Posted in Uncategorized on July 18, 2018| 18 Comments »
Apparently, this was on her Facebook page.
That appears to be the Russian spelling of her name
to the top right of this 2014 photo, taken at an NRA convention.
(Full disclosure: Butina approached Jindal to ask him to pose for a photo. He did not know her and had never met her, though he was informed she was Russian and supported the NRA which apparently had no problem with her support.)
Posted in Uncategorized on July 17, 2018| 50 Comments »
If you think for one nano-second that I’m going to gloat, you’re dead wrong.
What we witnessed in Helsinki yesterday is nothing for anyone to gloat over—unless your name is Putin. Yesterday, a day when an American president turned his back on his own country in a shameless display of deference to a tyrant, a murderer, and an enemy of this country, was a day that should have infuriated all true Americans.
On the other hand, for those of us who have been subjected to names like libtards, Clintonites, Obamaites, bleeding hearts, socialists, and worse, I have to admit watching the Trump train wreck in the last few weeks has provided a measure of, if not comfort, at least redemption.
So, allow me just a moment of self-indulgence:
If being a “libtard” means that I have an aversion to locking innocent children in cages, then libtard it is.
I’m all for law and order but if criticism of over-zealous cops who get their kicks tasing and beating handcuffed prisoners (see Iberia Parish) and shooting unarmed citizens makes me a bleeding heart, then so be it. There has to be a balance between protecting the public and running roughshod over people’s rights. My grandfather had a simple rule: “Never take a man’s dignity from him.”
If being more concerned for our environment than I am for corporate profits makes me an anarchist, then you and I have vastly different ideas of what anarchy is.
If my wanting to see everyone have access to decent medical care makes me a socialist, it’s a label I accept. After all, the biggest socialist of them all was a man named Jesus. He championed this radical philosophy of love for our fellow man.
I never cared for Hillary Clinton, but yes, I voted for her because I could not stomach the idea of voting for Trump. I didn’t want her as president, but I absolutely feared Trump. I split my vote on Obama, going for McCain the first time around and for Obama the second time. If those votes make me something akin to a scumbag in your eyes, then I guess that’s the way it has to be.
I reiterate that even for those of us who have consistently warned that this man Trump is an out-of-control lunatic, a dangerous commodity, whose attacks on the press and his persecution of certain ethnic groups is reminiscent of other dictators of the 20th century are not funny but portentous, it’s not fun being right. In fact, it’s downright frightening when you consider the prospects for what still may lie in store for the rest of his term.
Kim Jong-un took Trump for the fool he is and that “de-nuclearization agreement” turned out to be nothing of the sort. His triumphant boast that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat” ranks right up there with “Mission accomplished,” and “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie.”
Trump managed to insult Canada and the members of the G-7 summit for no good reason that I can see. He then infuriated the European Union with a barrage of insults en route to the fateful summit with Putin in Helsinki where he managed to commit nearly every blunder imaginable short of stepping on his own long red tie.
There are those, of course, who will continue to pledge loyalty to him in the mistaken belief that he “is doing what he said he would do” when in fact, he certainly is not. So far, he’s managed to convince Harley-Davidson and BMW to relocate American plants overseas. He’s overturned net neutrality. He is repealing one environmental protection regulation after another and doing the same with consumer protection laws. He’s destroying medical care while doing nothing to replace crumbling infrastructure. (Okay, he did promise to dismantle environmental and consumer protections and medical care—but are those really good things?
And let’s break down the issue of illegal immigration. Question: Why are so many Latinos trying to get into this country? Answer: To seek a better life. Question: How can they do that? Answer: They will work. Question: Why are we letting them take jobs from Americans? Answer (two parts): First, many of those jobs are jobs Americans don’t seem to want. Second, no immigrant EVER took an American’s job. American employers take those jobs and give them to illegal/undocumented immigrants who will work cheaper so they can make higher profits at the expense of your job and to the detriment of you and your family, so if you have a gripe, take it up with your former employer. It’s kind of like the drug smuggling problem. If there weren’t buyers, there would be no smugglers. Question: Why don’t they enter legally? Answer: See answer to previous question.
And even if he did accomplish what he promised, the results would, for the most part, be catastrophic for the very ones who continue to support him. That’s the cruel irony of the entire Trump experience: the ones who love him most are the ones he has promised to hurt the most.
Finally, let’s look at his support in Congress—the Republicans, a pretty shameful bunch in their own right, Louisiana’s own delegation included.
Most of you are far too young to remember and to tell the truth, I was only three when Richard Nixon first ran for Congress in 1946. As a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Nixon plagued the Truman administration in a constant search for communists under every leaf in Washington and in every movie studio in Hollywood. Four years later, he ran for and was elected to the Senate. His entire 1950 campaign was based on red-baiting his opponent, Helen Gahagan Douglas.
Then there was the Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s, stoked by one Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, another Republican, and in 1964, one of the foremost Republican communist fighters, Barry Goldwater, was swamped by Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election. But Goldwater’s nomination laid the groundwork for what was to become a major anti-communism campaign for the Republicans, capped off by the Nixon comeback of 1968 and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, who carried on the anti-communism crusade with his classic line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Of course, with the new millennial, came a new enemy, Islam. But the threats of communist China, Russia, and North Korea always lurked in the background.
So now, saddled with the long-standing tradition of being the party to stand up against the Red Menace, Republicans are suddenly suffering massive whiplash from the party’s sudden lurch to the left, engineered by one Donald Trump.
What to do, what to do? Talk about a quandary. On the one hand, there’s tradition to uphold. On the other, there’s this misplaced loyaty to the party which somehow has found itself beholden to a man who has, by some accident of fate, been placed in the position of leader of the GOP and whose head is in such a position now that Putin is going to need a proctologist to find it.
Posted in Corruption, Courts, Ethics, Lawsuits, Public Records on July 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Lest you think of your local sheriff’s office’s protective actions as a form of insurance, it might do well to remember that unlike State Farm, they’re not always a good neighbor and as opposed to what the Allstate folks might say, you’re not always in good hands.
Louisiana sheriffs have paid out a combined minimum of $6.1 million in settlements and judgments since 2015, according to records provided LouisianaVoice by The Louisiana Sheriffs’ Law Enforcement Program (LSLEP), the risk management arm of the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association.
Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal has paid out at least $2.35 million of that, or 38.5 percent of the total for all sheriffs. That’s just from 2015. Ackal has been in office for 10 years and his office has paid out more than $2.8 million in judgments and settlements, or an average of $23,000 for every month he has been in office.
Two other parish sheriffs’ departments, Jackson ($650,000) and Morehouse ($503,000) were a distant second and third, respectively, behind Iberia. Together, the three parishes were responsible for $3.5 million in payouts for damages and wrongful deaths, or 57.4 percent of the total for all 64 parishes.
Besides the $6.1 million in judgments that were paid out, seven law firms also ran up another $1.2 million in legal fees defending the various lawsuits against sheriffs. That amount represent 83.2 percent of the total legal fees paid to all firms.
Pursuant to a public records request by LouisianaVoice, LSLEP, through its legal counsel, Usry & Weeks of New Orleans, provided reports that showed file names, claimant names, attorneys who handled the files, the amounts paid in attorney fees, and settlement/judgment amounts. The amounts paid out were divided BY PARISH into “corridor” (deductible), indemnity, and excess carrier payments. Excess payments are generally paid out by a second insurance company that covers claims in excess of a certain amount covered by LSLEP’s primary insurer.
There were seven payments made by the LSLEP excess carrier, records show. They range from a low of $15,000 in a case involving two payouts to a plaintiff by the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office (the other payment was for $100,000 and was listed as an “indemnity” payment) to what is believed to be a payment of at least $600,000 in Iberia Parish in the case of the shooting death of a handcuffed prisoner.
The actual amount of that payment is unclear because in the case of Shandell Bradley v. the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office, the amounts of the settlement payments were ordered sealed by the presiding judge—the only payments among the records provided that were redacted.
That was the case in which 22-year-old VICTOR WHITE, III was shot in the chest while in custody of sheriff’s deputies. The coroner somehow managed to rule that White had gotten hold of a weapon and somehow managed to shoot himself in the chest—while his hands were cuffed behind his back.
In an interview with LouisianaVoice, White’s father, Victor White, Jr., said he was unhappy with the judge’s order that terms of the settlement not be disclosed. “The judge says we can’t talk about the settlement amount, but I believe the people of Iberia Parish have a right to know how much the sheriff department’s actions cost them,” he said.
The Victor White case was not the only case in which Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal had to make substantial payouts.
CHRISTOPHER BUTLER sued after he was beaten while handcuffed by a deputy Cody Laperouse in 2013. Ackal fired Laperouse who promptly went to work as an officer for the St. Martinville Police Department. Ackal’s office paid out $350,000 in that case.
Ackal also paid out $175,000 to the family of 16-year-old DAQUENTIN THOMPSON who hanged himself while being held in Iberia Parish’s adult jail in 2014.
In a case that displayed the ugly side of Ackal’s idea of justice, the sheriff instructed two of his deputies to “take care of” HOWARD TROSCLAIR after Ackal had been told assaulted one of his (Ackal’s) relatives, according to appeal documents filed by deputy David Hines with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. When Trosclair was arrested, the court records say he was “compliant and followed the officers’ commands.” Hines nevertheless used his knee to strike Trosclair “several times in the side” and struck him “two to three times” with his baton in the back of his legs. Hines continued to knee Trosclair in the abdomen or groin even after he was restrained. Hines then filed a false police report to cover up the wrongful assault, the appeal record says.
That episode cost LSLEP $275,000.
LSLEP paid out $500,000 on behalf of the Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office in connection with the death of 18-year-old EDWIN BATTAGLIA while he was in a holding cell.
Perhaps the strangest judgment was the $600,000 payout to VACUUM CLEANER sales representatives in Jackson Parish in 2013.
It seems that a group of door-to-door salespeople had close encounters with Jackson Parish sheriff’s deputies despite their having a permit to solicit door-to-door. Deputy GERALD PALMER told the sales reps, “We’re not too keen on door-to-door salesmen in this parish, so you probably gonna run into a lot of problems. You’re probably better off to go to another parish, according to my sheriff (Andy Brown),” according to court documents.
Court documents quoted other examples of intimidation by deputies in efforts to discourage the sales reps.
The Alexandria law firm of Provosty, Sadler & Delaunay billed $247,000 for defending 33 lawsuits against sheriffs’ offices in Allen, Grant, Iberia and Rapides parishes, records of payments BY LAW FIRM show.
The Chalmette law firm of Gutierrez & Hand was a close second with $237,500 in billings for defending 20 lawsuits against the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Other top-billing firms included:
Not all lawsuits were filed against Ackal by prisoners. LAURIE SEGURA was an administrative assistant for the sheriff’s office who obtained a settlement of $409,000 for sexual harassment by Bert Berry, chief of the Criminal Department whose action included rubbing his hands and crotch against her body, sneaking up behind her and kissing her, making inappropriate inquiries about her sex life, discussed fantasies of having sex with her, simulating sex in her presence and trying to get her to engage in phone sex. She said in her lawsuit that he ignored her repeated requests to leave her alone and when she complain, she experience retaliation.
Besides having to settle her claim, Ackal got an added bonus when Segura TESTIFIED against him in federal criminal charges brought against him for a multitude of offenses.
Posted in Campaign Contributions, Congress, Elections, Ethics, House, Politicians on July 12, 2018| 31 Comments »
Justin DeWitt is the only challenger to 6th District U.S. Rep. Garret (one “t”) Graves to meet the July 8 Federal Election Commission (FEC) deadline for financial reporting and unlike the incumbent he is challenging, you won’t fine any PAC contributions in his report.
Democrat DeWitt, the only openly LGBTQ candidate to ever seek a congressional office in Louisiana, has raised a little more than $23,000 in a grassroots effort to dislodge Republican Graves, whose federal campaign finance report reads like a Who’s Who of Political Action Committees:
Airlines for America PAC, Allied Pilots Association PAC, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association PAC, Ally Financial, Inc. Advocacy PAC, Amazon PAC, the American Academy of Dermatology Association’s SKINPAC, American Academy of Physician Assistants PAC, American Airlines Inc. PAC, American Bankers Association PAC, American Air Liquide Holdings PAC, the American Cable Association PAC, American Chemistry Council PAC, American Commercial Lines PAC, Acadian Ambulance Service Employee PAC, Action Committee for Rural Electrification, AECOM PAC, Agricultural Retailers Association PAC, Airline Pilots Association PAC, Airbus Group PAC.
And those are just the first three pages. The entire list of PAC contributors is 38 pages long.
That $23,000 isn’t nearly enough to mount any kind of campaign and DeWitt is keenly aware of that fact but he says he’s running “because I flooded in ’16. I lost everything and got nothing but TAPs (thoughts and prayers) from Graves.”
Thousands of people lost everything in that flood, so what inspired him when no one else is running for that reason?
“I’m running because I’m pissed. Graves wants to take FEMA appropriations for victims and funnel that money into the Amite Diversion Canal. Those victims need help now.
“I want to change the entire flood insurance program,” he said. “We need an overall disaster insurance program. Instead, we have a national flood insurance program that has rates that are impossible for the average family to afford. It’s evil to profit off people who are suffering.
“I’m a political newcomer,” the 30-year-old member of a surveying crew says. One news report identified him as a surveyor—he’s not—and to show how those with power work to protect each other, the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying Board threatened DeWitt with disciplinary action. “I never described myself as a surveyor because I’m not,” he said, “but that didn’t deter the board from trying to take action.”
He describes himself as “a working man from a working-class background” as opposed to Graves, who, like his mentor Bobby Jindal, never worked in the private sector.
He said if he is elected, “I will continue to work hard for all the people of the 6th Congressional District, Louisiana, and the nation—not for the corporations and special interest groups. I will work to protect our environment and the rights of all people, and to protect the vital program that ensure a good quality of life for working and middle-class people. That includes healthcare for all who need it and, importantly, Medicare and Social Security for our seniors who have paid into those programs for a lifetime and who should not have to fear a future without the financial resources to live comfortably.”
He said one of the biggest problems with congress and any other elective office is the influence of money from special interests. “The PACs have drowned out the voice of the people to the point the average person cannot be heard over the lobbyists and special interests,” he said. “That’s why you won’t see any PAC contributions in my finance reports. And it’s not because they haven’t offered—they have. We turned them down. We’re depending on social media to get our message out.”
Candidate qualifying runs from July 18 to July 20.
Posted in Ethics, Judges on July 10, 2018| 8 Comments »
Remember Robert “Robbo” Davidson, the DeSoto Parish sheriff’s chief investigator whose private company ran more than 41,500 background checks through the sheriff’s office in an 11-month period?
Davidson (now retired) was a principal in LAGNIAPPE and CASTILLO RESEARCH and INVESTIGATIONS, which charged customers $12 for each background report and paid the sheriff’s office $3 per report for a profit of more than $372,000 for him and his partner, Allan Neal Castillo.
Now, LouisianaVoice has obtained an old Facebook photograph of Davidson, along with 42nd Judicial District Court Judge Charles Adams having a little fun in the Angola State Penitentiary death chamber.
The photo shows Davidson lying on the gurney where lethal injections are administered to death row inmates. Enjoying the moment are, standing, left to right, Judge Adams, Jean Calvert, Adams’s secretary, and Davidson’s wife Linda Davidson, a DeSoto Parish constable.
The most inappropriate aspect of this photo, besides the obvious poor taste of posing for it in the first place, is that there are presently four death row inmates from DeSoto Parish at Angola and should either of the cases be remanded to 42nd JDC by an appellate court, it would put Adams, as the presiding judge, in something of an awkward position.
One of those death row inmates, by the way, is JAMES BALDWIN, father of current DeSoto Parish Sheriff Jayson Richardson.
Richardson recently refused to provide personnel files of the sheriff’s office to Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera’s office and Richardson fought back with a PETITION for declaratory and injunctive relief. Purpera countered by seeking to move the matter to the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge.
The issue of proper jurisdiction was heard by Judge Adams, who ruled that the case would be heard in his court which, in light of his coziness with the sheriff’s office, as depicted in this photo, only serves to raise more questions than answers about the propriety of hearing Richardson’s petition in Adams’s court.
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