Louisiana Voice

So, Louisiana State Police (LSP) Superintendent Robert Hodges is angry. Pissed. Irate. Furious.

At me.

Because of a post-op doctor’s appointment today, I was unable to attend the meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission. (The commission is supposed to meet monthly, by the way, but today’s meeting was the first since May. No explanation has ever given why the commission skipped three consecutive meetings.)

Be that as it may, Col. Hodges reportedly had his skivvies in a knot over a recent story by LouisianaVoice about the appointment of a retired state trooper to a WAE (When Actually Employed, or a part-time appointment) position while she was residing in Greece. A subsequent story also revealed that two other WAEs were living in Mississippi and Alabama, respectively.

Hodges went on a tear in attacking bloggers who have never walked a mile in LSP’s boots, bloggers “with nothing better to do than to sit around” and (apparently) take pot shots at those out there trying to do their jobs.

Well, Col. Hodges, you’re certainly entitled to your opinion but let’s look at a few facts:

Without LouisianaVoice’s diligence and persistence, there would have been no story about:

• The attempt by then-Superintendent Mike Edmonson to pad his retirement by about a hundred grand a year via a blatantly illegal legislative amendment by a friendly legislator (State Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia) that actually passed the legislature but which was subsequently overturned following our story.
• The practice of a state trooper to participate in sexual relations in his patrol car while on duty (and even got his vehicle stuck in the mud after one such tryst).
• A state trooper who accompanied an underage (20 years old) woman illegally into a casino in Vicksburg after being told she could dine in the restaurant but could not enter the gaming area of the casino. The trooper, who was fined $500 by the Mississippi Gaming Commission after unsuccessfully getting Mississippi authorities to “work something out” because he was a Louisiana state trooper, was subsequently promoted to commander of Troop F of Monroe.
• That infamous trip in a state vehicle by four state troopers to an event honoring Edmonson in San Diego – with a side trip to the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam. One of the participants in that little road trip later retired and was hired as Baton Rouge Chief of Police. It was after news of that trip was published that Edmonson retired.
• Troop L’s practice (on instructions of its troop commander) to troopers to write as many DWI tickets as possible so that troopers, who reached a certain minimum could get a day off. “It doesn’t matter if they (the motorists) haven’t been drinking – the DA will dismiss the charges but you’ll still get credit for issuing the ticket,” troopers were told.
• The altercation between a state trooper and a New Orleans attorney over the attorney’s inadvertently parking too close to the hunting spot of the trooper and his brother. The attorney filed a complaint that the trooper had threatened him physically.
• The State Troopers Association’s contributing to political campaigns in strict violation of state civil service rules. The executive director of the association subsequently retired following publication of our story.
• And most egregious of all, we might never have known the facts about the killing of Ronald Greene or the beatings of two other Black men by Troop F troopers. At that, it took more than a year for details – and a video that made liars of LSP – to surface. The statement at the time by a retired state trooper that LSP was “circling the wagons” was eerily accurate, stat-at-home bloggers notwithstanding. That same blogger (LouisianaVoice) also just happened to inform readers that a legislative committee formed to investigate Greene’s killing quietly went away without ever doing any real substantial investigative work – just as we had predicted earlier.

I have a couple dozen more such stories about the rot within LSP, the so-called “shining light on the hill” of law enforcement for Louisiana but to try and list any more would just be flogging a dead horse. Besides, the examples I’ve provided give a pretty good insight to how LSP, an out-of-control agency, considered itself above reproach and immune to ethical standards.

So, Col. Hodges, in the words of one of my tough-but-fair former supervisors, you can “get mad or get glad.” I really don’t give a damn.

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It was barely mentioned in passing, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, our very own congressman from Louisiana’s House District 4, played a significant role in that infamous August 26 visit to ARLINGTON NATONAL CEMETERY by Cadet Bone Spurs, aka Mrs. Putin.

That’s the one where Trump staffers roughed up a U.S. Army representative who attempted to enforce a longstanding rule against photography in Section 60 of the cemetery.

Well, it turns out that family members of servicemen buried there had experienced some degree of difficulty in arranging for FAUXTUS to visit the cemetery, according to U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. A spokesperson for McCaul said the families had reached out to McCaul because the cemetery had been giving them “a hard time” about coordinating the ceremony with Spanky McLiarface.

The families claimed that the Army would only allow specific times which did not work into everyone’s schedule.

So naturally, McCaul reached out to the Speaker of the House and Johnson obligingly greased the skids to accommodate everyone, the rules be damned.

But it wasn’t the first time Johnson had stuck his neck out in order to curry favor with Agent Orange.

New York Magazine last March published 27 NOT-FUN FACTS ABOUT SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON. Some of those included the following:

• He masterminded Frump’s election coup;
• He worked for the conservative legal group behind the case that ended Roe v. Wade;
• He wants to ban abortion nationwide and to sentence abortion providers to hard labor;
• In a real stretch, he managed to blame abortion for school shootings, and for Social Security and Medicare cuts;
• He also managed to blame mass shootings on the teaching of evolution;
• He not only subscribes to the creationist theory that the earth is only 6,000 years old, but fought successfully to have the state of Kentucky pony up $18 million to help underwrite construction of the Ark Encounter theme park;
• He fought to ban same-sex marriage in Louisiana, led an anti-gay campus movement, authored several homophobic op-eds, introduced a national version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and that Rome fell in part because it was too gay;
• He once provided legal counsel to Exodus International, which offered counseling services to help young people “convert” from gay to straight;
• Citing queer youth and a lack of church attendance, he described America as “depraved and dark,” and once wrote the foreword to a book filled with homophobic insults – like any compassionate Christian;
• He advocated “covenant marriage,” making it more difficult to obtain a divorce;
• He was appointed dean of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law at Louisiana College in Pineville, saying at the time that it couldn’t fail. It failed. Not a single class was ever held.
• There is no evidence he has a banking account (though, in fairness, his financial affairs could be conducted through a brokerage with home he may have some type of arrangement);
• He blamed post-Katrina looting on America’s turning away from God;
• He supported the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings in defiance of the separation of church and state doctrine;
• He subscribes to Covenant Eyes, a brand of “accountability software” that monitors “inappropriate” computer use, like porn, raising the question of why he feels that is necessary.

Back to that foreword he wrote for Scott McKay’s book, The Revivalist Manifesto, in which Johnson wrote that the book managed “to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing.”

Really?

Let’s take a look at a couple of McKay’s more bizarre articulations:

• Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was part of Jefrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring;
• That the PIZZAGATE and SETH RICH conspiracies are true at least in part, despite both having been proven to be totally bogus;

“I obviously believe in the product (McKay’s book), or I wouldn’t have written the foreword, so I endorse the work,” Johnson said.

Ooookaaaay…

Meanwhile, H.R. 2955, the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, has been introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California). The bill calls for an end to the warehousing and the often accompanying sexual, mental and physical ABUSE OF CHILDREN in residential homes, many of which are run by church-affiliated organizations.

What’s unique about the bill is that it has 113 CO-SPONSORS, including representatives from both Democratic (64) and Republican (49) sides of the aisle.

For whatever reason, only two of Louisiana’s six representatives, Republican Julia Letlow and Democrat Troy Carter have seen the necessity of signing on as co-sponsors.

Where are Clay Higgins, Steve Scalise, Garret Graves and, most of all, that paragon of virtue and family values, Mike Johnson?

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So, now Jeff Landry wants Mike the Tiger present at LSU home football games.

It’s good to know he’s so concerned about monumental issues such as having a mascot attend a football game.

• Never mind the fact that Louisiana’s violent crime rate is 65 percent higher than the national average.

Jeff Landry is insistent that LSU athletic teams be present on the sidelines or courtside for the playing of the National Anthem before games.

• Never mind that Louisiana’s preventable hospital admissions are 27 percent higher than the national average and that 40 percent of our population is considered obese.

Jeff Landry is so concerned about education that he issued an executive order banning all critical race theory (CRT) from public schools – neglecting for the moment that it isn’t even taught, never was taught, below the college graduate level.

• Never mind the fact that Louisiana ranks 48^th in education or that at one time New Orleans had the biggest slave market in the U.S.

Jeff Landry pushed for – and got – a law making the posting of the Ten Commandments mandatory in all public-school classrooms.

• Never mind the fact that Landry could not see the need to feed hungry school children when he can feed them scripture.

Jeff Landry wanted – and got – elimination of a requirement that certain employment requirements be met before a corporate entity could qualify for generous tax exemptions.

• Never mind the fact that Louisiana factories release more than three times (3,134 pounds) the amount of industrial toxins per square mile compared to the national average (937 pounds).

Jeff Landry insisted on – and got – new legislation that made it practically impossible for a wrongfully convicted individual to petition for a new trial.

• Never mind the fact that there are more than 100 persons wrongfully incarcerated for crimes they did not commit who have been exonerated and that state payments and awards from lawsuits by those falsely imprisoned – some for decades – total in the tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. And never mind that Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the civilized world.

Jeff Landry, like so many like-minded Republicans, wants to control women’s bodies.

• Never mind the fact that in Louisiana, a 12-year-old who is impregnated by rape by a relative will be forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

Louisiana ranked No. 21 in healthcare access (but not in healthcare itself), thanks largely to the Medicaid expansion with only 10.3% of the population uninsured compared to the national average of 11.3%.

About one in five Louisianians live in poverty.

The WalletHub study ranked Louisiana 50th among states and the District of Columbia as best places for women, ahead of only Oklahoma.

Last spring Louisiana ranked as the worst state in America for working mothers, with moms coming up shortchanged on everything from pay to childcare.

And last year Louisiana 49th for child well-being.

Utah was ranked as the top state. Texas was No. 29 as Louisiana’s highest-ranking contiguous neighbor, while Mississippi ranked No. 48 and Arkansas No. 47.

The U.S. News report ranked Louisiana 50^th in crime/corrections, 49^th in economy, 47^th in education and fiscal stability, 46^th in healthcare, 49^th in infrastructure and natural environment, and 44^th in opportunity.

But Jeff Landry wants Mike the Tiger present and accounted for at LSU football games.

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You may recall, those of you with no short-term memory issues (a trait that I’m coming more and more familiar with in up-close personal experience), that yesterday’s LouisianaVoice post questioned the necessity of and the reasons for the secrecy of CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSES in lawsuit settlements.

That essay came on the heels of one the longest posts in the 13-year history of LouisianaVoice that suggested that attorney-legislators might be abusing a thing called LEGISLATIVE CONTINUANCES which give them carte blanche in delaying legal proceedings virtually indefinitely.

A legal challenge to the practice is being taken up by the Louisiana State Supreme Court as I write this.

But back to those confidentiality clauses. In yesterday’s post, I theorized that the sole purpose of their inclusion in settlements of litigation was to shield defendants from revealing – and plaintiffs from learning – the value of any similar claims that might be lurking out there in the real workaday world in which the rest of us exist.

That begs the question: If you are seeking damages from someone or some corporate entity who has harmed you, why would you want to protect them from further liability if they’ve done the same thing to others? Why would you shield them with a confidentiality agreement – and most likely, also allow them to skate with a “no admission of guilt”?

Well, that post was barely up when I got a call from an attorney friend who is a regular reader of this blog. He shed additional light on the issue that, should it become common knowledge, might make any plaintiff a little skittish about agreeing to any conditions of confidentiality.

Before I go any further, I should offer this additional bit of advice: The defendant’s attorney isn’t about to reveal the peril of such a deal and your own attorney, unless he is diligent in keeping abreast of the latest legal developments, won’t even know about it.

Anyway, as President Biden might say, here’s the deal.

Go to this link to conduct your own research in the federal case of AMOS v. COMMISSIONER, No. 13391-01 | Casetext Search + Citator. It’s scary.

In case you’re too busy to read the entire case, here’s the gist:

Eugene Amos was employed as a TV cameraman and was covering an NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Chicago Bulls. During the course of the game, Bulls player Dennis Rodman fell into a group of photojournalists that included Amos and twisted his ankle. He then kicked the photographers, striking Amos in that most tender and vulnerable of spots on a man’s anatomy, causing intense pain (ya think?), leaving him limping (I bet) and probably (and I’m guessing here) singing soprano for a while.

Long story short, Amos sued and Rodman settled. The settlement was for $200,000 but at the time of the settlement (1997) a confidentiality clause was agreed to by Amos whereby terms of the settlement were to be kept confidential forevermore.

Well, forevermore turned out to be a little shorter time than anticipated by either side. Turns out that settlements in personal injury cases are tax-exempt. Confidentiality agreements, on the other hand, are considered payments for one’s silence and thus taxable, according to the IRS.

Here’s the applicable bureaucratic language that applies:

Petitioner concedes the determinations in the notice of deficiency (notice) issued to petitioner with respect to 1997 to disallow $6,755 of deductions claimed by petitioner in Schedule A, Itemized Deductions, and $7,178 of deductions claimed by petitioner in Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business. There are other determinations in the notice that are computational in that resolution of the issues relating to such determinations flows automatically from our resolution of the issue addressed herein.

Okay, I don’t understand all that gibberish, either but basically, what the IRS said was that it was impossible to determine how much of the $200,000 was for bodily injury and how much was a payment for Amos’s silence. So, typical of IRS thinking, it treated the entire amount as silence-purchasing and taxed Amos accordingly, to the tune of $61,668. And that’s what this case is all about.

But lawyers are waking up to the dangers of confidentiality provisions in legal settlements. Here are a few links from several different attorneys offering words of warning:

Sorrels.pdf (hbtlj.org)

Confidentiality Provisions – Settlement Law Firm – Orlando Attorneys (specialneedsfirm.com)Daily Journal

Avoiding the confidentiality tax bite: the proceeds of your client’s settlement for physical injury are free from income tax, right? Not necessarily, if the settlement contains a confidentiality provision. Enter into such settlements carefully and be aware of potential tax consequences. – Free Online Library (thefreelibrary.com)

Confidentiality: But At What Cost? – Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP (thompsoncoe.com)

Here’s the best one (or at least the best headline):

Amos v. Commissioner: The Ambiguous and Ever-Changing Definition of What Constitutes a Person Physical Injury under Internal Revenue Code Section 104(A)(2) (umt.edu)

Okay, you’ve been told. There’s an old Latin adage that applies here: Praemonitus, praemunitus (translated: Forewarned is forearmed).

Proceed accordingly.

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