Louisiana Voice

“[I]s there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit or the Earth’s orbit around the sun? Obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate.”

—U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), in a question put to Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service, during a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Tuesday. (They walk among us.)

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Speculation has begun on Paul Mainieri’s successor as head baseball coach at LSU with The Baton Rouge Advocate’s report today that former Oregon State University Coach Pat Casey was interested in the position.

I’ve never met the 62-year-old Casey but I feel hiring him could be problematic from a public relations standpoint for LSU.

LSU is in the throes of an investigation of systemic sexual harassment in its athletic program, from former head football coach Les Miles and claims of individual players assaulting and even beating women. With the investigations and lawsuits over various claims swirling, hiring Casey might raise a few eyebrows.

He was coach of Oregon State 24 years, compiling a 900-458-6 record that included six College World Series appearances and three national championships (2006, 2007 and 2018). He was named national coach of the year five times.

But his tenure also included its own controversy in the manner in which he handled the admission by pitcher Luke Heimlich that he had molested his six-year-old niece when he was 15.

When world of his guilty plea surfaced in 2018, he withdrew from the Beavers’ CWS roster but vehemently denied the accusation to Sports Illustrated, saying that he “accepted a plea deal only to avoid a trial and jail time and to keep his schooling and baseball on track.”

If you know anything about police intimidation and overly aggressive prosecutors, you also know his claim is believable.

Without speculating on his guilt or innocence, it’s common for police, whenever a suspect fails to invoke his privilege to remain silent or to ask for an attorney, to browbeat the suspect into a confession just to end the barrage of accusations and questions. There are many documented cases of innocent people admitting guilt after hours upon hours of grilling just so they can sleep or go to the bathroom.

I know there are those who insist they would never admit to a crime they didn’t commit, but until you’re subjected to that kind of treatment, you really don’t know how strong or weak your resolve would be until you actually find yourself in that situation.

It’s also common for prosecutors to rely on jailhouse snitches and to threaten arrestees with humiliating trials and long sentences unless they plea to a lesser charge. Those kinds of deals are often accepted just to end the ordeal – even if the suspect is totally innocent. Moreover, there are documented cases where innocent persons are convicted and have served long sentences before exculpatory evidence surfaces that clears their names.

Even then, some are threatened with a new trial unless they plea to a lesser charge in order to get released for time already served. That’s an underhanded way for prosecutors to avoid legal action: if there is a guilty plea, even to a lesser charge, it’s hard to win a lawsuit against police or prosecutors.

That’s a lot of verbiage to get to the point that LSU could be buying a lot of bad PR if Casey is hired.

There are some other viable candidates for the job, though they have yet to express any interest in the position, But it’s a sure bet they’d be tempted by a huge increase in salary from what they’re presently being paid.

There’s Lane Burroughs up at Louisiana where the Bulldogs just compiled a 42-20 record and came within one win of advanced to a super-regional playoff against number one Arkansas. From a personal standpoint, I would not like that. Tech is my Alma Mater and I’d just as soon see Burroughs continue to develop my favorite sport in Ruston.

And then there is Jeff Willis.

Who?

Exactly. Willis has seemingly labored in obscurity as athletic director and head baseball coach at LSU-Eunice. He is fresh from leading the Bengals to an astonishing 51-7 record and the school’s seventh junior college national championship. That’s two more championships than LSU won under the legendary Skip Bertman.

Yes, I know junior college is not the Southeast Conference. No one would ever venture such a claim. But still, he assembled the players (three All-Americans on this year’s team), coached them and won against his peers.

And no one knows the difference between coaching a small program and one like LSU better than Smoke Laval who succeeded Bertman when he came in from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Even though he took the Tigers to the CWS, he never seemed like the proper fit and was eventually sent packing in favor or Manieri.

Still, it would be nice to see LSU name a proven local talent for the job.

Meanwhile, the 2021 version of Manieri Tigers are still very much alive in their quest to punch another ticket to Omaha.

Go Tigers!

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I first began writing about problems throughout the Louisiana State Police (LSP) in July 2014 when it was first revealed that then-LSP Superintendent Mike Edmonson had helped engineer a covert amendment to a legislative bill that would have illegally given him a huge boost in his retirement income.

Thanks to efforts by then-Sen. Dan Claitor and a knot of retired state troopers, the amendment, authored by Sen. Neil Riser and initially slipped through with no opposition, was quickly overturned.

Over the next three years, I wrote more than 175 stories about LSP, the Louisiana State Troopers Association and the State Police Commission, all of them casting the leadership at State Police in a negative light – negative because of gross mismanagement from the top down.

When John Bel Edwards was elected governor, I emailed him to ask his intentions regarding his appointment of a State Police superintendent. He emailed me back to say, “I have no intentions.”

That was less than truthful. Edwards had been supported in his gubernatorial run by the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and the association in turn lobbied for the reappointment of Edmonson, first elevated to the position in 2008 by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Edwards, his mind already made up, obliged the sheriffs’ association by reappointing Edmonson even though 18 months earlier, in July 2014, he expressed outrage over the amendment that would’ve enriched Edmonson in retirement once he learned, along with other legislators, of the amendment’s real intent.

Why did the sheriffs’ association want Edmonson reappointed? Well, if you examine the number of sheriffs’ sons, other relatives and political cronies who have received appointments to the State Police Academy, the answer is pretty easy to understand. Law enforcement is a tightknit fraternity as witnessed by Murphy Paul’s smooth transition to BATON ROUGE POLICE CHIEF  following his retirement from State Police.

Apparently, his participation in that drive to San Diego via the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas did little to damage his career advancement plans even though that trip served as the crowning blow that forced EDMONSON OUT.

Once Edmonson stepped down, it was assumed the problems at LSP, after three years of intense media coverage, might finally be over.

It turns out, however, that far more serious problems were just beginning to surface in an organization where some state troopers continued to go rogue.

And a legitimate question was soon to be asked publicly by the state’s leading newspaper, The Baton Rouge Advocate: “How much dd Gov. John Bel Edwards know?”

The question was posed by the newspaper regarding the fatal arrest of Ronald Greene in Monroe nearly a year before the much-written about death of George Floyd.

Yesterday, Mike Noel resigned rather than subject himself to an anticipated grilling by state senators in his confirmation hearing as chairman of the State Gaming Commission over his role in the coverup of the beating death of Greene in May of 2019 – a time when Noel was serving as Chief of Staff to State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves. Reeves had retired earlier in the buildup to the Greene case.

The same month of Greene’s death (May 2019), State Trooper Jacob Brown, who is white, was videotaped striking Aaron Bowman, who is black, 18 times within a 24-second span with the officer’s reinforced steel tactical flashlight even though Bowman was not resisting.

Brown, who then falsified his report of the incident, subsequently resigned following his arrest three months later.

It took considerably longer for the investigation to take place over the beating death of Greene. Fifteen months, in fact.

Meanwhile, yet another black man, Antonio Harris, was beaten by state police a year after Greene’s death.

All three incidents occurred in May and all three happened in Troop F, headquartered in Monroe and manned by a predominately white force.

Jacob Brown participated in the Bowman and Harris beatings and Dakota DeMoss was in on the Harris and Greene incidents.

On Wednesday, it was announced that DeMoss and George Harper, who was also involved in the Harris beating, were fired last week.

In all three cases, the victims had foolishly attempted to flee when officers tried to pull them over but each had not resisted officers when finally apprehended.

The Greene death has understandably received the most media attention even though lawsuits have been filed in all three matters. That’s because it was the only case where the victim died.

It is also the one that took the longest time – 15 months – for an investigation and then only as a result of intense media attention.

State police possessed video of the Greene arrest and death but steadfastly refused to release it to the public. Edwards initially supported the refusal to release the video but when it was leaked, LSP finally released the video and Edwards’ tone changed:

“Today, Louisiana State Police released all of the video footage in its possession from the arrest of Ronald Greene, a move which I strongly support,” he said. “This was done in consultation with both the U.S. Attorney’s office and District Attorney John Belton in Union Parish. As I’ve said before, I found the full video of Mr. Greene’s arrest, which I reviewed last year, to be disturbing and difficult to watch.”

In that May 21 statement, Edwards acknowledged that he had first viewed the video on Oct. 14, 2020. Yet DeMoss and Harper weren’t TERMINATED from their positions until last week, more than two years after Greene’s death and 13 months after the Harris beating.

And now, because of the administration’s foot-dragging in these cases, the feds are involved. They should be. LSP is also conducting its own INTERNAL INVESTIGATION into whether or not troopers are targeting black motorists for abuse.

So, yes, it’s a legitimate question to ask what Gov. Edwards knew and when he knew it.

And it’s also worth noting that it’s far past time he jerked a half-hitch in the upper command at LSP headquarters.

For too long, state troopers have been allowed to have sex in their patrol vehicles, take underage women to casinos, funnel money through the troopers’ association to political candidates in apparent violation of civil service regulations, encouraged to make DWI arrests whether or not motorists were drinking, allowed to perform private work while on duty and other transgressions – all while the administration looked the other way.

In short, when Mike Edmonson left, the problems did not leave LSP with him. It’s an agency that has been allowed to run amok.

It’s past time to rein LSP in, the sheriffs’ association notwithstanding.

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LouisianaVoice has learned that Col. Mike Noel has stepped down as chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board barely a year after his appointment by Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Noel officially retired from his job rather than face hostile questioning during a confirmation session that was scheduled for today, sources told LouisianaVoice.

He was appointed by Edwards after State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson blocked the reappointment of longtime chairman Ronnie Jones last year. Jones, now retired, is in the process of moving to Virginia.

An obscure provision allows a legislator who resides in the same district of a nominee to block the appointment and Peterson, in a power play did just that last year when Edwards nominated Jones for another term as chairman.

Edwards then NAMED NOEL, who had been serving as chief of staff to then-Col. KEVIN REEVES who in turn, had succeeded the controversial Mike Edmonson who previously was head of the Louisiana State Police (LSP) since 2008 but who was forced into retirement in 2016.

Noel was chief of staff at the time of the death of Monroe motorist RONALD GREENE in May 2019 at the hands of state police.

State police at the time said Greene died when he left the road and hit a tree while being fleeing state police. That turned out to be a lie as body cam video, kept from public view for nearly two years, has since shown. The truth was that Greene was not resisting and was handcuffed. LSP, meanwhile, REFUSED TO RELEASE INFORMATION pertaining to its so-called investigation which did not seem to kick into high gear until media interest forced LSP action.

Suspicions were first aroused when Greene’s autopsy was performed in Arkansas rather than Louisiana, along with the fact that no disciplinary action was taken against troopers for 15 months – and then only one officer was placed on leave. He was later terminated and subsequently died from injuries suffered in an auto accident that was a suspected suicide attempt.

Noel, as chief of staff, would necessarily have been neck-deep in the controversy, including efforts by LSP to smooth over the incident – if the death of an unarmed, non-resisting motorist at the hands of about a half-dozen law enforcement officers can be justifiably described as an “incident.” Greene’s only crime – and it was a puzzling, ill-advised one at that – was attempting to flee police when he had no alcohol or drugs in his system.

LouisianaVoice learned that Noel knew he was going to be grilled by hostile legislators at today’s Senate confirmation hearings so, rather than subject himself to such intense questioning, he chose to step down.

There has been no word from the governor’s office on a possible nominee to replace Noel.

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If we’re lucky, we get to encounter someone who leaves a lifelong impression on us and who challenges us to become person we aspire to be, both professionally and personally. Whether we care to admit it or not, we all need that special someone to help us navigate the treacherous roads we travel throughout our lives, to dare us, to goad us, to drive us. That person, if we are fortunate enough to live in his or her shadow, will continue to influence our decisions and actions long after we have parted ways.

Such a man was Troy Thomas Kelly, aka Tom Kelly, longtime publisher of the Ruston Daily Leader where I began my career in journalism 55 years ago with no small amount of trepidation and doubt.

It was 1966 and Southern Bell Telephone Co. was just as tired of me as I was of climbing telephone poles in the hot summers and cold winters of north Louisiana. I saw an ad in The Leader that said they were looking for an advertising salesman. I walked in off the street and applied for the position – and got it. The starting pay was $65 a week, a five-dollar-a-week cut from what I was making climbing telephone poles.

What a mistake. For Tom Kelly, it was a colossal case of poor judgment. It took him about a nano-second to realize I was not born to sell. The obvious solution was for him to either fire me or find something else around the office I could do – like cleaning toilets. I’d been writing a sports column as the only real contribution I ever made as an ad rep, so he figured “What the hell” and “promoted” me to sports editor.

To make a long, boring story a little shorter, I worked for Tom on four different occasions. Each time he asked me to return, it was at a little higher position until in 1976, he brought me back a last time – as managing editor.

Things would go sour with The Leader’s absentee ownership in Panama City, Florida, and first I left and then Tom. He eventually ended up back where he started his journalism odyssey: Winnfield, where he published the monthly Piney Woods Journal, a delightful publication geared toward the timber industry but with an eye and ear to Louisiana politics.

I was retired and writing this political blog, occasionally contributing stories for Tom’s publication until he sold the paper a few of years back to the Natchitoches Times and retired.

I sent him the following message upon learning of his retirement:

Tom, this truly saddens me on so many levels. Obviously, I share your sentiments about the death throes of news publications and I, too, place much of the blame on the Gannet and Facebook mentality. It’s an industry that I literally grew up in—as a man and as a journalist. But more than that, you and I have a connection that goes back more than 50 years and nothing can ever replace that. You took me under your wing and taught me about journalism. How you managed to have enough patience to do that I will never know, but know this: I will be forever grateful for that education and your tutorship and guidance. You are one of only a handful of people whom I admire and look up to and you will always be an inspiration and a source of encouragement to me. At the risk of sounding too maudlin, your announcement makes me feel as though I’ve lost something very personal—and I have.

Take care, my friend.

az

This was his response:

My greatest pride in the personal achievements in this profession that we follow are not in the words I write, but in the people I have been fortunate enough to bring in and help to grow as practitioners of our craft. Bill Davis. Eric Mahaffey. Nick Drewry. Jerry Pye. Derwood Brett. Buddy Davis. David Widener. David Specht. Several whose names have slipped my mind. And a brash, talented, industrious achiever of the writing arts named Tom Aswell. We called him Az. If I have left anything behind, it is in the talents of those who carry on even now. They all made me look better than I could have been alone.  Several of a new generation joined up as contributors for this latest enterprise, which has provided me a new level of satisfaction. 

Keep the faith. 

TK 

Two years ago, he was honored by the Louisiana Press Association for 50 years of service to the newspaper industry. I was fortunate enough to attend along with another former employee who was also nurtured and taught so much by Tom: Jerry Pye who started out at The Leader as a carrier and ended up as publisher of his own newspaper.

Tom was 88 when he received that honor from the LPA. He was 90 when he died last Saturday and a part of his protégées like Jerry Pye, Derwood Brett, David Widener, Eric Mahaffey and me died with him.

It’s getting more and more difficult to write these stories as more and more of the people I love and cherish pass on and leave me to contemplate life’s cruel twists and turns.

To be sure, Tom and I had our disagreements. Anyone who works that closely together and who has ideas of their own will have differences. But there’s one thing Tom Kelly taught me about local journalism I will never forget. He drilled it into my head that there are three major events in a person’s life: when they are born, when they marry and when they die. Those are the stories you’d better not mess up.

He was demanding, a perfectionist, and he was driven. He could be hard to please but when I came across a really controversial story that involved money laundering, he backed me to the hilt even in the face of threatened lawsuits that in the end, never materialized.

One year he gave me the assignment of gathering graduation photos of seniors from high schools in Lincoln and Union parishes. I took them to my then-fiancée’s home to sort them out, placed them in a box and placed the box on the roof of my car as I told her goodnight. You know what happened next and when the photos were published, we had students from the dozen or so classes scattered randomly – and incorrectly – throughout all the schools. It was an awful mess and Tom should’ve fired me on the spot. But he didn’t; he just threw up his arms in pure disgust at my stupidity and stomped back to his office and slammed the door. I think I’d have felt better if he had fired me.

But he had a sense of humor, too. For New Year’s Day 1977, Tom Kelly sent out special invitations to the inaugural All-American Redneck Male Chauvinist Spittin’, Belchin’, and Cussin’ Society and Literary Club’s All-Day Poker Game and Dinner on the Grounds.

There were few rules but some of the most important ones:

• Lots of music by Willie, Waylon, and Hank Williams;
• No guns, knives, or other sharp objects allowed at the poker table;
• The only hand to beat a Royal Flush was a real good redneck bluff;
• Wimmenfolk was invited to do the cookin’ and bridge playin’, but they was forbidden to come into the poker room, sigh heavy, roll they eyes or say it was time to go.

As it turned out, the women and Dr. Rudolph Fieler, a retired Tech professor who was then writing editorials for The Leader that were filled with such prose that the average person never knew what the hell he was saying, played bridge while we menfolk were playing draw and stud poker (Texas Hold ‘em had not been popularized as yet). Doc Fieler, taking a break from his bridge game, stopped by our table and Tom offered him his seat at the table. Doc declined, saying he knew nothing about poker.

Seeing a sucker ripe for the taking, the rest of us eagerly volunteered to teach him as we played, assuring him that we’d tell him when he won. Of course, you know the story: Doc Fielder literally cleaned us out, walking away with our combined wealth of some $17.85.

My point is, you can’t buy those kinds of memories. Tom Kelly was more than a boss. He was an extension of my family, a father figure to me, a talentless kid who desperately needed a strong guiding hand as I embarked on what turned out to be my life’s work.

I’ve worked with some talented newspaper editors: Wiley Hilburn, Jimmy Hatten, Jim Hughes, and Tom Kelly. And while Tom Kelly and he were professional foes, John Hays has to be included in that group of outstanding editors, for he was a helluva investigative reporter in his own right.

And now they’re all gone and again, I feel I’ve lost something very personal – and I have. What you leave behind, Tom, is a legacy that no journalism class could ever hope to teach. You taught integrity, dedication, and a love for the written word to dozens of fortunate reporters, editors and interns who had the good fortune to walk through the door of the Ruston Daily Leader. I was one of those and I will be forever richer for the experience.

Below is a poem I wrote when Hilburn died in 2014. I believe it is just as relevant today as it was seven years ago:

THE COFFINS THAT PASS ME BY

As I pass from middle age to my golden years,

And contemplate how time can fly,

It’s not the setting sun that brings the tears,

But the coffins that pass me by.

Whether ’twas friend or foe matters not a flip,

For one and all, life’s wells run dry;

And it’s not that I fear making that trip,

It’s those coffins that pass me by.

Friends and loved ones will pay their respects

As they share stories and laugh and cry;

And each one standing there quietly reflects

On the coffins that pass us by.

Whether ’tis loved one or stranger who goes first,

Our own fate is to one day ride

On that dreaded journey we all have cursed

In that coffin that once passed us by.

Go in peace, my friend.

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