Is it a mere coincidence that Louisiana has the FIFTH-WORST dental health in the nation? Or that our state has the eighth-worst oral health or the worst dental habits and care?
Could the fact that we rank dead last in the percentage of adults who visited a dentist in the past year somehow correlate with the fact that Louisiana is also dead last in the number of dentists per capita? Or second-worst in the percentage of adults with low life satisfaction due to oral condition?
Or could it be that the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry is just more interested in assessing fines and penalties as a means of amassing funds to perpetuate its existence than it is in promoting good dental health?
In 2010, the Louisiana Board of Dentistry revoked the license of Dr. Ryan Haygood of Shreveport. He was forced to endure a four-day hearing he describes as a “kangaroo court,” during which he had no rights and no due process.
“While this sounds unbelievable and extreme,” he told the Senate Commerce Committee last April, “the courts have agreed.”
A three-dentist panel found him guilty on eight specifics under two separate charges. In addition to taking his license to practice, the panel assessed him with more than $173,000 in fines and legal and investigative fees.
Incredibly, the conviction included several charges that the board had already dismissed and on the other charges, the board produced no evidence against him.
It took years, but the revocation was overturned by a unanimous ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. The court, in a strongly-worded rebuke of the dental board, said, “We hold this conduct is violative of the Louisiana Administrative Procedure Act and Dr. Haygood’s due process right to a neutral adjudicator and a fair hearing.
In 2011, Haygood filed suit against the board attorney, its investigator (who has since has his own private investigator’s license revoked), two unlicensed investigators and several local dentists who he said conspired with the board to take his license
Haygood, in his Senate testimony, said that in November 2013, the Second Circuit Court of Appeal cited the aforementioned Fourth Circuit ruling which suggested the potential of a corrupted investigation and a strong inference that members of the board engaged in the conduct attributed to Dr. Ross Dies (a local competitor of Haygood). If some of the allegations regarding Dies’ behavior are proved, the court added, they “would strongly suggest that Dies’ conduct was motivated less by altruistic concern for the public than animus to suppress a competitor. They would also prove that other board members agreed with Dr. Dies to engage in conduct to accomplish those objectives.
In December 2017, Caddo district court Judge Michael Pitman said:
This court reviewed many e-mails and correspondence between members of the board and the investigation team and the attorneys handling the matter before the board. I did so in-camera. Those matters are under seal because of the confidential nature of the investigation. But the things in those correspondence(s) were rather shocking with the unprofessionalism that was shown during this investigation, and I won’t go into specifics because those matters are under seal, but I was shocked at some of the things I read, some of the unprofessionalism that took place during this investigation by the board members, attorneys, so on and so forth…
The bottom line is there were—the proceedings that too place in this investigation were shocking. I just can’t think of another word to describe it. It was absolutely shocking.
Yet, despite overwhelming evidence of the board’s employment of a private investigator whose license was under threat of revocation (and eventually was revoked), despite testimony of destruction of records by the board, and despite former board employee Diana Chenevert’s meeting with investigators from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) on four different occasions during which she provided details of these, as well as citing examples of threats, extortion, and anti-competitive activities of the board, and despite having been told by OIG personnel that arrests were eminent, nothing happened.
In fact, in a January 25, 2018, letter to State Sen. Barrow Peacock, State Inspector General Steven Street said, among other things, “the evidence did not support criminal charges against any current or former Dental Board employees, board members or contractors.”
To read the full text of Street’s incredulous letter, go HERE.
Apparently, Street saw nothing wrong with the manner in which the board extorts money from dentists or the manner in which it conspired with the LSU School of Dentistry to ruin the career of one Dr. Randall Schaffer. To read his story, go HERE.
It’s not much of a stretch to say that Street has become something of a caricature of the clueless Sgt. Schultz character on Hogan’s Heroes who was best-known for his oft-repeated line, “I see nothing, I see nothing.”
Schaffer is the one who, back in 1989, realized that a joint replacement device for temporomandibular jaw (TMJ) sufferers developed at the LSU Dental School and being marketed by a Houston company named Vitek, was defective.
When Schaffer, then a resident at LSU, became aware of the 100 percent failure rate of the device, he informed Dr. John Kent, head of LSU’s School of Dentistry’s Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, who had developed the device.
But Kent had been given stock in Vitek and was earning royalties of 2 percent to 4 percent on the sale of Vitek products, so the word of disfigurement, excruciating pain and at least eight suicides was unwelcome news. The obvious solution was to get rid of Schaffer and shut him up.
Today, Schaffer lives in Iowa, driven out of Louisiana by the Dentistry Board which joined with LSU to persecute the messenger even as 675 patients combined as a class for discovery purposes, leaving the state exposed to about $1 billion in legal liability.
Schaffer, you see, was named as a witness and consultant in the class action case and the Board of Dentistry retaliated by launching its investigation of Schaffer
In 1992, the first case was settled for $1 million.
Meanwhile, the board continued with its unique method of imposing its own brand of justice on dentists who it deemed troublesome or a threat. And of course, the board took no corrective actions regarding Dr. Kent and his joint replacement device.
Louisiana Voice 
In some cases neither does LLA as seen in this article.
https://www.soundoffla.com/former-gohsep-director-mark-debosier-on-relationship-with-legislative-auditor-theyll-just-close-their-eyes-stick-their-fingers-in-their-ears-and-we-make-sure-that-theres-no-fingerprints-on/
Stephen Street is a leveraged cuck. His conclusions are the exact opposite of what multiple people were told by the investigators themselves. If we ever want to fix this state, Street has to be the first person to go. Let’s get the OIG out of the Governor’s office and protect his job from the legislators he investigates.
Another great article on the despicable Board of Dentistry. The only comment I’m going to make is that, I can assure everyone, Stephen Street is far from “clueless.” I’ll have much more to report on that if the Corey delaHoussaye matter ever makes it to trial. Street’s Office issued a protective order (see the THIRD link from the bottom of the following post on Street):
https://www.soundoffla.com/louisiana-inspector-general-streets-historical-3-year-federal-tax-lien-occupational-licensing-tax-lien-reinforce-his-puppet-status-to-any-sitting-governor-but-will-his-stubbornness-and-inability-t/
Bobby Jindal hired street for the same reason he hired Edmonson. He had skeletons in his closet (see the prior link’s headline which SHOULD have disqualified him from consideration but with Jindal, it made him the PERFECT selection), would be dependent upon the job, would view it as an “ego trip,” which Street has, and most importantly, he could be commanded to do EXACTLY what the Governor of Louisiana instructs him to do. In that regard, he has backed off when the Governor’s Office has told him to back off (as in the Dental Board), and he has pursued aggressively when instructed to do so by the Governor (e.g. Murphy Painter and Corey delaHoussaye).
Again, really great post, Tom!
I think the members of the board responsible for these things should be tried, convicted, and sentenced to having their jaw joints replaced with Viteks. Then, as they gnash their teeth in perpetual pain for the rest of their lives, they might think about the suffering of the innocent patients that results from their actions. Mr. Street might want to think about those patients, as well.
Great resolution Stephen! Whatever happened to The Golden Rule
OIG is a duplication of investigative services already provided by the Legislative Auditor, Attorney General, and State Police Bureau of Investigation. Street is only there for his own survival and not to make any waves.