Louisiana Voice

“All great libraries have something that will offend everyone.”

–Seen Friday on a Tee-shirt while shopping in Denham Springs.

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Has anyone else noticed that the Special House Committee to Inquire into the Circumstances and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene hasn’t seemed to be in any particular hurry to move forward with its “investigation” in the past few months?

You’d think that if the committee has completed its work, it would have issued a report of its findings by now. Otherwise, what was the point of its creation unless it was to placate Greene’s family? If it has not finished its investigation, you might expect the committee to expand its probe into claims by a Louisiana State Police (LSP) detective who said he was targeted by superiors after he refused to take part in what he termed a “coverup” of Greene’s death at the hands of state troopers.

It’s been more than three years since Greene’s death, originally attributed to injuries suffered in a minor automobile crash but later revealed by video footage to have been a homicide. Only now do we learn from 3^rd JDC District Attorney John Belton that the case will go before a GRAND JURY by the end of the year.

Belton is district attorney for the parishes of Lincoln and Union. Greene’s death occurred in Union in May 2019.

Greene’s death has attracted almost as much national media attention as the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, almost exactly a year after Greene’s death.

The beating and tasing death of Greene was the latest of a string of incidents involving state police, supposedly Louisiana’s elite law enforcement agency but one that could well be headed towards a federal consent decree if it continues to exhibit an unwillingness to correct its many problems which have included beatings of other black motorists, particularly in northeast Louisiana’s Troop F, an academy cheating scandal, sexual escapades by troopers, and payroll fraud.

That special House committee put its hearings on hold at the end of the 2022 legislative session. Committee member Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge) said the committee planned to meet again but as yet…silence.

Belton was put into something of a legal bind when federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Louisiana’s Western District asked that he wait for the conclusion of their investigation before initiating state charges.

But in the end, federal prosecutors punted and turned over their files to Belton. That’s after LSP stalled and covered up and now after the House special committee is beginning to display reluctance to pursue the matter further.

LSP’s big ANNOUNCEMENT today that it has been accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project would almost seem as a defensive tactic to deflect attention from its multiple missteps over the past several years.

LSU and the Saints should be able to play defense so skillfully.

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In an effort not to sound too much like TFG, aka 45, aka Don of Orange, who is never shy about sending out 20 or so emails per day, every day, Sundays included, begging for money, LouisianaVoice restricts its efforts to just twice a year – April and October. It’s October, so I remind you that we humbly solicit and need your support to do what we do here.

And what we do is to try and shine a light on the fakers, con-men, and political parasites who do not care about your concerns about health care, education, unemployment, inflation, environment, voting rights, women’s rights, and civil rights – but do care a lot about one thing and one thing only: remaining in office.

Incumbents become confortable in their positions and little by little, lose all connections to their constituents. Our job is to make them uncomfortable, if only a little bit. Even the most well-meaning officer holder can become complacent. We try to remind them that their first obligation is to the folks back home, not their reelection campaign.

To do that, we need your help. Please click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post and contribute by credit card or send your check to: Tom Aswell, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

We promise not to become complacent in our mission.

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So, Jeff Landry has made it official: he is an announced candidate for governor in 2023. It was the worst-kept secret in the state and yesterday’s formal announcement just made it official.

And while the gubernatorial race is certain to dominate the news cycle for Louisiana media in the coming months, it’s important to remember that his candidacy will leave a vacancy for what is arguably the second-most-important state office: attorney general.

Enter Liz Murrill.

Landry, as attorney general, had a standing rule that any employee of the AG’s office who run for political office must resign or take unpaid leave.

For Murrill, Landry made an exception a year ago and she filed paperwork to run for attorney general provided her boss didn’t run for reelection.

Murrill is a holdover from the BOBBY JINDAL ADMINISTRATION, working as his Deputy Executive Counsel for 2½ years before being elevated to Executive Counsel. When Christy Nichols was named as Jindal’s commissioner of administration, she brought Murrill over as her executive counsel.

It was in that position that she became embroiled in debate with legislators in 2014 over Jindal’s plan to radically change Office of Group Benefits (OGB) health coverage for state employees and retirees – after Jindal had reduced OGB’s $600 million operating surplus to only a memory.

OGB members testified before the House Appropriations Committee that dramatic increases in co-pays in their health care plans could cause their health benefits to exceed their monthly state pensions.

Murrill, took issue with a legal opinion from Landry’s predecessor, Buddy Caldwell, which insisted that the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) mandated public comment and legislative review before policy changes could be implemented. She insisted that public comment and legislative review were not required.

Murrill, who serves as Landry’s solicitor general, last January ARGUED to the US Supreme Court in opposition to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates – remotely, because at the time she had tested positive for COVID.

Way back in 2009, while in the employ of Jindal, she became involved in a RUNNING DISPUTE with LouisianaVoice over the release of public records related to the LSU Board of Supervisors’ decision to cut health care spending and to privatize state hospitals. Attorney Shelby McKenzie, retained by LSU, said he was advised by Murrill had advised him that the board should invoke the so-called “deliberative process” in order to deny release of the records.

Jindal consistently hid behind the deliberative process as a method to shield the operations of the governor’s office from public scrutiny.

But it’s interesting to note that McKenzie at the time was an attorney with the Baton Rouge firm of Taylor Porter. Another member, a partner, in fact, was John P. Murrill, who served on the firm’s Executive Committee.

He is married to Liz Murrill.

Taylor Porter has dozens of contracts with the State of Louisiana totaling millions of dollars. Contracts with law firms are traditionally issued by the attorney general’s office with the concurrence of the agency to be represented.

Ethically, there is no violation of the AG’s office issuing contracts to the firm. State law prohibits any person holding at least a 25 percent ownership in an entity from doing business with an agency that employs an immediate family member of the vendor. John Murrill does not hole a 25 percent stake in Taylor Porter but perceptions being what they are, the relationship does not have a good look.

If she is elected, she would take a significant PAY CUT. She currently pulls down $223,366 per year, which is about $72,100 more than her boss’s current $151,275 salary. Both make more than the $130,000 Gov. John Bel Edwards makes.

But if she and Landry are both elected to the respective offices they seek, we’re going to have a Republican legislature, a Republican governor, and a Republican attorney general.

Imagine the carnage that combination, working in tandem, could inflict on Louisiana and the rights of its citizenry.

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Don’t forget our fundraiser going on right now. I’m working on a story in which I am making public records requests from officials in every one of Louisiana’s 64 parishes. One parish has already responded that it will cost at least $1,000 to obtain the information.

That’s what we do here at LouisianaVoice. It doesn’t always cost so much, but I’ve never made a request of every parish before.

Bottom line: please help us carry on our mission here. There are people and events out there that affect our every day lives and we try to keep you abreast of developments.

But here’s the deal: If we are forced to fold our tent and give up our pursuit of truth, the bad guys win. We’re already facing the very real threat of people in power stripping away voting rights. The threat of having our libraries closed down is equally real. And it’s not being parinoid to say history may no longer be taught in our schools or that women will have no control over their bodies. The struggle for civil rights could revert back to the 1950s. Look at what’s happening in Florida and Texas. What the governors of those states have done and are doing makes Bobby Jindal look like a political moderate.

To expose such efforts is the reason LouisianaVoice exists. Please click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post and give what you can by credit card. Or send your check to: Tom Aswell, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

I deeply appreciate your support.

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