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Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category

Mike Edmonson hobnobs with BR man with outstanding warrant, arrested for bribing way into LSU football games

Posted in Ethics, State Police on March 8, 2017| 10 Comments »

LSP Policy: P. O. 901 – Code of Conduct and Ethics

47 Associations

  1. i)Commissioned officers shall avoid regular or continuous associations or dealings with persons whom they know are suspected felons, persons under criminal investigation or indictment, or who have a reputation in the community for present involvement in felonious or criminal behavior.  

That seems pretty straightforward and easy to understand.

Yet, there Louisiana State Police (LSP) Superintendent Mike Edmonson is hobnobbing with Casey Adam McKenzie in all those Facebook photographs posted by…McKenzie.

Edmonson on left, McKenzie in center. Man on right unidentified.

McKenzie, a Baton Rouge insurance agent, a self-promoting individual who also works as a booking agent for local bands and who likes to gate-crash LSU sporting events to scarf off sideline passes. He was even arrested for that once. http://www.wbrz.com/news/lsu-police-gate-workers-paid-off/.

He was initially booked on a charge of felony theft but that was later reduced to a misdemeanor.

Casey_LSU

So what’s wrong with Edmonson and McKenzie paling around together?

Left to right: Edmonson, wife Suzanne Edmonson, McKenzie. Others unidentified.

McKenzie doesn’t think there’s anything inappropriate about their friendship. “Mike’s a terrific guy,” he told LouisianaVoice in a recent telephone interview.

In fact, it was McKenzie who initiated the phone call. I had emailed LSP public information officer Maj. Doug Cain asking what the relationship between Edmonson and McKenzie. (I never got a response to that inquiry). Other than that, the only other contact I made with anyone about the two was with a sound engineer who I was told had issues with McKenzie over McKenzie’s alleged short-changing the sound company, Premier Production and Sound Services of Baton Rouge, following a band performance.

McKenzie and Edmonson enjoy a harmonica solo together onstage

Within 30 minute of those two contact, McKenzie was on the phone wanting to know why I was asking about him.

Well, regarding that Oct. 12, 2013, charge of theft of LSU “event pass” wristbands, I couldn’t help but be a little curious as to why, after getting the charge reduced to a misdemeanor, the matter has yet to be resolved in court. There have been numerous continuances, with the most recent being on Feb. 13 with the next court date set for 9:30 on May 5 in 19th Judicial District Judge Mike Erwin’s courtroom.

An apparently surprised McKenzie with Edmonson and unidentified women.

Other minor violations on McKenzie’s part that indicate something of a pattern include:

  • Improper equipment on his auto, to which he pled guilty in 2004;
  • Speeding and driving under suspension on Sept. 2, 2010: “Presented without evidence and no action taken.  Case closed” on Dec. 20, 2013 (How did this charge manage to languish for more than three years?);
  • Speeding on June 1, 2014: State moved to drop charges and case dismissed on Sept. 22, 2015;
  • No seat belt on Nov. 22, 2014: No activity on charge since that date;
  • Expired vehicle inspection on Jan. 8, 2015: No activity on charge since that date;
  • Expired vehicle inspection on Jan. 21, 2015: “Presented without evidence on May 9, 2015,” case dismissed;
  • Driving with suspended license on May 9, 2016: Failed to appear for arraignment on Sept. 30, 2016. Bench warrant issued for his arrest and warrant remains outstanding (Erwin is judge).

Casey_Speeding

Casey_No_License

Granted, these offenses don’t thrust McKenzie into the same class as John Dillinger but there are other incidents for which he was not arrested but which call his dealings with others into question.

Patio partying with Edmonson (left foreground), wife Suzanne and McKenzie (purple LSU shirt). Possibly a selfie taken by Edmonson?

One person told LouisianaVoice, “I was personally taken for several thousand dollars, and others (for) much more over the past few years.” That writer continued, saying there was “one despicable incident” of McKenzie’s “ripping off a disabled wheelchair-bound activist for ALS.”

And with a warrant for his arrest pending, one might question the wisdom of Edmonson’s chumming around with McKenzie.

That same writer describes McKenzie as being “obsessed with the social media platforms of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. He provide plenty of photo and videos for reference that confirm his close and frequent ties with Mike Edmonson.”

 

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Reports have AG, FBI entering LSP probe; LouisianaVoice having trouble obtaining records (but nothing new there)

Posted in Campaign Contributions, Corruption, DOA, Ethics, Finances, Governor's Office, Lobbyist, State Police on March 7, 2017| 22 Comments »

A couple of reports, unconfirmed to this point, have been swirling about concerning the ongoing investigation into that San Diego trip taken by State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson and 16 or so subordinates, including the four who went by state vehicle via Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Altogether, the jaunt cost Louisiana taxpayers more than $73,000.

But there also are confirmed developments that might have raised some concern on the part of those who want to see an unbiased investigation that will lead to appropriate action on the part of Gov. John Bel Edwards. It seems, however, that initial concern has been defused.

First, the unsubstantiated reports that, while lacking official confirmation, come from those close to the investigation who are considered reliable.

  • Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office is said to have begun an investigation on its own, separate and apart from that of the governor’s office. A spokesperson for the AG said that could be neither confirmed nor denied. “Our office has a policy of not commenting on such matters so as not to compromise any investigation it may be conducting,” she said.
  • Another well-placed source said the FBI is also conducting an investigation of Edmonson and LSP, though Edmonson earlier denied any such investigation. Our source of that story said he initially provided information to the FBI but now that the agency’s investigation is underway, he has not been involved in further dialog with agents.

Conspicuously absent is any report that the Office of Inspector General, that fiercely independent investigative agency, has undertaken any effort to look into possible criminal wrongdoing at LSP. That could, of course, be because OIG isn’t as independent of the governor’s office as it likes to claim.

It likewise would be reassuring if East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore initiated a grand jury investigation or at least weighed in if for no other reason than to say he was taking a wait and see approach to the governor’s investigation. After all, any crime committed in the East Baton Rouge Parish falls under his jurisdiction.

The two unconfirmed reports aside, LouisianaVoice has learned that Mark Falcon, an attorney for the Division of Administration (DOA), is assisting DOA auditors in their investigation of LSP. Richard Carbo, communications director for the governor’s office, said, “He is not the lead investigator; he is assisting the auditors in their work.”

Mark Falcon did, however, assauge concerns when he offered full disclosure in informing Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne that he is the brother of Floyd Falcon, legal counsel for the Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA), the lobbying arm of LSP.

It was LouisianaVoice’s story about the LSTA’s practice of laundering illegal campaign contributions through the personal bank account of its executive director David Young more than a year ago that prompted Floyd Falcon to refer to me as “a chronic complainer,” a characterization that has likely only intensified in his mind, given the manner in which the LSP saga has played out thus far.

But Mark Falcon’s voluntary disclosure of his relationship with Floyd Falcon and the manner in which he presented it is encouraging and provides optimism that the DOA investigation will be complete and above-board.

That is particularly important because two of those who took that trip to San Diego had their travel and lodging expenses on the trip picked up by the LSTA. Only the meals for Trooper Alexandr Nezgodinsky, a native of San Diego, and Lt. Stephen Lafargue were paid for by the state. Several others who made the trip are also LSTA members but had their expenses paid by the state.

In another development, LouisianaVoice received a rather dubious response to a public records requests regarding other trips Edmonson took to receive various awards.

Here is a copy of our request:

From: Tom Aswell
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 3:55 PM
To: ‘Michele Giroir’; ‘Doug Cain’
Subject: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS

Pursuant to LA. R.S. 44.1 (et seq.), I hereby submit my formal request for the opportunity to review all travel records, including airfare, other travel, lodging, meals, registration fees and any and all other expenses incurred by all personnel (by name) who attended the presentation of any and all of the below awards bestowed upon Col. Mike Edmonson:

  • FBI Washington DC, Top 25 Police Administrators Award, 2009;
  • Sheriff Buford Pusser National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award, 2013;
  • Human Trafficking, Faces of Hope Award, 2013
  • Inner City Entrepreneur (ICE) Institute—Top Cop Award, 2013
  • American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators Martha Irwin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Highway Safety, 2014
  • New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, Captain Katz Lifetime Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Safety, 2015.

 Also, please provide me with the opportunity to review:

  • all travel records, including airfare, other travel, lodging, meals, registration fees and any and all other expenses incurred by all personnel (by name) who attended the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association annual conventions/conferences in Destin/Sandestin, Florida for the years 2008 through 2016;
  • all travel records, including airfare, other travel, lodging, meals, registration fees and any and all other expenses incurred by all personnel (by name) who attended the Washington (D.C.) Mardi Gras festivities for the years 2008 through 2017;
  • all travel records, including airfare, other travel, lodging, meals, registration fees and any and all other expenses incurred by all personnel (by name) who attended the New Orleans Mardi Gras festivities for the years 2008 through 2016 (exclusive of security details assigned to the event).

Here is the response I received yesterday (Monday, March 6):

From: Michele Giroir
Sent: Monday, March 6, 2017 8:12 AM
To: Tom Aswell
Cc: Doug Cain; JB Slaton; Faye Morrison
Subject: RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS

Mr. Aswell, in partial response to your below public records request, I have been advised that LSP does not maintain any records relating to travel expenses, etc., for attendance at the presentation of the following awards bestowed upon Col. Mike Edmonson:

  • FBI Washington DC, Top 25 Police Administrators Award, 2009;
  • Sheriff Buford Pusser National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award, 2013;
  • Human Trafficking, Faces of Hope Award, 2013
  • Inner City Entrepreneur (ICE) Institute –Top Cop Award, 2013
  • New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, Captain Katz Lifetime Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Safety, 2015

 The remaining requests are still being handling and further responses will be forthcoming.

Any questions that you may have should be addressed to Major Doug Cain.

With kindest professional regards, I am,

Sincerely,

Michele M. Giroir

Attorney Supervisor

 Not complete sold on that explanation, I emailed Cain:

“Doug, I find it inconceivable that LSP has no record of expenses for these trips. Is it the position that LSP keeps no such records or are you saying no expenses were incurred?”

His response? “No expenses.”

“Not even for those who went with him?” I wrote back (because we know by now he rarely travels alone).

“No sir,” he responded.

So the bottom line is we are being asked to believe that Edmonson, who packed 15 of his people off to San Diego, all of whom combined to run up expenses of more than $73,000, including salaries and travel, lodging and meal expenses, either took no one with him on the other trips and he didn’t consume any meals on his trips or perhaps he took traveling companions, none of whom spent a dime of state funds.

Either scenario requires a leap of faith to believe.

(To be incredulously continued.)

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Bloomberg story of $310 billion megabank fines since 2008 doesn’t tell the complete story of Wall Street greed, politics

Posted in Attorney General, Campaign Contributions, Congress, Corruption, Crime, Ethics, Finances, Fraud, Politicians, Revenue, Uncategorized on March 5, 2017| 3 Comments »

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Bloomberg News Service on March 1 published a STORY that said global megabanks have paid $321 billion in fines for such non-banking-like practices as money laundering, market manipulation and even terrorist financing since the market crash of 2008.

And while $321 billion may sound impressive, Bloomberg failed to mention that because of those same banks, President George W. Bush had little choice but to sign the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that pumped more than twice that amount, $700 billion of taxpayer bailout funds, into the failed banks that precipitated the Great Recession of 2008.

Most financial advisers would describe that as a negative return on investment.

Adding insult to injury, $1.6 billion of that $700 billion was used to award multi-million dollar bonuses to CEOs of the very firms that got us into the mess to begin with. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/16b-of-bank-bailout-went-to-execs/

Bloomberg also failed to mention that those fines had little effect on those who perpetuated the crimes but did have a significant impact on stockholders and retirees, those, in other words, who had nothing to do with the massive fraud carried out on such a grand scale.

In fact, in 2010, former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo was fined $22.5 million and ordered to pay another $45 million in restitution as his penalty for reaping a profit of $141.7 million from stock sale, according to Mary Kreiner Ramirez and Steven A. Ramirez, authors of The Case for the Corporate Death Penalty (New York University Press, 2017). So, despite the penalties, he walked away with a net gain $74.2 million, or a 52 percent return, sending a clear signal his peers that “crime does in fact pay,” the authors wrote.

There are also two questions Bloomberg neglected to address:

  1. What the total cost of the runaway greed and reckless actions of firms like AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Countrywide, and J.P. Morgan to stockholders, retirees and American taxpayers in general?
  2. How many top tier officers at these firms who condoned, encouraged and/or actively participated in the illegal practices went to jail?

The answer to the first question is an eye-popping $15 trillion, according to Ramirez and Ramirez.

The answer to the second question is just as unbelievable: ONE.

In fact, as of Jan. 28, that last date that STATISTICS were updated by the Bureau of Prisons, there were exactly 555 people serving federal jail sentences for banking, insurance, embezzlement and counterfeiting. That comes to .3 percent (three-tenths of one percent) of the total federal prison population.

By contrast, there were 82,109 in federal prison for non-violent drug offenses (46.4 percent of the total), and 14,853 imprisoned on immigration charges (8.4 percent).

At this point it might be fair to ask just who did the most lasting damage to the nation’s economy?

It would also be fair to question why, if only one Wall Street banker went to jail, how is that there are 555 imprisoned for banking- and insurance-related offenses? The answer to that is those offenders, situated on Main Street instead of Wall Street, lacked the political clout in Washington that the leaders of the megabanks enjoyed.

Is that an over-simplification of the circumstances? Probably, but it’s interesting to compare the actions of different White House administrations in handling financial crises.

President Obama’s first Attorney General, Eric Holder, in his “too big to fail” proclamation, said, “I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications…it (prosecution) will have a negative impact on the economy.”

Obama, for his part, said, “One of the biggest problems about the…financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn’t necessarily illegal, it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless.”

Wasn’t necessarily illegal? Both statements stretch credulity to its breaking point and are in themselves, disgraceful because federal laws were clearly broken knowingly and willfully.

It wasn’t always that way. For example, in the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, more than 1,100 bankers were indicted and 839 were convicted.

Enron, the seventh-largest company in the U.S. at the turn of the century, is another example of how the feds went after those who played fast and loose with the rules. President George H.W. Bush called on Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to run the World Economic Summit in Houston in 1990 and in 1992, Lay co-chaired the reelection campaign of Bush the First.

Enron and its affiliates also contributed more than $888,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000, the year that George W. Bush was elected President and another $1.3 million to the Republican Party. Lay and his wife personally contributed $238,000 to George W. Bush campaigns and inauguration celebrations and raised another $100,000 from friends. To the younger Bush, Lay was known as “Kenny boy.”

Still, Enron and its top executives were not immune from prosecution by Bush the Second.

Despite the access to the highest levels of government enjoyed by Enron and Lay, he and Jeff Skilling, his successor as Enron CEO, were indicted by the Department of Justice in 2004 and though the two combined to spend some $60 million on their defense, Lay was convicted on all counts and Skilling on 19 of 28 counts of securities fraud.

George W. Bush’s Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the Enron investigation because Enron and Lay both were major financial supporters in Ashcroft’s Missouri unsuccessful Senate re-election campaign. His chief of staff, David Ayers, also took himself out of the investigation of Enron. That was as it should have been.

Enron’s accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, was convicted of shredding Enron documents and both Enron and Arthur Andersen soon ceased to exist.

The same fate befell CenTrust Savings Bank, Drexel Burnham Lambert investment bank, and WorldCom—all because of flagrant violations of federal securities laws and each was prosecuted by the administrations of the two Bushes. WorldCom, in fact, was the largest bankruptcy in history when it went under in 2002.

Evidently, those firms were not considered too big to fail.

By contrast, Obama’s Attorney General Holder and Lanny Breuer, chief of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division, did not remove themselves from DOJ’s investigation of the investment banks that brought on the Great Recession of 2008. This despite the fact that both men had worked for the same law firm of Covington & Burling which included among its clients such eminent Wall Street banking firms as Bank of America (Countrywide’s successor), Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase.

In fact, at the time Holder was tapped as attorney general, he was co-chairing Covington & Burling’s white-collar defense unit. Good training in case you’re ever called on to investigate your former bosses.

Breuer returned to Covington & Burling in 2013 followed by his boss Holder in July 2015, giving Holder at least a reason for his strained, if not borderline unprincipled logic for not pursuing criminal indictments against the megabanks.

Following Holder’s departure, Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates (Remember her? She’s the one President Trump fired after she refused to enforce his illegal immigration order) issued a DOJ memo (turns out she was pretty good at memos that cut right to the chase) on Sept. 9, 2015, that reversed Holder and Breuer’s DOJ policy toward pursuing individual accountability, both criminally and civilly, for corporate wrongdoing. The memorandum said the policy change was to maximize DOJ’s “ability to deter misconduct and to hold those who engage in it accountable.”

The comparison between the approaches of two Bushes and Obama to bankers’ disdain for securities laws to the detriment of the entire country represents a stark role reversal for the perceived political philosophies of the Republican and Democratic administrations.

And now, President Trump has expressed his determination to roll back the Dodd-Frank bill passed after the 2008 recession for the express purpose of preventing a recurrence of the runaway greed that nearly wrecked the world economy.

In fact, he wants to remove all regulation of Wall Street banks, quite possibly the most dangerous single cartel in American society.

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Disgraced former FBI agent in William Jefferson case now makes living exploiting Jihadist terror to law enforcement

Posted in Corruption, Ethics on March 1, 2017| 15 Comments »

Already accused by a few letter writers of being anti-law enforcement, I’m probably not going to score many points with this post. In fact, I’ll probably be accused of being a jihadist.

But before I do, let me assure readers that I am firmly in favor of good, fair, even-handed law enforcement. Without law enforcement, there would be anarchy. Nothing we hold dear—our family, friends, possessions, homes, our very lives—would ever be considered safe.

And I’m Methodist.

So, no, I am not opposed to law enforcement to any degree. And unlike the occasional legislator who introduces some whacko anti-speed trap bill because he got pulled over in some hamlet while en route to conduct important state business, I’m not critical of State Police because I got a ticket I didn’t think I deserved (though I am disposed to run-on sentences). In fact, the last ticket I got was some 11 years ago—and it was from a local constable, not a State Trooper, for speeding. And you know what? I was speeding. And instead of calling the local mayor to get it fixed, I paid the fine.

But this column is not about State Police. And it certainly isn’t about me.

Instead, it’s about a guy named John Guandolo.

Never heard of him? Understandable. Let me enlighten you.

John Guandolo is a disgraced FBI agent who was fired after sleeping with a confidential source and then trying to keep it, well… confidential. Actually, Lori Mody was the FBI’s star witness in its case against then-Democratic Congressman William Jefferson.

Mody was wired to secretly record conversations with Jefferson and Guandolo was her handler—in more ways than one—who drove her to her meetings with the congressman.

After her meetings with Jefferson, at which Mody also delivered cash to him, she and Guandolo apparently would go undercover again—in a more literal sense.

His idiotic indiscretions nearly wrecked the government’s case against Jefferson who was ultimately convicted.

JAMES GILL wrote an interesting piece about Guandolo two years ago. He said Guandolo’s expertise was in counterterrorism, which made him an odd choice to become Mody’s handler.

It is his background, or perhaps more aptly, his obsession with Islamic terrorism, that brings us to report Guandolo’s whereabouts today.

He now runs an outfit called Understand the Threat (UTT, or more appropriately, UTTerly hysterical fear-mongering ) and goes around the country charging big bucks for folks to hear him expound on the threat of an Islamic attack looming behind every telephone pole in much the same manner as old Joe McCarthy made his name in the 1950s outing perceived communists from the State Department, Hollywood, newspapers and any other organization that caught his eye.

Just last week, Guandolo took his road show to HAMMOND in Tangipahoa Parish where he gave a closed-door presentation to prosecutors and law enforcement officials—probably consisting of a few deputies of Sheriff Daniel Edwards, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ brother. A few months before that, he was in St. Charles Parish spewing the same rhetoric.

That Guandolo is still able to train law enforcement officers following his breach of duty and ethics and his subsequent firing by the FBI should be a red flag for all law enforcement agencies and to those who elect them.

Nevertheless, his relentless pursuit of big bucks jihadists continues unabated.

Next week (Tuesday through Thursday, March 7-9) he will be at the historic Hotel Bentley in Alexandria, according to an ADVERTISEMENT in the Louisiana Tactical Police Officers’ Association (LTPOA), a little-known organization headquartered in Alexandria.

Frankly, the Bentley deserves better.

The three-day event “will blend overt anti-Muslim bigotry with tactics on investigating the alleged ‘jihadi’ and ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ threat in Louisiana.

(Odd that the Muslim Brotherhood should come up. Grover Norquist, author of that the infamous “no-new-tax” pledge that Bobby Jindal and half the Louisiana Legislature signed, is himself said to be a proponent of the Muslim Brotherhood. His wife is Islamic but no one has accused her—or Norquist—of sponsoring terrorism.)

Some of the scheduled highlights of the Rapides event include:

  • Going over scenarios on how local law enforcement can “identify and pursue” so-called jihadis’ (sic) in local jurisdictions (you’d think whoever wrote this would learn to spell jihadist);
  • Cover “training scenarios” on how to “investigate known Muslim Brotherhood entities in their areas;”
  • Breaking off into “Investigative Teams” and running through “a number of training scenarios, discussions, and exercises” on how to “investigate known Muslim Brotherhood entities in their areas;”
  • “Instruction on doctrinal Sharia (Islamic Law)” and “how jihadis (sic) use Sharia in furtherance of their operations;
  • Run “through the process of building affidavits, discuss how to educate local city/district attorneys on this threat, and will be given resources to take with them to further their education.”

If you scroll down this SCHEDULE, you can see he goes all over the country spreading his venom and has even been shut down in a few of his appearances.

The Rapides Parish event will be the third UTT training seminar held in Louisiana in recent months. As mentioned earlier, it was the St. Charles Parish Sheriff hosting the event last September. Last week it was the Tangipahoa Parish District Attorney and next week the Rapides DA. The question is this: are the sessions are being held because Louisiana is a hot spot for Islamic terrorist activity or because Louisiana officials are just saps for giving taxpayer money to a fast-talking snake oil salesman?

The cost of this seminar is $12,500, according to Rapides DA Phillip Terrell. About 180 law enforcement officials are presently registered which equals less than $25 per officer per day for their training and education.

“We are surprised at the objections to this training seminar sponsored by the Rapides District Attorney’ Office,” Terrell said in defense of the expenditure to rid Central Louisiana of the radical Islamic scourge. “It is simply to educate our law enforcement community to the potential of terrorism faced by our nation. It is critical that we do everything in our power to protect our community from any threat whether it is drug dealing, violent crime or terrorism.

“If this training saves one Life, it is worth it,” he sniffed.

Hey, Mr. Terrell, it’s not so much the fact that you’re trying to keep local law enforcement types education to potential threats, even imaginary ones, if that’s how you want to run your office; it’s who you have chosen to do the educating.

The hatred of every conceivable minority that now infects this country is a festering wound that does not need to be exposed to the filth and contamination of the John Guandolo strain of bacteria. What he is selling is not a cure; it’s fear—a fear that focuses laser-sharp on only one target.

Yes, there is an immigration problem and yes, there are terrorists on the loose in this country. And while some may indeed be Islamic (Ft. Hood, Boston, Orlando, San Bernardino come to mind), more—many more—of those are of a lighter skin who profess a Protestant faith and who attack Jews, Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, and yes, Islamics.

Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were not Islamic. Neither was Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Nor is the KKK.

The Charleston church shootings, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, last week’s shooting of two Indians, lynchings—all acts of terrorism carried out not by Islamics but by whites.

Attacking one perceived problem while ignoring the others is not a solution. To that end what Guandolo is selling is not productive or useful.

It’s exploitation, pure and simple—exploitation by a disgraced former member of the law enforcement community.

And he’s being aided and abetted by…the law enforcement community.

You can’t make this stuff up—(C.B. Forgotston)

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And the hits just keep coming; retired trooper Millet sends Mardi Gras greetings with call for AG, others to probe LSP

Posted in Attorney General, Corruption, Ethics, Fraud, Governor's Office, Public Records, State Police on February 27, 2017| 11 Comments »

Anyone who thought retired State Police Lieutenant Leon “Bucky” Millet would eventually get tired of calling out State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson, the Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) or the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) just doesn’t know Bucky Millet—or wife Vivian, for that matter.

Both have been fixtures at LSPC’s monthly meetings for more than a year now, driving in all the way from Lake Arthur, and at times have been a real pain in the posteriors for the commission. Millet has warned commissioners on more than one occasions that continuing to allow Edmonson to stack the commission with his lap dogs will eventually come to no good. Looking back, his repeated warnings have suddenly gone from the predictions of a disgruntled retiree to the prophetic words of someone with unerringly keen insight—and foresight.

Millet, fed up with the direction being taken by the organization he once served so proudly, has now fired off formal complaints to Gov. John Bel Edwards, Attorney General Jeff Landry, Inspector General Stephen Street, State Police Lt. Col. Murphy of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Bureau of Investigations, and East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore.

In his separate letter to each of the five, he called for an investigation of possible malfeasance and payroll fraud on the part of four State Troopers who took an unmarked State Police vehicle to California last October.

While LSPC Chairman State Trooper T.J. Doss and other commissioners have chosen to ignore his monthly warnings and have been generally dismissive of his questions the way a busy parent would dismiss a child’s questions, the LSPC now finds itself in the uncomfortable position of observing from the sidelines as a formal investigation gets underway of the very agency it is supposed to have been overseeing.

That investigation by auditors from the Division of Administration (DOA) was ordered by Gov. John Bel Edwards after it was learned that Edmonson had 15 of his subordinates (including the four who drove the vehicle assigned to Deputy Superintendent Charles Dupuy) to San Diego to witness Edmonson receiving an award for which a former State Trooper of the Year was originally nominated. LSP headquarters, meanwhile, is using an earlier 2015 unsuccessful nomination of Edmonson for the award as justification for stiffing Maj. Carl Saizan’s nomination.

It’s not as if the LSTA hasn’t tried to silence the affable Millet. After Millet and three other retirees challenged the association’s laundering more than $45,000 in illegal campaign contributions through its executive director’s personal checking account, LSTA took quick action. After it became evident that they weren’t going away, the association, without explanation or comment, simply revoked their memberships.

LSTA is supposed to be an association of active and retired state troopers established to work to benefit troopers, retirees and their families and to work for better conditions for troopers. But it’s evident those benefits extend only to those who keep their mouths shut. Apparently, there is some hidden clause in its bylaws that prohibits dissention among the ranks.

Again, if that move was intended to silence Millet, it only backfired by making him even more vocal and more determined than ever to ask questions and to challenge decisions. He has proven himself to be a nettlesome irritation over the pathetic, so-called “investigation” of the LSTA members who authorized the contributions, as well as the association’s endorsement of Edwards—its first-ever political endorsement.

Natchitoches attorney, former legislator and political ally of Edwards Taylor Townsend was hired by the LSPC under a $75,000 contract to conduct the pseudo-investigation after commission legal counsel Lenore Feeney said she could not conduct such an investigation. Neither, apparently, could Townsend, even though that didn’t prevent him from accepting payments under his contract. The final product of his investigation was not a written report as one might reasonably expect, but simply an oral recommendation that “no action be taken.” Not exactly the most bang for the buck.

Like the San Diego trip’s $72,000 costs in travel, lodging, meals and salary, Townsend’s contract stands as another $75,000 frittered away with nothing, repeat, nothing to show for it.

Doss and his allies on the commission must have thought they’d dodged a bullet despite fellow commissioner Lloyd Grafton’s observation that the entire affair looked a lot like “money laundering” to him. He should know. Grafton, a former federal DEA agent who was instrumental in thwarting a coup d’état in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, is no stranger to sniffing out money laundering. He eventually resigned from the commission in disgust over what he called a “lack of integrity.”

Millet, tired of constantly having to bicker with Doss and other commission members, has now taken the next logical step, spurred on by that San Diego episode, in filing his complaint.

While he is asking for an investigation of the four who drove, it is critical to remember they took a vehicle permanently assigned to Edmonson’s second-in-command—pretty clear evidence that they didn’t act on their own volition but were instructed to drive some 2,000 miles in order to help bolster Edmonson’s ego. That raises the question of who ordered the four to pile into that Expedition and head west?

Accordingly, no investigation should be held without including Edmonson (who had to have ordered them to drive the vehicle) and Dupuy, whose vehicle was used—obviously with his permission.

But Millet is more concerned about the overtime charged by each of the four, including 12 hours each for seven days of travel. Two legs of their trip, from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, and from Las Vegas to San Diego were trips of about 250 miles or so that should have taken about four hours each but for which each man charged 12 hours. That’s 96 total hours—32 hours at overtime rates—to travel about 500 miles.

While it’s probably a waste of time to ask Street to conduct an investigation given the effectiveness displayed by his office over the past several years, any investigation undertaken by Paul would be even more fruitless; he’s being asked to investigate the actions of Edmonson, his boss. That ain’t happening.

But if Landry launches his own investigation, the results should be fascinating when compared to that of the governor’s office, given the acrimonious relationship between the two offices and given Landry’s obvious desire to run against Edwards in 2019.

But all of those will pale in comparison to the ticklish position T.J. Doss will find himself in if Millet does the expected and requests another investigation—by the LSPC.

We have speculated on this site several times in the recent past as to what Doss, a state trooper who owes his position as commission chairman to Edmonson (not to mention his job), will do if called upon to investigate his boss.

As the late C.B. Forgotston would say if he were still with us: You can’t make this stuff up.

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