louisiana has become so wealthy from money made off of the Franklin Parish Prison, that he has recently been appointed to the Board of Directors at the Winnsboro Sate Bank. Without a doubt, there has got to be a story here about Sheriff corruption in controlling Louisiana Parish Prisons.