Louisiana Voice

If Northwestern State University President Jimmy Genovese has learned anything—anything at all—it’s to not trust anything Jeff Landry of Alan Seabaugh tell him.

It’s a hard lesson to learn after he gave up a seat as a justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court but hey, hindsight is, as they say, 20/20.

Maybe before he stepped down from the bench to accept the NSU presidency, he should’ve checked with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Piper Hutchinson, writing for THE ILLUMINATOR, had a particularly insightful story about how Genovese saw his vision of a law school for north Louisiana dashed upon the hard rocks of political reality.

In typical journalistic professionalism, for which The Illuminator has become known, the saga of the political ménage à trois of Genovese, Seabaugh and Landry is the classic tale of backstabbing in true Louisiana tradition with the NSU campus serving as an unfortunate backdrop. “Nobody was more responsible for putting him (Genovese) there than me,” Seabaugh said with modesty befitting Donald Trump.

Seabaugh, Hutchinson wrote, is quick to take credit for removing former NSU President Marcus Jones and promoting Genovese as his successor with strong backing from Landry. Jones, meanwhile, was recycled back into the University of Louisiana System offices as executive vice president and chief operating officer under another recycled product, former State Senator and former Grambling State University President Rick Gallot, president of the UL System.

Genovese said Seabaugh “has been made at me from day one” because he refused to fire NSU employees designated by Seabaugh—again in a manner reminiscent of Taco Don’s way of doing business. Seabaugh, for his part, says it is untrue that he asked Genovese to fire employes but did say he warned the incoming president not to take advice from the same people who had Jones’s ear.

The sticking point at this juncture is Genovese’s assurances from both Seabaugh and Landry that NSU would be the home for a new law school for north Louisiana—a promise that hasn’t been fulfilled and probably won’t.

That’s because Landry has cooled on the idea considerably after drawing opposition for a fifth law school in the state (LSU, Southern, Tulane and Loyola, all in the southern part of the state, are the existing four).

“When I came on board there were discussions coming out of the governor’s office regarding a law school, so I just went with the flow,” Hutchinson quoted Genovese as saying.

But Landry, apparently sensitive to opposition to the idea from Senate President Cameron Henry (R-Metairie) and to the message it might send that he was partial to trial lawyers (he has received significant campaign contributions from trial lawyers), has put the project on the back burner.

Meanwhile, though, Genovese provided a copy of a law school proposal he drafted and submitted to the Board of Regents and to the UL System Board of Supervisors—a proposal the full UL System board has yet to see.

It’s probably way past the appropriate time, but perhaps Genovese should’ve consulted with Johnson about the concept of a new law school. The House Speaker probably could’ve given the NSU President an earful.

Johnson, you see, was once the dean of a NON-EXISTENT LAW SCHOOL that never opened its doors to the first student.

A project of Louisiana College, a Baptist college in Pineville (now called Louisiana Christian University), Johnson was hired in 2010 as the “inaugural dean” of the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law.

An initial fundraising gala was held in Houston and was attended by Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jinal and Pressler himself.

But you see, it was already off a bad start with the choosing of the name of the school to honor Pressler, a former Texas judge, legislator, Republican Party power broker and a shaker and mover in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Trouble was, he was also a SEXUAL PREDATOR who was sued by a male employee for sexual abuse. The lawsuit—as well as other suits alleging similar sexual abuse—was eventually settled out of court.

Not the best name to stick on the façade of your proposed law school, which was to have been located in the old federal courthouse building in Shreveport but which never admitted the first student.

The Pressler name was not the only obstacle. Charges of financial impropriety arose and the president of the school was forced out as a result of the infighting.

So now, Genovese, after giving up a plum job as State Supreme Court justice, is now faced with opposition from a legislator and a governor, both of whom helped put him there and now apparently are convinced they can take him out.

That, of course, would mean another appointment as a college head based on political connections rather than real qualifications for the job.

That wouldn’t exactly be a precedent, especially for this governor.

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Remember OUR STORY back in May, the one about Attorney General Liz Murrill’s heavy-handed letter to New Orleans officials in which she threatened them with jail time for their sin of disagreeing with her and her boss, Squeaky Toy Jeff Landry?

In case you don’t recall that, here is A REMINDER from the attorney general’s very own web page.

Taking his cue from Diaper Don, Landry had his own puppet attorney general fire off a letter—and even posting it for all to see—in which Mayor Helena Moreno, the entire city council and District Attorney Jason Williams WERE THREATENED under something called the state’s “usurper statutes” for their continued support of Calvin Duncan who had won an election for criminal clerk of court for Orleans Parish.

While the Lord of Mar-a-Lardo seems to be able to get away with seemingly illegal directives of what he obviously thinks is his personal Department of Justice to go after perceived enemies, Landry and Murrill may have overstepped their authority to arrest and/or remove from office those officials who might take issue with their political opinions.

Justice, it seems, can work both ways, meaning Murrill her own self is not immune from investigation.

Accordingly, an Orleans Parish criminal grand jury is conducting its own investigation of the attorney general to determine if she may have committed a crime in her messages to the seven officials. The grand jury itself initiated the investigation.

Williams, for obvious reasons, recused himself. Former criminal court judge Laurie White was named to lead the probe and that a special prosecutor was appointed in an unusual move.

Witnesses, including some members of the city council, have already begun testifying.

While Murrill claimed the mayor and council “usurped” Napoleon’s authority by citing a statute that makes it a misdemeanor to assume office without authority or to interfere with a public official, Moreno responded by alluding to a different law against intimidation and retaliation in an effort to attempt to influence decisions or to change a position. (By way of explanation for those who might not know, Louisiana’s laws are based on the Napoleonic Code whereas the remaining 49 states operate under English Common Law.)

It’s an interesting pissing contest, to say the very least, and it puts on public display Landry’s disdain for all things New Orleans, a decidedly blue pocket in Louisiana’s sea of red.

In all likelihood, the grand jury’s investigation will not produce any indictments but at the very least, the probe should send a message to Baton Rouge that some citizens still refuse to be bullied and that all officials, state or local, are subject to the same set of laws that protect citizens’ rights despite the temporary dominance of Repugnantcans who seem to forget that the political pendulum does indeed swing both ways.

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