Louisiana Voice

In case anyone’s still interested, the shenanigans of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal and 4^th Judicial District Court (Ouachita and Morehouse parishes) are still occurring unabated in what more resembles some Third World dictatorship than respected systems of justice in north Louisiana.

And in case you’re not interested….you damned well should be. From the Louisiana Supreme Court all the way down to local judicial systems, abusive activities could – and should – warrant closer scrutiny.

Let’s begin with a review of the 4^th JDC and the court’s law clerk Allyson Campbell who is not only employed by the court but, it would certainly appear, protected. This is the same district court that FILED SUIT against the Ouachita Citizen newspaper over the publication’s request for public records in the Campbell matter.

Now, according to a recent story in the Citizen, a special appointed judge has granted a protective order that will seal all testimony or evidence revealed in a lawsuit filed by a Monroe businessman who claims Campbell concealed or destroyed documents pertaining to a separate lawsuit he filed against his former business partner.

(The second part of this story can be seen HERE.

Stanley Palowsky, III, in his lawsuit against Allison, also named five 4^th JDC judges as defendants – Fred Amman, Wilson Rambo, Carl Sharp, Stephens Winters and Benjamin “Ben” Jones (not retired) for conspiring with Campbell to cover up her alleged activity, including using 52 writ applications from Palowsky’s lawsuit as an end table in her office.

Campbell worked as a part-time columnist for the Monroe News-Star.

Campbell is also the daughter of George Campbell, an executive with Regions bank. George Campbell is in turn married to the daughter of influential Monroe attorney Billy Boles. Allyson Campbell also is the sister of Catherine Creed of the Monroe personal injury law firm of Creed and Creed. Christian Creed, Campbell’s brother-in-law, contributed $5,000 to the 2015 campaign of Attorney General Jeff Landry, $40,000 to Gov. John Bel Edwards and $46,000 to the Democrat political action committee Gumbo PAC.

In a small town like Monroe, that’s a lot of cash floating around which quickly translates to a lot of political clout. Predictably, Landry’s office backed off its investigation of Allison.

Now here’s where it really gets weird.

Lawrence Pettiette, of the Shreveport law firm of Pettiette Armand Dunkelman, who served as a “special assistant attorney general” under contract to Jeff Landry’s office in matters involving state agencies.

All that’s well and good, but Pettiette also just happens to represent Campbell.

But wait. Pettiette, it seems, also represents Hanh Williams in the succession of Shreveport oilman Fred L. Houston. Williams had “assisted” Houston in some of his financial matters before his death in 2008. The 1^st Judicial Court in Caddo Parish subsequently found Ms. Williams LIABLE for $1.1 million damages for breach of duty to the trust of Houston. The court also determined that she was liable to the Houston estate for $460,605. Pettiette seems to be the common denominator in several complicated – and controversial – cases.

And just to make sure the waters are sufficiently muddied, Williams had been in a long-term relationship with Henry Brown, chief judge of the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeal. Brown was barred from the courthouse by the Louisiana Supreme Court and retired a few days later. Trina Chu, who clerked for the disgraced Brown, was ARRESTED for copying documents from the Houston file that was under review by the 2^nd Circuit, and sending them to her friend Williams, who, incidentally, sold her house to Brown.

Confused enough? Wait. There’s more. While charges are pending against Chu for theft of intellectual property and trespass against state computers, she is nevertheless a candidate for a seat on the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, back to Brown. He is accused of judicial activism and for failure to recuse himself in a case where he had a multi-million-dollar verdict for a Mangham contractor OVERTURNED.

The contractor, JEFF MERCER, had won a unanimous jury award of $20 million against the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development after Mercer convinced the jury that he had been the target of shakedowns, extortion, and discrimination while performing highway construction work for the state in north Louisiana (in Louisiana? I’m stunned!).

As if the foregoing were not enough, consider this story written by the late investigative reporter Ken Booth back in 2016 about a judge’s careless OVERSIGHT that freed a child predator.

So, maybe we should be paying a little more attention to our judicial candidates.