Louisiana Voice

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It should give us all a warm fuzzy feeling to know that while we struggle, in the light of runaway inflation brought on by yet another political war, to put gas in our cars, pay rent, utilities, put food on our tables, pay medical bills and educate our children, our legislators are doing quite well, thank you very much.

It’s so nice to know our elected officials in Baton Rouge are free to dip into their campaign funds to pay for such things as travel to and lodging for the Washington Mardi Gras celebration while their constituents content themselves with watching highlights of the Eunice Courir de Mardi Gras & Chicken Run on TV.

And they don’t stay at Motel 6 or even that place with the two oak trees. No, they drop $1700 on a single night’s stay at the Waldorf Astoria or $1100 at the less pricey Hilton International. And that’s after spending more than $4000 on airfare to D.C. and back home.

But hey, it’s not their personal money. No, they made certain of that when they passed a bill last year that allows them to use campaign contributions for such things. They even think nothing of writing out checks of $5175 for New Orleans Saints tickets or $4000 on LSU athletic tickets, saying, of course, they’re for “constituents.” Sure, if you consider contractors, lobbyists or major contributors as “constituents.”

Of course, a few years ago, LouisianaVoice found one north Louisiana legislator who paid state ethics fines, car loan payments and even an IRS tax bill from campaign funds.

It’s a slush fund folks, a miniaturized version of America’s number-one crime family’s IRS $1.8 billion IRS lawsuit settlement—except that settlement also carried the proviso that the IRS is forevermore prohibited from ever even so much as investigating Dementia Don. Translation: he is now free to pursue any scam his little heart desires—as if he hasn’t already.

But again, worry not. FAJITA (Forget About Jurisprudence If Trump’s Around) Don says the increase in the price of gasoline is only a trifle, or in his words, “peanuts.” Of course, he has never pumped fuel a single time in his life, so he wouldn’t really know, now, would he?

Well, let’s just take a looky-look at what constitutes a trifle or peanuts in his rarified world: the Iran War has resulted in Americans spending an extra $42.6 billion on fuel costs—so far. Broken down, that’s $24.25 billion on gasoline and $19.35 on diesel.

Oil companies are pointing to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for the spike in fuel costs. If that was all there was to it, then the oil companies would also be feeling the financial pinch. Such, however, is just not the case.

Take Shell Oil Co. for example, reported first-quarter profits of $6.93 billion, a healthy jump of 24 percent from the same quarter of 2025.

Just thought you’d want to know that not everyone is suffering. Some take good care of themselves.

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As is usually the case, the messenger is getting the blame for the debacle at Mt. Olive Christian School up in Claiborne Parish in which the school’s former principal, Nathan Jump, has been arrested for sexual misconduct involving students at the school.

The school’s administration, aka Jump’s in-laws who own and operate the school, are rolling out “witnesses” to the former principal’s good name while beginning the usual piling on of the accuser—and LouisianaVoice for having the audacity to report it. We’re okay with criticism. It ain’t our first rodeo, but it’s patently unfair to gang up on underage female sexual victims.

The latest development has one Megan Lindsey, who purportedly works or at least maintains a high profile at the school, claiming online that she “just happened” to be in Jump’s office at the time the sheriff’s office called on him to turn himself in.

Lindsey also claims that her own daughter, a student at the school, told her after the arrest of Jump that the same girl now accusing him also accused a coach at the school of inappropriate behavior more than a year before.

Now, that gives rise to a couple of obvious questions. First, if the young lady knew of this a year before, why is she only now informing her mother? Second, if a coach—or anyone on the school staff—is accused of any offense, anyone else with knowledge of the complaint is required by law to report same, so why didn’t Principal Jump report the offense a year ago and conduct an investigation or notify law enforcement?

Whether it was Nathan Jump or an unnamed coach, it nevertheless was not the first reports of sexual misconduct between a student and a teacher at the school. Seven years ago, almost to the day, a 25-year-old choir and fine arts teacher at Mt. Olive was arrested for “prohibited sexual conduct between educator and student.”

Of course, the Gantt family (parents of Nathan’s wife, Tammy Jump) wants to do everything they can to salvage their daughter’s current campaign for election as district attorney for the 2^nd JDC which is comprised of the parishes of Claiborne, Bienville and Jackson—and no one faults them for rallying to the support of their daughter; you do that with family.

But we’re curious to see who else comes forward as a character witness

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In the high-visibility work of news reporting, particularly investigative reporting, we get a lot of leads that turn out to be a nothingburger. They’re either sour grapes or wildly exaggerated in their scope, so a lot of what we hear never sees the light of day. That’s the nature of a business that operates as much in the glare of the public spotlight as ours.

But when we start hearing repetition after repetition of the same general story or problem, we begin to understand there may be more to a story than meets the eye so, we start digging.

That’s exactly what happened when we started getting reports of a screwed-up family court system. At first, we dismissed the early complaints as nothing more than a he-said, she-said dispute between couples who had grown to hate each other.

But gradually, the stories began to grow in number and similarity—not from the same person or even the same place, but enough to know there was more than just smoke coming from the smoldering ashes of a failed marriage.

In most of the cases we’ve heard and read about thus far, it’s the husband or father who holds the cards—or financial advantage—in courtroom disputes over child custody and far too often, we’re getting reports of evidence of sexually abusive fathers being awarded CUSTODY of a child a man fathered by RAPE—when the mother herself was only a child of 12.

Nor is it entirely clear why a judge in West Feliciana Parish would remove a “no contact” bond condition for a man accused of sexually abusing a child—and another judge would inexplicably award the same man temporary SOLE CUSTODY of three children.

East Baton Rouge Parish has come under a barrage of criticism for the way women—mothers—fare in family court as men—fathers—with control of the bank account and with far more financial resources, bury former spouses with paper, false charges and legal delays, in many cases bankrupting the mothers of their children as if it all was some variation of the Game of Thrones.

Nor is the damage limited to the mothers. The story of a father’s plight in St. Tammany Parish defies all logic.

He ended up in 22^nd JDC Judge Dawn Amacker’s court in St. Tammany Parish (more about her in subsequent stories). He has asked that his identity not be revealed and that request is being honored.

JUDGE DAWN AMACKER

“When my daughter turned six, the state asked me to take a DNA test,” said. He said he complied with the request “within days” to take the test. “[I] waited and waited but never got any results. [I] figured [it] wasn’t mine and kept going.”

He said a year went by before a supervisor called him into the office at work to explain his employer had received paperwork to garnish his wages. “I took the paperwork and called the office (presumably the court) and that’s when I was told I was a father.”

A court date was set and he attended. “They took us into the back, talked finances and they told me how much I had to pay. That was it. No talk about custody or visitation or me even being able to see my daughter. Court was over. I talked about it with several people and the general response was I should get a lawyer. Except it was hard enough to cover rent and I wasn’t always good about paying support on time as it was. How was I going to afford a lawyer? It sucked and I just kind of accepted it. I have seen her four times her entire life.

Last year, about two months before the case was going to close, he made his final legally-required child support payment, paying in advance to cover the rest of the [support] time.

“A month later, with only a month left before she turned 18 (11 years after first being informed he was a father) and the state closed the case, I got my first-ever letter explaining my rights. I had the right to request visitation and everything else.

“I may not the best person but I try to be the best father. I feel the court robbed me of that chance with her.

“That’s just my quick story. I’m sure there is some far worse.”

Was this a case of just sloppy work on the part of the court or was something more sinister at play?

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