Louisiana Voice

It’s just plain fun to see how far some candidates for political office are willing to go to get elected.

It’s also pretty disgusting.

It’s not disgusting because of any personal feelings I have for either candidate for 21^st Judicial District Court Judge; I don’t know either candidate, Colt Fore or his opponent, William Scott Dykes. In fact, I never even heard of them before this election.

When I saw their signs start popping up out here in Livingston Parish yards, I just wondered why so many homes were suddenly on the market and being listed with those particular realtors. (That’s a joke, son. You’ll get it later.)

And I’m not trying to defend Fore. He is an attorney, after all, with a firm with whom I had a brief difference a few years back over the right of a Baton Rouge television station to tape proceedings of a controversial city council meeting (the city’s legal counsel, a member of that firm, said since the law did not specifically mention television cameras in allowing the photographing of meetings, it was within the city council’s authority to ban them, which was a patently abusive overreach on his part).

But today, I received in my mailbox a flyer, a political cheap shot, really, that proudly pointed out that Fore “gave thousands of dollars to Democrat Hillary Clinton for President.”

And while it’s true that federal campaign finance reports reflect that Fore, in fact, CONTRIBUTED $2,700 to Clinton in 2016, it conveniently neglects to add that he contributed $850 to Trump this year.

God knows, I’m no fan of Hillary Clinton, but when it came down to making a choice between her and Trump four years ago, it was a no-brainer for me: I voted for Hillary because I simply could not stomach the idea of Donald Trump as leader of the free world.

It turns out my instincts then were correct. The man has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster, an embarrassment. I don’t know what kind of president Hillary would have made – probably a bad one – but nothing she could have done could ever have approached the train wreck this country has witnessed for the past four years.

But I digress. This rant is not about Trump or Hillary or Biden. It’s about electing judges.

And my question is this: why the hell should a judge’s election revolve around candidates’ personal political philosophies? And why do political parties even enter into the equation?

Judges’ races should be about the letter of the law, not about the 2^nd Amendment, stricter sentences for offenses, abortion or who a particular candidate supports for president.

No candidate for a judgeship should enter a race or be considered for nomination to a judicial appointment on the basis of his or her preconceived notion on any ideology whatsoever. A judge’s job is to hear arguments on cases coming before the court without personal feelings entering into the discussion and to render a ruling based on the law, not some hackneyed political viewpoint or on the basis of which attorney contributed to the judge’s campaign.

The flyer I received said, “Colt Fore says he is a Republican now…but when he is not running for office, Colt Fore knows he’s with her (Hillary).”

The flyer’s disclaimer said it was paid for by Louisiana Law, Order and Justice of 7350 Jefferson Highway, Suite 485, Baton Rouge.

Corporate records on file with the Louisiana Secretary of State indicate that one Chadwick Melder is the agent and only officer listed for Louisiana Law, Order and Justice.

Melder is also the agent and only officer of CAMCO CONSULTING, a political communications and public affairs concern which has the same mailing address as Louisiana Law, Order and Justice but which is domiciled in Woodworth, in Rapides Parish.

What confuses me about the flyer, however, is the rest of that disclaimer that says Louisiana Law, Order and Justice is “not affiliated with any candidate or committee.”

If that’s the case, why does it claim to be the one that paid for the flyer when it’s obvious it was paid for either by or on behalf of Dykes.

But if you take a peek at Dykes’ campaign expenditures of $1,000 or more, you see payments to such entities as Capital Business Services ($11,425.50 and $2,500), Tangi Graphics ($4,828.70, $3,685.88, and $1,570), Lamar Advertising ($4,075 and $1,800), and a few lesser expenditures in Tangipahoa and St. Tammany parishes.

The only ones in Baton Rouge are Capital Business Services and Lamar Advertising and since the $11,425.50 payment to Capital Business Services was on Sept. 22, it’s quite likely that was the check written to pay for the flyer with Louisiana Law, Order and Justice’s payment coming out of that payment.

So, even though the Louisiana Ethics Commission requires the reporting of campaign contributions and expenses, there are clever ways to conceal the sources of both.

All in the name of democracy and maintaining the integrity of our courts, of course.

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“If we had a competent press, the President making it clear he was refusing an aid package Democrats have had waiting since May to jam through a radical judge… would seal Trump’s loss.”

—Blogger Marcy Wheeler.

“What does make sense though, is Trump clearing the decks in the Senate so he can get Amy Coney Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court to create a legal backdrop for him if he loses on Election Day. It’s become a complete obsession for Trump and the GOP, even as the White House becomes a Covid-19 hot spot.”

—Press Run, Oct. 7, 2020. [This should bring into sharp focus the fact that Trump does not care about the millions of hard-working, sweating Americans desperately trying to keep their lives together in the face of closed businesses, lost jobs, lost medical care, lost educational opportunities. But he does care about staying out of jail and remaining in office with the help of a Supreme Court majority is his ONLY path to that goal.]

“The radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election from my father, President Donald Trump … We cannot let that happen. We need every able-bodied man, woman to join army for Trump’s election security operation.”

—Donnie Trump, Jr., in effort to recruit 50,000 volunteers despite prohibitions in most states against partisan election monitors interfering with the voting process.

“This is another tactic to intimidate folks at the polls. He’s not interested in poll watchers; he wants poll intimidators. But it’s not going to work because the truth of the matter is there are more of us in this country that believe in democracy than there are of them.”

—LaTosha Brown, on Junior’s call for volunteers.

“He just gave a call to action for the Proud Boys that are a known white supremacist group, that are known to carry weapons, that are known to be violent. If people are hearing that the Proud Boys are going to show up at the polls, some people are going to be afraid and that’s exactly what they want to have happen. They want them to not vote.”

—Katie Hill, former Democratic congresswoman from California.

“One of the worst aspects of Donald Trump has been his ability to corrupt our national life. Not only does he suck the integrity from his supporters, he encourages those who oppose him to live down to their worst instincts.”

—Chris Truax, San Diego attorney and CEO of CertifiedVoter.com. 

NOT A TRUMP QUOTE, but it should be (with apologies to Cavin & Hobbes)

“I like maxims that don’t encourage behavior modification.”

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Private prisons operated by LaSalle Corrections of Ruston have seen more than their share of problems – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that inmates of the jails have seen more than their share of abuse and neglect at the hands of LaSalle.

We have already published stories about the treatment and agonizing deaths of MICHAEL SABBIE and HOLLY BARLOW-AUSTIN and before that, the sordid whistleblower complaint about unwanted HYSTERECTOMIES  being performed on female detainees without their consent at a LaSalle-run facility in Georgia.

In one case in Texarkana, negligence led to a LaSalle employee pleading guilty to manslaughter.

LaSalle, operated by an ordained Methodist minister and headquartered in Ruston, operates nine private prisons under contracts with local sheriffs in Louisiana. Those facilities and their bed counts include:

• Catahoula Correctional Center in Harrisonburg (835 beds);
• Jackson Parish Correctional Center in Jonesboro (1252);
• LaSalle Correctional Center in Olla (755);
• Madison Parish Correctional Center in Tallulah (334);
• Madison Parish Detention Center in Tallulah (264);
• Madison Parish LTCW (formerly the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women) in Tallulah (535);
• River Correctional Center in Ferriday (602);
• Southern Correctional Center in Tallulah (564);
• Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield (1576).

And while LouisianaVoice will be examining some of the Louisiana facilities in this series, there is yet another wrongful death lawsuit involving the Bi-State Jail in Texarkana, the same facility where Sabbie and Austin met their deaths. Because Texarkana sits on the Texas-Arkansas line, and parts of the city rest in each of the states, the jail takes prisoners from both jurisdictions.

On June 28, 2016, Morgan Angerbauer, a Type I diabetic, was arrested by Texarkana, Arkansas, police on an outstanding warrant related to a non-violent drug offense. She was transported to Bi-State where she was placed in a cell.

Because she had been previously incarcerated at the jail, medical records there noted her diabetic condition. At 11:15 a.m. on June 29, her blood sugar was tested on an Accu-Chek blood-testing device which indicated her blood sugar was above the testing range of 55 mg/dl, meaning her blood sugar was four-to-five times higher than normal. She was administered 15 units of injectable insulin but was not given any intravenous fluids.

At 1:45 p.m., her blood sugar still registered 487 mg/dl and she was given another 10 units of injectable insulin but again, no intravenous fluids. At 2:35 p.m., her blood sugar was 178 and she was not tested again until nearly 13 hours later, at 3:20 a.m. on June 30 when it again tested high.

She was given another 15 units of insulin and no intravenous fluids and was tested again at 5:30 a.m., again registering high. She was not tested again until 10:30 a.m., when her blood sugar was shown to be 74. No follow-up test was done to ensure the result was accurate.

At 4:30 p.m., duty nurse Tiffany Venable wrote that she “refused” to test her blood sugar and Venable left her shift without requiring a test. It should be noted that Venable was also a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Michael Sabbie, which was eventually settled before trial.

Less than an hour later, at 5:15 p.m. Angerbauer began beating on her cell door and pleading to be tested, pleas that were ignored, according to the LAWSUIT filed by Victoria Leigh, administrator of Angerbauer’s estate.

Angerbauer spent the next several hours pounding on her cell door and pleading for a blood sugar test, all to no avail, until at 4 a.m. on July 1, a jail trustee called for help when she was observed apparently unconscious on the medical observation cell floor. It had been more than 17 hours since her blood sugar had last been tested.

Licensed vocational nurse Brittany Johnson, a named defendant in the lawsuit, attempted to take a blood sugar reading at 4:14 a.m. and received a reading of “E-3” on multiple tests, a reading that means the patient’s blood sugar is extremely high.

Yet, surveillance camera video shows that it was another 40 minutes before Johnson began CPR or calling 911. During that time, Johnson “inexplicably gave Ms. Angerbauer glucose rather than insulin,” the lawsuit says, noting that glucose “causes blood sugar levels to rise, not fall.

Within minutes, Angerbauer was dead. The state crime lab attributed the cause of death to diabetic ketoacidosis. Her blood sugar at the time of her death was 813.

As in the Sabbie litigation, in which training shortcuts by LaSalle were revealed to be the norm, the Angerbauer lawsuit also shone a harsh spotlight on LaSalle in the aftermath of her death.

“LaSalle performed an ‘internal investigation’ into Ms. Angerbauer’s death in which defendant Johnson fabricated a story that omitted her refusal to test Ms. Angerbauer’s blood sugar between 5:15 p.m. on June 30 and when Ms. Angerbauer was found unresponsive on July 1, 2016.

“LaSalle employee signed off on Johnson’s report,” the suit claims. “The entire ‘internal investigation’ took about an hour, contained no attempts by investigators to compare statements to the video evidence. This resulted in LaSalle employees signing off on investigative reports that contain outright fabrications that attempted to absolve LaSalle and all its personnel of any liability.” (emphasis mine)

“Multiple LaSalle employees, including defendant Johnson, made false written statements that defendant Johnson entered the medical observation cell at 4:40 a.m. on July 1, 2016. As noted…she entered the cell at 4:14 a.m. and did not call for an ambulance to be summoned until almost 5 a.m., some 46 minutes later. Multiple LaSalle employees falsely state the time line in an unlawful attempt to protect defendants from liability in this matter.

“Defendant Johnson’s report (as well as other statements of LaSalle employees) was contradicted by the Texarkana, Arkansas Police Department investigation of Ms. Angerbauer’s death, which ultimately led to the arrest of Johnson on charges of negligent homicide,” the petition says, adding that Johnson entered a guilty plea to negligent homicide in November 2017.

Texarkana attorney David Carter, who represents Leigh in the lawsuit and who represents Barlow-Austin’s mother and husband in their lawsuit, claims in Leigh’s petition that the failure to secure medical care for Angerbauer “was motivated by unconstitutionally impermissible profit-driven reasons. The corporate defendants (LaSalle entities Southwestern Correctional, dba LaSalle Corrections, LaSalle Management and LaSalle Southwest Corrections) also failed to train their corporate nursing staff concerning contacting emergency medical services in a timely manner when a patient had become unresponsive…”

The lawsuit said the need for training was even more acute because “LaSalle staff(s) the Bi-State Jail with licensed vocational nurses rather than registered nurses and it was foreseeable that such training deficiencies would cause harm to inmates/detainees.”

Moreover, as with the Sabbie litigation, the Angerbauer lawsuit said that an investigation by local law enforcement officials “revealed that LaSalle employees pre-completed the cell check log for the medical observation cell. According to the document, LaSalle staff was logging cell checks on Ms. Angerbauer two hours after she died. This is yet another example of the corporate defendants’ pattern, practice and custom of falsifying records…”

The lawsuit says that LaSalle “negligently contracted with a doctor who was located over a two-hour drive away from Bi-State Jail; who did not oversee medical treatment at Bi-State Jail in any meaningful way; who did not have control or supervisory ability over any of the nursing staff at Bi-State Jail; and who was inadequate to fulfill the requirement that LaSalle maintain a contract with a doctor for medical car at Bi-State Jail.”

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“The Ebola doctor who just flew to N.Y. from West Africa and went on the subway, bowling and dining is a very SELFISH man – should have known!”

—Donald Trump tweet, Oct. 24, 2014, critical of Dr. Craig Spencer who developed symptom of Ebola after returning from Guinea. [But of his mini-motorcade around Walter Reed, Trump told Americans not to be afraid of coronavirus. Nothing selfish about that – no indeed.]

“He’s not even pretending to care now.”

—Secret Service agent, following Trump’s impromptu trip outside Walter Reed to wave at his fans.

“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”

—Tweet by James P. Phillips, George Washington University professor and a doctor affiliated with Walter Reed.

“Now that the virus has reached them, maybe they will have to know what our world feels like.”

The Guardian columnist Moira Donegan.

“He’s willing to do anything he can to fundamentally undermine democracy, any sense of integrity, any sense of decency, any sense of anything that any normal human being would think is acceptable in a real country,”

—LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter.

“Ballots are being mailed out NOW and people are voting in Tennessee. We need YOU to ensure that you will be securely receiving your ballot to make sure that YOUR vote counts. We can’t stress enough how important it is that you’re ready to vote the SAFE way this Election, so make sure you’ve requested your ballot TODAY!”

—Email received by one of one of our yellow-dog Democrat* readers in Tennessee. [But…but…but we thought voting by mail was fraudulent! Trump even said so – at least a thousand times this election season alone. Guess the fraudulent ones would be the ones who vote for Biden.]

*(Harry Truman’s mother coined this term when she once said she’d vote for a yellow dog before she’d vote for a Republican.)

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If some of our Repugnican legislators were not as dumb as a can of hair, they might actually be funny with all their pontificating and posturing.

But the fact is, they’re not funny; they’re just being Trumpian stupid. *

The Repugnicans in the legislature called a special session that convened a week ago to consider restrictions on Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’s actions to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has killed 210,000 Americans.

It’s not enough that their president insists on walking around maskless, taking mini-motorcade trips around Walter Reed Hospital to wave at worshipful admirers with nothing better to do than gather outside the hospital in some kind of love-in vigil in support of a man who ignored every precaution until he, too, was diagnosed with the virus. He has to rub salt in the wounds of those who have lost loved ones to the virus by calling on Americans not to fear the coronavirus.

In case the Repugnican legislators have not noticed, but a map of the U.S. last week showed a majority of states where COVID-19 cases are on the increase. Among those were Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi. Smack in the middle of those states was one where cases were not on the rise: Louisiana.

But that ain’t good enough for the Repugnicans, dagnabbit. They want their freedom – freedom to go maskless into restaurants, LSU and Saints football games, festivals and, of course, Mardi Gras.

Again, in case they’ve forgotten, Louisiana was at one time the singular hot spot in America for the virus. That time was immediately after Mardi Gras, when visitors from all the nation converged on New Orleans and took the virus back to their homes.

Then came the shutdown. Theaters, stores, stadiums, gymnasiums, restaurants and schools were shut down, some for good. People worked and learned from home.

Except for places like Firehouse Bar-B-Que in Livingston Parish and Life Tabernacle Church in nearby Central, both within a few miles of my home, defied orders of closure or attendance restrictions. Other church ministers railed against the refusal of guvmint to allow the faithful to worship Gawd. Idiots like U.S Rep. Clay Higgins, who probably hasn’t set foot in a house of worship for years, maybe decades, took up the cross in the name of religious principle – and evangelical votes.

They want their freedom. I’m waiting for an insurrection by people who don’t want to wear seat belts because, well, it’s their freedom to feel unrestricted. And it’s just a matter of time before public flashers insist that they should not be required to wear pants. I mean, freedom of restriction is what it’s all about, right?

Our Repugnican legislators, supported by Koch Industries, Karl Rove, ALEC, LABI and Grover Norquist, have taken over control of this state beginning in 2008 when Bobby Jindal, working under the guiding hand of Timmy Teepell, turned state government over to the corporate interests.

Sacrificed at the altar of oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, nursing homes, private prisons, banks and payday lenders were public colleges, health care, public education, teachers, and women in particular – and the middle class in general. Massive corporate tax cuts were passed at the expense of the state budget which spiraled into deficit after deficit under Jindal as benefits were cut or eliminated outright – all at the direction of Norquist, who doesn’t even live in Louisiana.

So, with the state continuing to wallow at or near the bottom of every ranking of things good and at the top of all the bad rankings, the Repugnicans, led by the likes of House Speaker Clay Schexnayder (R-Gonzales) and Senate President Page Cortez (R-Lafayette) want to chip away at the one area at which the state has been successful under the leadership and direction of John Bel Edwards – bringing down the infection rate of COVID-19.

Sounding eerily like the idle boasts of Trump when he speaks of “many people” telling him this and that, Rep. Stephen Dwight (R-Lake Charles) sniffs, “There have been a lot of complaints that we don’t know what is coming down, what the plan is.”

Want to know what their plan is? Here it is, as explained by House Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee (R-Houma): “We are on step one of the process. It is wide open right now.”

Wow. Thanks for clearing that up. I certainly feel better now. That’s very much like Trump’s oft-repeated promise that his replacement plan for Obamacare would be revealed “in a couple of weeks.” He first made that promise soon after becoming president in January 2016. We’re still waiting.

Rep. BLAKE MIGUEZ (R-Erath) may have inadvertently provided some keen insight on accountability and transparency as defined Repugnicans when he said the bills being pushed to restrict the governor’s authority drew scant debate because they had already been discussed in private. “We have had a lot of discussions, a lot of meetings of Republicans (he can’t even spell the party’s name correctly) behind the scenes,” he said. “We showed a unified voice out here today that we are going to stick together.”

Well, of course you are. Otherwise, you might get a bad grade from LABI and a bad grade from LABI means fewer corporate campaign contributions, right?

But, hey. That’s government transparency – the gold standard of governmental ethics since January 2008, which just happened to coincide with the beginning of the Jindal era, which, to tell the truth, has never really gone away.

*(Trumpian stupid: unable to think for oneself, willingness, even eagerness, to take cues on behavior, philosophy and leadership from a narcissistic buffoon.)

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