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Former State Trooper Jimmy Rogers, who resigned ahead of probe, changes mind, asks that he be disciplined, reinstated

Posted in Corruption, Crime, Ethics, Public Records, State Police on December 23, 2017| 17 Comments »

Former Trooper Jimmy Rogers is ready to don the uniform of a Louisiana State Trooper again.

This is the same Trooper who worked LACE while serving a suspension in violation of state police policy.

His friend and commander, Capt. Chris Guillory, allowed him to work LACE while serving a 240-hour suspension. Rogers was suspended for threatening people and using state police resources for personal use such as criminal background checks on persons he was threatening. Sources tell LouisianaVoice the threats were issued to the boyfriend of a woman he was having an affair with and impregnated.

Rogers was the target of an investigation of charges that he used his state police position to influence criminal charges against Dwight Gerst. Internal Affairs investigators obtained a statement showing Rogers getting a witness to go along with him which in turn resulted in criminal charges against Gerst.

Rogers was cleared in that investigation. Gerst was acquitted of the unwarranted criminal charges. Gerst currently has a lawsuit for civil damages pending against Rogers.

LouisianaVoice previously reported former Trooper Jimmy Rogers was suspected of claiming LACE hours which he did not actually work. In the midst of the investigation, he suddenly resigned. LSP repeatedly denied our requests for the investigation file leading up to his resignation claiming they are not subject release because Rogers was not punished.

LouisianaVoice received information that Rogers has requested to return to LSP on March 7 of this year. Several Troopers are concerned that he might be rehired. Under former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson, this was a legitimate concern. We find it highly unlikely that he would be hired under Col. Reeves. We made a public records request for the email sent by former Trooper Rogers. Here is the email:

Captain Broussard

Rogers, Jimmy <JimmyARogers@cbi.com>

Tuesday, March 07,2017 2:07PM

 Benny Broussard

I’m not sure if you remember me. I left Troop D just before you were brought on as the Captain. As you know we were the subject of intense press and investigations. I resigned in good standing due to all of the pressure involved and the job opportunity that was presented to me. Lately, I have been rethinking that decision. Being a Louisiana State Trooper was my life and I did it to the best of my ability every day. I was clear of every claim except altering times on tickets. I am guilty of writing times on tickets later than the stop actually was. I would like the opportunity to finish the investigation with IA over LACE discrepancies and serve whatever penalty comes my way. I will always be LSP to my core and I miss the job to the point of coming to you for mercy. If this is even possible. Could you direct me appropriately!

(Check on images to enlarge for easier reading):


Check out the privacy notice at the bottom of that email. Rogers sent the message from his work computer. He went begging for his old job at 2:07 p.m., while on duty at his current job. His employer, Chicago Brick and Iron, should really appreciate that.

Broussard responded tactfully to Rogers, telling him he was directing his request “up the chain of command.”

Broussard forwarded the request to Region 2 Commander Maj. Becket Breaux, also on March 7:

From Breaux, the email from Rogers went up the line to LSP headquarters in Baton Rouge:

…And finally, to former LSP Chief of Staff Charlie Dupuy:

That, apparently, is where the matter rests. There were no other communications provided to LouisianaVoice by LSP.

But for the moment, let us focus for a moment on this statement: “I am guilty of writing times on tickets later than the stop actually was.”

Criminal investigators call this a confession. It is a usable confession made voluntarily and not subject to any Miranda limitations. The email sent to Troop D Commander Capt. Benny Broussard asking for his job back suggests he committed the following crimes.

14:138 Public payroll fraud (felony)

14:133 Filing or maintaining false public records (felony)

14:134 Malfeasance in office (felony)

Our sources say that Rogers’ dash camera footage, witnesses, citations, radio logs, and time sheets will further prove he was abusing the LACE program. We have attempted to get this information but were denied. We have reissued our public records requests to the new LSP administration in hopes of compliance with the law or a valid denial based on the records are now part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

LSP has the same information on Rogers as was discovered by Lee Zurik in the investigation of other troopers. Zurik’s information has resulted in criminal investigations. The only difference is when LSP finds it, they have covered it up. It is time for LSP to do the right thing for the citizens of Calcasieu Parish who paid for services that were not provided.

Troopers should not be afforded the opportunity to resign for the purpose of stopping a criminal investigation. LSP does not offer this option to other agencies or individuals. It is time for LSP to do the right thing on their own and stop making the media do their investigations for them.

Better yet, comply with Rogers’ request and complete the investigation.

 

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‘Six degrees of Louisiana Politics’ lands Doughty nomination for a federal judgeship, support from political establishment

Posted in Corruption, Courts, Ethics, Judges, Lawsuits, Politicians, Senate, Transparency on December 21, 2017| 11 Comments »

U.S. Sen. John Neely Kennedy had his 15 minutes late last week with his pointed questioning of federal court nominee Matthew Spencer Peterson. Well, actually, it was only five minutes because that’s how long senators are given to pose their questions to nominees during the confirmation process.

Be that as it may, Kennedy may yet end up with egg on his face over his support of a state court judge for his nomination to seat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and 5th District U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham may also be a little red-faced before this is finished.

By the time you read this, 5th Judicial District Court Judge Terry Doughty may already be confirmed for a lifetime position on the federal bench. That’s lifetime, as in once done, he’ll be there like he was affixed with Gorilla Glue.

And, to put it as gently as possible, Doughty may be almost is unqualified for such an important post (did I mention it was a lifetime position?) as the esteemed Federal Elections Commission Chairman Peterson, who, it turned out, fell on his face in answering the most basic of legal questions from Kennedy and subsequently was withdrawn for consideration by the Trump administration.

There are a multitude of reasons why Doughty should never have been nominated. Some of those reasons have to do with his legal skills, which are mediocre at best. Other factors involve some of his associates and some of the reason even goes back to a sweetheart deal the Jindal administration cooked up on behalf of a state vendor which in turn benefited the son of a former state legislator who just happened to be a Jindal supporter.

Doughty obtained his bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech in Ruston and his J.D. from LSU Law School. He has served as judge of the 5th JDC, which includes the parishes of Franklin, Richland, and West Carroll, since 2009. Prior to that, he practiced at the Rayville firm of Cotton, Bolton, Hoychick & Doughty.

Louisiana’s Western District Court, to which he has been nominated, includes courtrooms in Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Monroe and Shreveport.

Abraham lobbied for Doughty but that support may have been rooted in litigation scheduled before Doughty in which a bank where Abraham’s son-in-law serves as a member of the bank’s board is being sued over the alleged breach of a crop loan agreement.

Cassidy and Kennedy AGREED with the nomination. Cassidy called Doughty “eminently qualified” in addressing members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in November. He said Doughty “will serve the United States District Court well. I recommend Judge Doughty to this committee without reservation.”

Kennedy said Doughty is “known in my state as a person with great intellect, good judgment, and fair. I recommend him unconditionally and unequivocally.”

That kind of unrestrained effusion has a way of coming back to bite you in the posterior.

So, let’s take a closer look at that lawsuit and Doughty’s “good judgment.”

In the matter of KT Farms of Waterproof filed suit against Citizens Progressive Bank of Columbia, claiming that the bank breached a crop loan agreement involving about $5 million. Also participating in the loan were Progressive’s parent company, Caldwell Bank & Trust and Commercial Capital Bank of Delhi.

KT Farms attorney Sedric Banks attempted to recuse Doughty as he had successfully done in another case in Richland Parish on the basis of Doughty’s business and personal relationships with a defendant in that case as well as with the defendant’s wife.

Banks also pointed out that Abraham’s son-in-law, Dustin Morris, is a member of the Citizens Progressive board and Abraham, who was pushing Doughty for the judgeship, is a minority shareholder in Commercial Capital Bank’s parent company. Moreover, through his recent marriage, Banks said, Doughty also has a family connection to Morris.

In an added wrinkle, Banks noted that the focus of the KT Farms lawsuit shifted in February when Doughty revealed his relationship with Delhi tax preparer David Stephens and his wife Michelle. David Stephens, it turns out, works for Delhi CPA Larry Pickett who just happens to be chairman of the Commercial Capital Bank board of directors.

The motion to recuse Doughty was heard by Doughty’s fellow 5th JDC Judge Stephens who signed the written reasons for denying Banks’ request. Those written reasons were penned by….Doughty.

Stephens, in his May 24 denial, attempted a little courtroom humor, making references to actor Kevin Bacon and the TV show Star Trek.

“Frankly, counsel’s connection sounds more like that old parlor game, ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” Stephens said, perhaps pausing for the drummer’s rim shot. “Allegedly, Terry A. Doughty married Jan Toms (allegedly?), who was formerly married to Johnny Morris, now deceased. Johnny Morris had a cousin on his father’s side, namely Todd Morris. Todd had a son named Dustin Morris, a new board member of defendant Citizens Progressive Bank, who married Ashley Abraham, daughter of Ralph and Diane Abraham. Ralph and Diane bought stock on Commercial Capital Bank, a defendant in this lawsuit.

“And there you have it.  Six Degress of Terry Doughty.

“…As First Officer Spock would say, ‘It is totally illogical.’”

Stephens’ rapier wit notwithstanding, the Louisiana Supreme Court in November reversed Stephens—and Doughty’s carefully written reasons for judgment—and REMOVED the case from the 5th JDC and appointed retired judge Anne Lennan Simon of New Iberia ad hoc judge to preside over the KT lawsuit.

Doughty and Stephens naturally retaliated by filing complaints against Banks with the Office of Disciplinary Council, requesting that Banks be suspended from the practice of law. So much for impartial judicial discretion. It says a little about class, too.

The Supreme Court, in making the Simon appointment, admonished both sides, but pointedly said that judges “should act with restraint and decorum in order to avoid creating an appearance of impropriety.”

The Second Circuit Court of Appeal had upheld Stephens, who was elected to that same Second Circuit in October. He defeated 4th JDC Judge Sharon Marchman, who in May 2016, filed a LAWSUIT against her fellow judges over what Marchman termed their alleged covering for a court clerk whose job attendance was brought into question by Marchman.

And when Stephens was inaugurated last month, who do you think administered the oath of office to him? None other than his old pal, Terry Doughty, that’s who. You have to admit, in these small rural parishes, it seems you bump into close associates—and adversaries—every time you turn around.

Oh, hell, you don’t have to travel to the remote parts of the state to encounter old friends who are more than happy to do you a favor—provided it also benefits them in the process. The tentacles of Baton Rouge politics extend throughout the state, touching virtually everyone’s life.

There is, it seems, something to that six degrees of separation theory, after all.

LouisianaVoice will have more about the common thread that creates the six degrees of Louisiana politics and how the same old familiar names keep popping up. And sometimes, when you peek through that keyhole, you can see how these backroom deals work to the distinct advantage of the privileged few.

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Edmonson predictably tries to spin LSP audit release as Gov. Edwards, like Lady Macbeth, tries in vain to remove the spot

Posted in Audit Reports, Auditor, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, Media, Public Records, State Police, Transparency on December 14, 2017| 16 Comments »

Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera has released the investigative audit of Louisiana State Police (LSP) pursuant to receiving an undated letter from former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson in which Edmonson said he felt “constrained” to notify Purpera to release the audit to the State Senate.

At the same time, Edmonson said he would submit his official response to the audit’s “various contentions” by Jan. 15, 2018.

Edmonson, in his rambling, grammar mistake-laden letter, continued to cling to the claim that the audit was released prematurely by Purpera’s office.

Simultaneous to the release of the audit, Gov. John Bel Edwards released a curious two-paragraph statement of his own concerning the findings of the audit report. In his statement, Edwards managed to avoid mentioning Edmonson by name, referring to him instead as LSP’s “previous leader.”

“I have welcomed this investigation from the beginning and instructed the Louisiana State Police to fully cooperate,” Edwards said. “The Legislative Auditor’s report uncovered some troubling findings and serious problems with past abuses of power from its previous leader who left his post in March. I believe that public servants must always hold themselves to the highest ethical standards,” the governor said. “That being said, our men and women of the State Police are honorable public servants who do a tremendous job protecting the citizens of Louisiana, often under very dangerous circumstances. Through the leadership of Col. Kevin Reeves (Edmonson’s successor), who took the helm of this department in March of this year, the department has already taken significant steps to restore public trust and accountability. Col. Reeves is one of the finest individuals I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and I am confident that he is already leading the State Police in a new, positive direction.”

Well, Gov. Edwards, I’m sorry, but you don’t get off that easily.

You have been governor now just a couple of weeks shy of two years. I have been writing about Mike Edmonson since June 2014, beginning with that bill amendment sneaked into the legislature on the last day of the 2014 session which would have given Edmonson an illegal boost to his retirement of about $100,000 per year. You voted for that amendment but then, to your credit, called for an investigation when the ruse was exposed by LouisianaVoice.

That story, which LouisianaVoice was first to break, put you and every other member of the Louisiana Legislature on notice of just what Edmonson was capable of. You knew from that day forward that despite his denials, he had encouraged Sen. Neil Riser to slip that amendment into the bill.

But LouisianaVoice didn’t stop there. We kept writing stories about Edmonson’s mismanagement:

  • About his promotion of a supervisor who was hooked on prescription drugs;
  • About his promotion of a trooper who tried to sneak an underaged woman (not his wife) into a Mississippi casino;
  • About his lack of disciplinary action when a trooper had sex (twice) with a woman in his patrol vehicle while on duty;
  • About a trooper who was allowed over an extended period of time to work a fraction of his shift before going home and going to bed;
  • About how he lied to the State Police Commission about the creation of a lieutenant colonel position for a specific member of his inner circle;
  • About how he lied when he said the raises he pushed through for State Troopers would not benefit him or the command officers immediately under him (they did);

There were dozens more such stories published by LouisianaVoice.

Yes, Governor, I wrote consistently about Mike Edmonson for the year before you were elected and for the two-plus years since. You knew what the problems were. Still, you re-appointed him.

You even danced the old bureaucratic shuffle on that issue when I emailed you on Oct. 27, 2015, following your election:

“Please tell me your intentions as to the re-appointment of Mike Edmonson.”

Your response:

“I don’t intend one way or the other.”

But you did intend. You already knew, thanks to your endorsement by the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association, that you had no choice other than to re-appoint him.

Edmonson himself told the Baton Rouge Advocate that you told him on the night of the election, at a party at the Hotel Monteleone, “that he had never even considered another candidate for superintendent.”

But you did have a choice. You had the West Point Honor Code to fall back on. You could have done the right thing and cut Edmonson loose because you already knew he was a liability.

Still, you re-appointed him. The Sheriffs’ Association endorsement meant a lot, didn’t it?

So please, Governor, don’t try to take the high road on this issue. The auditor’s report did not uncover a single problem that had not already been publicized on LouisianaVoice.

For three years.

And now, like Lady Macbeth, you’re trying to get the spot out. But it won’t wash.

But enough of that. Back to Mike Edmonson’s letter.

“As you of all people know,” he wrote to Purpera, “the protocol used…is to provide the recipient (of an audit), whether it is an individual, a public board, or another public body, with a confidential draft report to afford the responding party and opportunity to address the statements in the draft report before it is publicly disseminated.

“For inexplicable reasons, the confidential draft report regarding me and the Louisiana State Police was leaked to the media and the contents of the draft then was (sic) disseminated to media outlets throughout the State—all before I could respond to the various contentions (sic). Realizing the inherent unfairness to me, the residents of our State, as well as respect for the normal procedures, I trust your office has begun an investigation into this improper conduct and will soon report your findings.

“…Given the publication of large segments of a preliminary commentary, and the apparent breach of normal practices that seems to have disclosed the entirety of the confidential draft report, I am now constrained (sic) to notify you that you can release the report and provide your report to the Louisiana State Senate this week. I, in turn, will promptly deliver my response feeling confident the residents of this State will not prematurely reach conclusions until all of the facts are presented. That is the way the process works, that is the only impartial and objective approach, and I strongly believe that is what our fellow citizens expect.”

First of all, Mike, the contents of the audit were not disseminated to “media outlets throughout the state.” Two media outlets had it and they were news partners—the Baton Rouge Advocate and WWL-TV in New Orleans. That was it. Not throughout the state. Not even throughout Baton Rouge.

Second, there were only two copies of the audit. One went to LSP and the other to Edmonson. And the one to Edmonson was the only one with a cover letter to Edmonson himself—and that was the one that was released. WWL-TV even flashed a copy of that COVER LETTER on screen when it aired its story about the audit.

Ergo, there is only one way that audit could have been leaked: from Mike Edmonson himself or someone acting on his behalf. The motive could only be what Edmonson expressed in his letter: to allow him to claim he was treated unfairly and that his defense has been compromised by the prejudicial release of the audit before he could respond.

Unsurprisingly, when LouisianaVoice first called attention to WWL’s posting a copy of that cover letter, the station promptly took the story down. But screen shots of the letter were captured by viewers who apparently anticipated just such a move.

oOo

Editor’s Note: There’s a lot going on with this audit that cannot be covered in a single story. For example, Reeves and several of the troopers involved in that San Diego trip have responded to the audit in writing. One of those responses was 16 pages in length.

Plus, there was a meeting Thursday of the Legislative Audit Advisory Committee which had some interesting exchanges.

LouisianaVoice will be taking these on in separate stories over the coming days.

 

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HIPAA, LSP, DPS, WBRZ, with a little MYOB thrown into the mix, and you have a salacious, confusing, interesting lawsuit

Posted in Corruption, Crime, Ethics, Lawsuits, Media, Public Records, State Police, TV News on December 13, 2017| 43 Comments »

Controversy surrounding that preliminary default judgment levied against a Baton Rouge television station just won’t go away and now a second lawsuit has been filed naming the plaintiff in the first lawsuit and his employer, Louisiana State Police (LSP), as defendants.

And just to make matters a bit more confusing, the name of that defendant (and the plaintiff in the litigation against WBRZ-TV) is the same name—but not the same person—as an occasional writer for LouisianaVoice.

Throw in illegal background searches and claims of violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a police officer posing as a police officer, and a nasty divorce, and you’ve got the ingredients for a salacious story that would send a counsellor scrambling for the cabinet where the hard liquor is stashed.

Got it? Didn’t think so. Okay then, let’s review:

Back in October, 21st Judicial District Court Judge Doug Hughes signed a $2.5 million preliminary default judgment against WBRZ after the TV station failed to answer a defamation LAWSUIT against it and its investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto filed by State Trooper Robert Burns of Livingston Parish—a different person altogether than the Robert Burns who periodically writes for LouisianaVoice.

Nakamoto had reported a story about a 64-hour suspension imposed on Burns by LSP following an Internal Affairs investigation into his conducting 52 illegal computer searches on his ex-wife, one Carmen Hawkins, her current fiancé and a former boyfriend over a period of nearly three years—from November 2013 to October 2016.

Nakamoto’s story was taken exclusively from public records he obtained from LSP, so there should have been no question as to the story’s legitimacy. Had the station’s attorney filed an answer, the suit in all probability, would have been dismissed with prejudice, meaning the dismissal would be final. By failing to answer, WBRZ attorney Stephen Babcock of Baton Rouge left Judge Hughes no choice but to enter the preliminary default. That judgment, of course is now under appeal, if somewhat belatedly, and is likely to be reversed.

Burns, in appealing his suspension, said on 46 of those 52 searches, he was conducting a search of his own license plate and that the “spin-off” searches of his wife were a result of “unintended inquiries generated by an automated system.”

IA didn’t buy that explanation, especially since “spin-of” searches generated by an “automated system” couldn’t explain away the two searches on his former wife’s current fiancé and the four searches on her ex-boyfriend. Those searches, besides vehicle and driver’s license records, also included computerized criminal histories on the two men.

Moreover, Burns subsequently disseminated some of the information (we’ll get to that shortly) and then texted his ex-wife to request that she not report his actions because he “could get fired for doing so.”

The searches, according to a letter to him from LSP, were for “non-law enforcement purposes, in violation of department policy and federal law.”

Hughes signed the preliminary JUDGMENT on Sept. 28. On Oct. 19, the day after the LouisianaVoice STORY, Carmen Hawkins weighed in with her own LAWSUIT against the Department of Public Safety (DPS), LSP, and Burns and this is where things really get dicey.

She claims in her petition that she had her vehicle in an auto body shop in Walker when her ex-husband, Burns, appeared at the shop “in uniform and identifying himself as acting under the color of law and within his capacity as an employee of…Louisiana State Police, and proceeded to ask questions about plaintiff’s vehicle and the circumstances surrounding it(s) needing repair.”

Some time following his visit to the repair shop, she says in her lawsuit, Burns appeared at the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Department “dressed in uniform and identifying himself as acting under the color of law and within his capacity as an employee of…Louisiana State Police (and) proceeded without probable cause to request that a warrant be issued” for her arrest “on allegations he knew to be false or which were based upon reckless disregard for the truth.”

She was then arrested at her home by sheriff’s deputies but “immediately release when the reason for her arrest was discovered,” she said. But that was far from the end of the matter.

In her petition, she says Burns then “published false and defamatory communications” to her employer, “which communications impugned plaintiff’s professional reputation and included the false allegation that plaintiff had accessed confidential, personal health (HIPAA) information.”

Unauthorized access and dissemination of confidential patient information is a violation of HIPAA regulations.

She said Burns’ claims were false and that it resulted in the termination of her employment.

LouisianaVoice sources have indicated Hawkins’ former employer was Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge and that she has since obtained employment at another Baton Rouge hospital.

She says little about the alleged HIPAA violations but does say in her lawsuit that her ex-husband’s access to LSP databases had been permitted “by the customs and regular practice” of LSP and former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson, who she said was believed to have had “actual knowledge that its employees, including…Robert Burns, who were not listed as authorized users, could and were engaging in violations of department policy and state and federal law by using the databases…”

Her attorney, Jonathan Mitchell of Baton Rouge, is asking that DPS, LSP and Burns be held liable in solido (jointly) for damages and losses sustained by his client.

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If you remember nothing else about the tax bill, please remember what the House version says about teachers

Posted in Congress, Corruption, Education, Ethics, Governor's Office, House, Revenue, Senate, Taxes on December 9, 2017| 23 Comments »

Bobby Jindal said in a 2015 address to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) that teachers are still at their jobs only by virtue of their being able to breathe.

That was when he was touting his ambitious education reform package that was designed to promote and enrich the operators of charter and virtual schools by pulling the financial rug from under public education in Louisiana.

That, of course, only served to further demoralize teachers and to punish those students from low-income families who could not afford charter schools but all that mattered little to Jindal. And perhaps it’s no coincidence that his former chief of staff Steve Waguespack now heads LABI.

Lest one think that sorry attitude toward teachers and the teaching profession went away in January 2016 when Jindal exited the governor’s office, leaving a fiscal mess for his successor, John Bel Edwards, think again.

Here’s a little wakeup call for those of you who may have been lulled into a false sense of security now that the husband of a teacher occupies the governor’s office: That disdain for public education has carried over into the halls of Congress via this proposed new tax bill now being ironed out between the House and Senate.

Much has already been written about how the tax bill is supposed to benefit the middle class when in reality it does just the opposite—yet those blindly loyal zealots, those supporters of child molesters, those adherents of the Republican-can-do-no-wrong-because-they-wrap-themselves-in-a-flag-and-wave-a-bible-in-one-hand-and-a-gun-in-the-other mantra continue to drink the Kool-Aid and cling to the insane theory that Trump, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Bill Cassidy and John Neely Kennedy have their best interests at heart.

These delusional people get all bent out of shape when a jock refuses to kneel at a football game because they consider it an affront to our military (it’s not) while this tax bill rips more than $40 billion from HUD, including programs that help provide housing for homeless VETERANS. How’s that for honoring our fighting men and women? Where the hell are your real priorities?

Any of you die-hard Republicans out there on Medicare? Are you ready to take a $25 billion HIT? You will under this tax “reform.”

All you Trump supporters who have been so critical of the federal deficit prepared to see that deficit increased by a whopping $1.4 trillion? Sens. Cassidy and Kennedy are. So are Reps. Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Ralph Abraham and Garrett Graves.

Those of you with college kids presently on tuition exemptions like TOPS might want to get ready; your son or daughter is going to have to declare those benefits as taxable income. Is that why you voted Republican?

And while all this is going down, you can take comfort in the knowledge that the proposed tax “reform” will eliminate the tax on inherited fortunes (you know, the kind that made Donald Trump Donald Trump) and will maintain the “carried interest” loophole which taxes the fees of private-equity fund managers (read: the mega-rich, Wall Street bankers, etc.) at low capital gains rates instead of the higher income tax rates.

But after all that’s said and done, the part of the tax bill that really turns my stomach, the part that sticks in my throat, is a provision that is of so small an amount as to be insignificant—if it weren’t for the principle of the whole thing.

Call it a carry over from Jindal, a snub of teachers, or whatever, it’s galling.

Here it is:

Teachers, particularly elementary teachers, traditionally spend hundreds of dollars per year of their own money on materials and supplies for their classrooms. And it’s not for them, it’s for the children. Keep that in mind, folks. While there are parents out there who would rather buy meth and booze and cigarettes than supplies for their kids, there are teachers who quietly enter the school supply stories and stock up so that kid will have a chance.

Call it personal, if you wish, and it might well be. When I was a student at Ruston High School, I was injured right after school one day. My English teacher, Miss Maggie Hinton, never hesitated. She led me to her powder blue 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air and took me to Green Clinic—and paid the doctor to patch me up. You never hear the Jindals of the world tell those kinds of stories. They don’t fit their agenda.

Under the present tax laws, these teachers, who on average spend $500 to $600 per year (school principals, by the way spend an average of $683 of their own money annually on snacks and other food items for students, decorations and supplies like binders and paper), can take a tax deduction of up to $250 for those expenditures. (And to interject a very personal story, once, while I was making a purchase for a school in Livingston Parish at Clegg’s Plant Nursery, the owner would not accept my money. He donated the items because he, too, supports public education.)

Now understand, that’s a tax deduction of up to $250, not a tax credit, which would be a dollar-for-dollar tax cut. A deduction benefits the teacher only $40 or so off her taxes. But at least it’s something.

The Senate version of the new tax bill would double that deduction to $500, thank you very much.

So, what’s my beef?

Nothing much…except the HOUSE version would eliminate the deduction in its entirety.

That’s right. While the Republicans want to take care of the fat cats (those in Trump’s income bracket would realize tax breaks of approximately $37,000), teachers, under the House version of this tax bill would no longer get even that paltry $40. Zero. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Thank you, Garrett Graves, et al.

That really angers me and it should anger every person in Louisiana with even a scintilla of a conscience.

Because teachers are my heroes. Nearly fifty-seven years after graduating from Ruston High School, my heroes are still named Hinton, Ryland, Perkins, Garner, Lewis, Peoples, Edmunds, Barnes,  Johnson, Garrett & Garrett (any I omitted is only because I took no classes under them). They took a personal interest in a kid with no real promise and made him a little better person. They and my grandparents alone have stood the test of what a true hero should be.

And I am proud to defend the honor of teachers everywhere in their memory.

And the fact that five Louisiana House members—who, by the way, are all up for reelection in 2018—voted for this tax “reform” bill that slaps my heroes in the face really pisses me off.

Did I mention those five are up for reelection next year? That’s 2018, less than a year from now.

A smart voter remembers who represents him.

Those not so smart should go fishing on election day.

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