It’s not at all clear the motive behind or the advantage gained by Jared Caruso-Riecke’s claim that he served as a compliance officer for “multiple regulatory agencies,” including “the Louisiana Public Service Commission,” but it now seems that was a misrepresentation of his professional background.
Caruso-Riecke was appointed to the State Police Commission in June 2016 by Gov. John Bel Edwards.
His Linkedin page says that in 2002, “Mr. Riecke expanded his management roles and business interests by becoming President and CEO of Southeastern Louisiana Water and Sewer Co. (SELA), a private (family held) water and waste water utility serving approximately 64,000 residents in the St Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.”
But then, he went on to say that he “served as compliance official for multiple regulatory agencies including the Louisiana Public Service Commission, among many others.”
But a check with the office of Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell of Elm Grove, who represents all or part of 24 parishes in north Louisiana, indicated no history of employment of Caruso-Riecke by the PSC.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Campbell said it would be “inappropriate” for anyone who owned or operated any utility regulated by the PSC to also work for the agency. “That would be wrong,” he said.
Today, Colby Cook of Campbell’s office wrote in an email to LouisianaVoice, “Commissioner Campbell’s office forwarded your request to the LPSC’s main office in Baton Rouge where such records would be located. After researching your request, no employment records could be located for Jared Caruso-Riecke.”
Caruso-Riecke’s continues to be mentioned as a person of interest in the April 2012 murder of his business partner, Bruce Cucchiara in New Orleans East. He was interviewed once by detectives but has since refused to consent to a second interview.
His company, SELA, held a $2 million life insurance policy on Cucchiara.
I’m sure the anonymous troll who has been texting me will love this but for all those who have attempted to subscribe to my new web blog, injustice4all.net and experienced difficulty, I believe I found the glitch in the system and fixed it.
You should be able to subscribe now. The payment goes into my Paypal account, but you don’t have to have a Paypal account yourself – just your credit card.
We will be be tracking abuses by police, prosecutors and judges. There are websites that are devoted to police, to law enforcement and to judges, but few encompass all three into a single blog and we are looking at national incidents, not just local.
The subscription rate is $5 per month or $50 per year.
Mississippi is the “unluckiest” state in the nation but Louisiana isn’t far behind (or ahead),, according to data comprised by 24/7 Wall Street, which publishes news about economics, technology.
“Luckiest” is a relative term, some aspects of which are not controlled by official policy.
For example, Mississippi has no data pertaining to lottery winnings per adult because the state has no state lottery. But the state does rank third highest in the rate of deaths from accidents per 100,000 population, second highest in traffic fatalities per 100,000 population, 17th highest unemployment rate (6.1%), and second lowest life expectancy at birth (74.6 years).
Louisiana, by comparison, has the nation’s 11th-lowest lottery winnings per adult (an eye-popping $147.02), the 8th-highest rate of deaths from accidents, the 11th-highest rate of traffic fatalities, the 9th-highest unemployment rate (7.1%), and the nation’s 6th-lowest life expectancy at birth (75.6 years).
Alabama has the third-lowest life expectancy (75.1 years) and West Virginia was lowest (74.4 years). New Mexico had the 2nd-highest unemployment rate (8.0%). Wyoming had the highest rate of traffic fatalities in the nation.
Here are the bottom five rankings in each of the areas covered by the data:
Unemployment: Hawaii – highest (8.1%); New Mexico – 2nd highest (8.0%), California – 3rd highest (7.9%); New York – 4th highest (7.8%); Nevada – 5th highest (7.8%);
*Data for lottery winnings for six states were not applicable because they do not have state lotteries. They are: Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah.
Louisiana’s 11th-highest death rate from traffic accidents, the 9th-highest unemployment rate and 6th-lowest life expectancy are issues that have gone unaddressed by the state’s leadership for generations with no evidence that anything was anticipated in the future to improve the statistics, along with obesity, health care, crime, education, and other negative reflections on the state.
Traffic accident death rates, for example, could be improved significantly if the state had better roads and highways. To be frank, they are deplorable.
Unemployment rates aren’t likely to improve unless the state can attract better jobs and that’s not likely to improve unless the state’s crime rate can be reduced, roads improved and steps taken to improve education.
In America, we love to boast that everyone is equal under the law.
The last line of our Pledge of Allegiance even says so.
But is there equal justice for all? All available evidence
provides a resounding “No” as the answer.
Injustice for All will examine the inequities in the manner
in which the scales of justice are tilted in the areas of:
Law Enforcement
Prosecutorial
Judicial
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The foregoing is the blurb for my new web page, Injustice4all.net. This one is a paid subscription and I will be describing abuses by prosecutors (wrongful convictions) the judiciary and law enforcement. Though my initial posts contain stories from Louisiana, I will be monitoring these three on a nationwide basis.
I am a longtime supporter of law enforcement but I see mistreatment of victims by officers, prosecutors and judges often enough to warrant this effort.
I am attempting to keep the costs reasonable at $5 per month or $50 per year.
Type in your web browser: injustice4all.net to check out the first installment.
The revelation that Gov. John Bel Edwards knew that Ronald Greene died as the result of a struggle with State Police rather than in his car’s collision with a tree nine hours after the incident has only served to raise anew questions about an Edwards appointee to the State Police Commission and that appointee’s possible connection to the murder of his business partner nearly 10 years ago.
Edwards received a text from then-State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves some nine hours after Greene’s death in May 2019 informing the governor that Greene had died following a struggle with five State Troopers and a deputy from the Union Parish Sheriff’s Department. No mention was made of an auto accident in the text but State Police soon attributed Greene’s death – falsely – to the auto accident. Body cam video which surfaced long after the event clearly show Greene very much alive as he was being beaten, kicked and tased by officers until his body suddenly went limp.
News of the governor’s knowledge of the cause of death prompted Caitlin Cucchiara Picou, daughter of Bruce Cucchiara, who was murdered in New Orleans East on April 24, 2012, to post a message on Facebook that said, “Could JBE be helping another friend in another murder? Or in the least turning a blind eye?”
Her reference was to Jared Caruso-Riecke who Edwards appointed to the State Police Commission in June 2016. Riecke was a business partner of Cucchiara and held a $2 million life insurance policy on Cucchiara through his company, SECO Group, LLC, at the time he was murdered while ostensibly looking at some investment property in New Orleans.
His killer has never been caught and while Caruso-Riecke did submit to one interview with police, he has refused to cooperate and has refused requests for additional interviews.
Picou notes that Riecke made “a sizeable contribution” to JBE’s reelection campaign. Apparently confusing the date of Riecke’s appointment, she then says that once elected Edwards appointed Riecke to the State Police Commission but she appears to tie the appointment to his reelection, which is inaccurate.
“Daniel Edwards, the (Tangipahoa Parish) sheriff of JBE, sits on the board of American Bank & Trust, owned by the Riecke family,” she wrote on Monday.
In another post on Tuesday, she wrote, “What about the person of interest in an open murder investigation you appointed to the Louisiana State Police Commission? Riecke refuses to talk to investigators in the murder of his business partner.
“This is a pattern.”
A Facebook message last September also noted that the Cucchiara’s estate attorney was a man identified as Rod (Julian) Rodrigue and that Rodrigue also served on the board of directors for SECO which was the beneficiary of the $2 million key may policy.
Bruce Cucchiara had a $2 million dollar insurance policy on him taken out by the business. The beneficiary of this policy was SECO.
Here is a deposition by Jared Riecke stating who was on the Board of Directors of SECO.
Why is this important? The estate attorney for Bruce’s estate was Rod Rodrigue. So, the estate attorney was also on the BOD for the company that was the beneficiary of the $2 million dollar key man policy.
Bruce Cucchiara had a $2 million dollar insurance policy on him taken out by the business. The beneficiary of this policy was SECO.
Here is a deposition by Jared Riecke stating who was on the Board of Directors of SECO.
Why is this important? The estate attorney for Bruce’s estate was Rod Rodrigue. So, the estate attorney was also on the BOD for the company that was the beneficiary of the $2 million dollar key man policy.
I’ll take their word for it that there was no conflict of interest.
“I’ll take their word for it that there was no conflict of interest,” the Facebook post concluded.
It’s not the first time that Caruso-Riecke has been involved in an apparent conflict of interests.
His Linkedin page notes that in 2002, he became president and CEO of Southeastern Louisiana Water & Sewer Co. LLC (SELA), a private, family-owned water and waste water utility serving about 64,000 residents in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.
In that same Linkedin post, he says he served as a compliance official for several regulatory agencies, “including the Louisiana Public Service Commission.”
Public Service Commission member Foster Campbell, reached in his north Louisiana office, said he had never heard of Caruso-Riecke but that running a utility and serving as a compliance official for the PSC would “not be right.”
Louisiana Secretary of State corporate records also show that Caruso-Riecke also served as the registered agent for Savannah Trace Utility from 2006 until 2009.
State law requires that all appointees to boards and commissions file annual financial disclosure reports with the State Ethics Board. The earliest one found on Caruso-Riecke was dated May 30, 2017, only months after his appointment to the State Police Commission.
No records could be found that indicated he ever served as a compliance officer for any agency. It appears he either misrepresented his experience as a compliance official or neglected to file the required financial disclosure forms.
It is known that his water and wastewater company was under stringent EPA sanctions during the time he claimed to be a compliance official for the PSC, which would been a highly unusual situation – unless he had someone in state government providing questionable waivers for him.
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