Louisiana Voice

It’s that time again and LouisianaVoice is requesting your help in this our second fund drive of the year.

In its six-plus years of existence, LouisianaVoice has broken many stories and has also been there to explain and expand other stories so that you, the reader, may have a better grasp of the hows and whys of state politics. By examining the inter-relationship between policy and politics, I feel LouisianaVoice has shone a light on official misconduct that has revealed:

• The strong connections between campaign contributions and political appointments and contracts;
• How an official “investigation” can be quietly thwarted simply by the selection of the person charged with conducting the investigation;
• How campaign contributions to the right people by certain interests pay huge dividends;
• How elected officials make generous use of campaign funds for non-campaign purposes;

https://louisianavoice.com/category/lsu/page/2/;

• How elected officials parlay their positions into lucrative private sector gains;
• How those who take oaths to protect the interest of Louisiana citizens don’t always remain true to those oaths.

LouisianaVoice peels off the outer layers of state and local government to reveal the sordid underbelly of political wheeling and dealing the mainstream media seldom, if ever, reports.

LouisianaVoice was there first with numerous major stories:

• There was the story of how State Sen. Neil Riser (currently a candidate for State Treasurer) slipped an amendment onto an otherwise benign bill in the waning minutes of the 2014 legislative session that would have given State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson an addition $100,000 per year in retirement benefits. The bill would have allowed Edmonson to revoke his so-called “irrevocable” action of locking in his retirement several years earlier. It would not have given that same opportunity to thousands of other state employees who had also signed up for the unique Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP). Because of our story (the result of an anonymous tip), the courts ruled Edmonson was not eligible for the special treatment.

Numerous other stories about Edmonson’s loosely-run Louisiana State Police (LSP) appeared on this site and this site only, including stories of troopers who had been fined for sneaking an underaged woman into a Mississippi casino and subsequently promoted; a trooper who was hooked on prescription drugs and using them while on duty and was subsequently promoted; a trooper who engaged in sexual activity in his patrol car and received only token punishment, and of a trooper who repeatedly was asleep in his bed when he was supposed to be on patrol.

Those stories were capped with the infamous San Diego trip by 17 state troopers to see Edmonson win a national award. Four of those troopers went by car and took a side trip to the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and to Las Vegas. Only after that story broke did Gov. Edwards finally step in to force Edmonson’s retirement.

• LouisianaVoice broke the story of how Troy Hebert used his position as head of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) to coerce a restaurant manager in New Orleans to have sex with him in exchange for his granting her restaurant a liquor license.
• LouisianaVoice broke the story that revealed that Superintendent of Education John White had entered into a surreptitious agreement with Rupert Murdoch to provide personal student information to Murdoch’s company, News Corp., the parent company of Fox News.

https://louisianavoice.com/2013/02/20/doe-emails-reveal-secretive-programs-ties-to-gates-rupert-murdoch-and-fox-news-network-agency-in-general-disarray/

• We also broke stories that illustrated how State Sen. Conrad Appel profited by investing in a Microsoft program just as his committee approved the program for use in Louisiana schools and we showed how State Rep. Chris Broadwater who previously oversaw the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) went to work for SAS, a consulting firm within weeks of his office’s awarding a $4.2 million contract to the firm.

https://louisianavoice.com/2014/01/08/legislator-former-owc-director-took-job-with-firm-within-weeks-after-his-office-awarded-company-4-million-contract/

• We wrote about how former Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, skating perilously close to violation of the state’s ethics laws, took a job with Ochsner Health System after the Division of Administration under her watch signed a contract that contained, among other things, including 50 blank pages, provisions for Ochsner to assist Southern Regional Medical Corp., whose only member is Terrebonne General Medical Center, in the operation of Leonard Chabert Medical Center.

https://louisianavoice.com/2015/09/17/more-on-kristys-new-job-it-seems-ochsner-gets-17-6-million-for-running-chabert-hospital/

• Only LouisianaVoice published a complete list of oil and gas contributions to each legislator that showed precisely why legislators were reluctant to pursue litigation against oil companies for destroying our marshes and coastal waterways.
• And of course, LouisianaVoice wrote extensively about how Bobby Jindal attempted to railroad former ATC Director Murphy Painter because Painter refused to circumvent state requirements in order to issue a liquor permit for Tom Benson’s Champion Square. Jindal not only fired Painter, but even went so far as to trump up criminal charges against Painter, who was acquitted after a federal trial.

https://louisianavoice.com/2014/10/24/another-embarrassment-for-jindal-ex-atc-commissioner-murphy-painter-wins-defamation-suit-against-his-accuser/

• LouisianaVoice was the first—and only—outlet to suggest that Painter was being framed by Jindal.

https://louisianavoice.com/2013/02/06/emerging-claims-lawsuits-could-transform-murphy-painter-from-predator-to-all-too-familiar-victim-of-jindal-reprisals/

LouisianaVoice does not accept advertising for obvious reasons (though I have noticed that WordPress has of late begun slipping ads in at the bottom of my stories—against my wishes and certainly not to my financial gain).

Our only alternative is to charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee, which I am holding off doing as long as possible because I want LouisianaVoice stories to be available to anyone who wishes to read them.

Only through your generous support can I continue to do what I do. What started initially as a blog devoted solely to news about state agencies, has mushroomed into requests to investigate local government, including courts, judges, school boards, sheriffs’ offices and even cold case murders.

I sincerely attempt to look into all requests (except matters involving family disputes; I leave that to the family courts). This takes time and money. I am encountering more and more resistance to my requests for public records which in turn, is going to require legal action. That costs money.

Out of town trips are not free and gasoline is not cheap.

Your financial support is the only thing that keeps LouisianaVoice churning out stories about official wrongdoing.

Our goal is $20,000.

You can give by credit card by clicking on the yellow “Donate” button at the right or you can mail your contribution to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, LA. 70727

If you value freedom of the press and if you appreciate what we do, please help keep the stories coming.

And please forward this post on Facebook.

Thank you.

Tom Aswell, publisher

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The Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) and its legal counsel, Floyd Falcon, went to great lengths last year to inform the general public and the media that LSTA was not a public entity and had no official affiliation with Louisiana State Police (LSP).

The issue of separation was invoked on several occasions not only by LSTA and Falcon but by Natchitoches attorney Taylor Townsend, retained by the Louisiana State Police Commission LSPC to investigate illegal campaign contributions by LSTA.

That position was taken in an effort to thwart an investigation by Townsend of the contributions. It worked. Townsend, in his report back to LSPC recommended that “no action be taken.”

LSTA, LSPC, Falcon and Townsend repeatedly said LSPC had no jurisdiction to investigate LSTA, a private, non-profit organization, because it was not affiliated with LSP and that there was no connection between state police and the association other than association members were active and retired State Troopers.

But when four retired troopers appeared before LSPC (the state police equivalent of the State Civil Service Board) to complain about the political contributions (including $10,000 each to Bobby Jindal and John Bel Edwards in their respective campaigns for governor), they were promptly drummed out of the association on the recommendation of the Troop A (Baton Rouge headquarters) affiliate chapter of LSTA.

But wait.

At least two of the retirees (Leon “Bucky” Millet of Lake Arthur, one of the original four retirees to complain of the contributions and another retiree we shall call Lawrence because he prefers that his name not be revealed because he is still an LSTA member, last week received an invitation to attend a “Retiree BBQ” on Oct. 12 at the LSTA offices at 8120 Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge.

The invitation asked that invitees “Please RSVP to Karen Schexnayder.” Schexnayder is an administrative Assistant for the Office of Motor Vehicles which like LSP, is part of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

But here’s the real kicker:

Included at the bottom of the invitation so as to make it easier to RSVP was a state email address for Schexnayder.

Here is the LSTA invitation, forwarded to LouisianaVoice by Lawrence:

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

So if LSTA, LSPC, LSP, Floyd Falcon, and Taylor Townsend all insist that LSTA is a separate entity from LSP (LSTA officers receive a stipend from LSTA for their service on the board), how is it that Schexnayder, clearly a Department of Public Safety (DPS) employee, is performing clerical work for a private organization that insists there is no connection between it and LSP?

The same question occurred to our friend Lawrence a couple of years ago when he requested the email addresses of LSTA board members. That email list was provided to Lawrence on Nov. 15, 2015, by LSTA employee Hillary Moses via the following email:

From: Hillary H. Moses

Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 10:35 PM

To:

Subject: Re:

Hello Mr.:

Below, I have listed the information you requested. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Exec. Director David.T.Young@la.gov

President Stephen.Lafargue@la.gov

HQ Rodney.Hyatt@la.gov

A Derek.Sentino@la.gov

B Chris.P.Brown@la.gov 

C Larry.Badeaux@la.gov

D Chance.Thomas@la.gov

E Christopher.Wright@la.gov

F Edwin.Knowles@la.gov (Kirk)

G Hackley.Willis@la.gov

I Dale.Latham@la.gov

L James.O’Quinn@la.gov 

Retiree Doussan.Rando@la.gov

Young, the LSTA Executive Director, is not a state employee nor is he a retired state trooper, so it’s puzzling why he would have a state email address. (But then, all those campaign contributions were laundered through Young’s personal checking account and he simply submitted expense receipts for reimbursement, so with so much chicanery taking place at LSTA, why the hell not give him a state email account?)

Lawrence, upon receiving his retiree barbecue invitation, decided to see if LSTA board members were still listing their state email addresses as their contact emails—a practice that is against state ethics laws. So, at 12:46 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 18) he sent the following email below to Moses:

From:
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 12:46 PM
To: Hillary H. Moses
Subject:

“Hillary, thanks for your email. I have this email from you from 2015 which lists all the board of directors then.  If you notice, all the email addresses are government email address.   Are you telling me now that you and the LSTA are now in charge of government email address?  Has this information been a policy change?  

It didn’t take long for a response. Nine minutes later, at 12:55 p.m., Moses assured Lawrence that state email addresses are no longer used for LSTA correspondence:

From: Hillary Moses

Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 12:55 PM

To:

Subject:

The Association no longer uses state government e-mail addresses for the purpose of LSTA correspondence.

Hillary H. Moses

Louisiana State Troopers Association

(225)928-2000

www.LATroopers.org

At 2:14 p.m., Lawrence emailed LouisianaVoice his take on Moses’s response:

From:
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 2:14 PM
To: Tom Aswell
Subject:

I beg to differ as spelled out on the retiree invitation.

Millet was not content with merely voicing his disgust to LouisianaVoice. He responded directly to the Troop A Affiliate President who just happens to be the one who made the motion to revoke the memberships of the four retirees:

From: Bucky Millet <teammoonlite@yahoo.com>
Date: September 14, 2017 at 5:00:01 PM CDT
To: “karen.schexnayder@la.gov” <karen.schexnayder@la.gov>
Cc: Kevin Reeves <kevin.reeves@la.gov>
Subject: Retiree BBQ

Troop A Affiliate President Derek Sentino: 

I would like to respectfully decline your invitation to the retiree BBQ. As documented in the LSTA minutes, you apparently, on behalf of the Troop A affiliate, made the original motion to remove me and three other members, two of whom were Lifetime vested (47 years), and two others who were long-term members. 

All four were in good standing until they were so bold as to shed light on unethical and illegal actions taken by the LSTA.  As you are quite aware the LSTA has signed a consent agreement admitting to some of the violations and a fine was required.  

The four members honorably served their country—three in Vietnam and one in Iraq in addition to serving the people of the State of Louisiana. 

I would wonder if the money to be spent for the BBQ could be used to better serve the 20-plus retired members who were flooded. Apparently the LSTA found money to provide $1,000 to the active members who flooded. 

They also find money for gifts and entertainment for the legislators and Governor.

The remaining retired members need to realize that they are apparently considered as has-beens.

Apparently to be part of “THE BLUE BROTHERHOOD,” 

1.You must be an active member.

2.You must be able to violate the oath that you have taken and overlook unethical and illegal behavior.

Leon “Bucky” Millet

So, the bottom line is this: Someone must address the question in clear and convincing terms of whether or not LSTA is actually an independent organization as it claims or does it have the tacit approval to co-mingle its activities and correspondence through LSP by calling on the services of state employees and state email?

From where we sit, the lines are hopelessly blurred.

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“As those items become obsolete at the military level and if they become available, why not get ’em?”

—Fort Valley State University associate professor of criminal justice Michael Qualls, on Program 1033, whereby university police may obtain military weaponry, including armored trucks, M-16s, and other assault weapons. (By that logic, universities might wish to look into obtaining decommissioned battleships, submarines and even a few dozen “obsolete” nuclear bombs, along with a couple of mothballed B-52 bombers to deliver them.)

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Norris Greenhouse Jr. And Derrick Stafford are the two Marksville deputy marshals who opened fire on Chris Few, wounding the 26-year-old man and killing his six-year-old son in November 2015.

As an update on that story, Stafford was sentenced to 40 years in prison last March. HERE is the Acadiana Advocate’s story about his sentencing.

Greenhouse is on a Caribbean vacation to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Read the story HERE.

The presiding judge, upon learning of Greenhouse’s Caribbean trip, has ordered a contempt and bail revocation hearing for him on Sept. 8.

The two officers opened fire on Few after a two-mile chase last Nov. 3.

Stafford was tried and convicted of manslaughter after a jury rejected his claim that he felt threatened by Few and acted out of self-defense. A video of the shooting, captured on a third officer’s body cam, showed Few raising his hands out the window of his compact vehicle during the shooting. First-grader Jeremy Mardis, Few’s six-year-old son, was struck and killed in the hail of gunfire.

On Wednesday (Aug. 30), Avoyelles Today said in its online edition that Ruth Wisher, press secretary for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, confirmed that Greenhouse is on a vacation cruise. She said Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office had no prior knowledge of his trip out of the country.

Greenhouse is currently out of jail on $1 million bond while awaiting his scheduled Oct. 2 trial on charges of second degree murder.

One condition of Greenhouse’s bond is that he must wear an ankle bracelet so that his movements may be monitored. Defendants on bail are allowed to travel and their whereabout are supposed to be monitored but prosecutors were apparently unaware of Greenhouse’s trip to the Caribbean. Ruth Wisher, press secretary for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, confirmed that Greenhouse is on a vacation cruise but said Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office had no prior knowledge of his trip out of the country.

This is the same attorney general’s office that, after 16 months still has not concluded its investigation of a rape of a 17-year-old female meth user in a Union Parish jail cell even though the identities of the victim and the rapist are known to investigators.

If AG investigators cannot nail down the details of a rape that occurred in the limited confines of a parish jail cell, it’s little wonder they were unable to keep up with the whereabouts of a murder suspect—even one wearing an ankle bracelet. https://louisianavoice.com/2017/08/30/16-months-after-teenage-girl-raped-in-union-parish-detention-center-ags-office-says-the-matter-still-under-investigation/

The story of Greenhouse’s trip and the attorney general’s confirmation was posted on Avoyelles Today’s online news service after the story was first posted on the Avoyelles Watchdogs for Justice internet blog site.

12th Judicial District Court Judge William Bennett, apparently more concerned about the unannounced cruise than AG Landry, on Thursday (Aug. 31) issued an order for Greenhouse to appear at a bail hearing on constructive contempt of court for his violation of home monitoring provisions. The hearing is set for Sept. 8 at 11 a.m. at which time Bennett will issue a ruling on whether Greenhouse’s bail should be revoked.

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Both the chair and co-chair positions on the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) are now vacant with the resignations of the seventh and eighth members from the commission in the past 12 months.

Commission co-chair Monica Manzella is the latest to step down from the commission. There has been no official announcement but both her name and that of former chairman, State Trooper T.J. Doss, have been removed from the names of commissioners listed on the LSPC Internet home page.

LouisianaVoice also has learned that Doss may have claimed he was working during the time he was in a movie and later in a Baton Rouge hotel with Manzella.

Doss resigned last Friday after being called into the office of State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves after he and Manzella were observed emerging from a movie while he was on the clock. When they exited the theater, Doss was carrying two mugs which the theater gives to patrons when they purchase beer. Soft drinks are sold in plastic cups.

Doss and Manzella were recorded on video and still camera last Thursday as they first exited Baton Rouge’s Movie Tavern and less than an hour later as they checked into front desk of the Watermark Hotel in downtown Baton Rouge. Manzella was filmed putting her arm around Doss as they checked into the hotel and then the pair immediately got on an elevator, presumably to their room.

https://louisianavoice.com/2017/08/10/chair-co-chair-of-state-police-commission-apparently-share-more-than-a-professional-relationship-check-into-br-hotel/

Although neither is married, the fact that both served on the commission that hears trooper disciplinary appeals and which approves the Louisiana State Police (LSP) pay grid, could pose as problematic because of their potential influence on each other’s votes on those and other issues that come before the commission.

Doss’s time sheet, obtained by LouisianaVoice via a public records request, indicates he claimed to be in last Thursday’s (August 10) LSPC meeting for five hours, from 7 a.m. to noon, when in fact, the meeting, which did not begin until 9 a.m., lasted less than an hour. Those five hours were listed on his time sheet as “shift differential pay hours.”

Additionally, he claimed 10 hours, from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday. During at least part of that time, from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m., he and Manzella were in Movie Tavern and from there, were in the hotel until almost 7 p.m.

T.J. DOSS TIME SHEET

Photos taken by LouisianaVoice document that the last photo, of Doss’s state vehicle parked in a city police parking space curbside opposite the hotel entrance, was taken at 6:29 p.m., which means he was on the clock and being paid while he was with Manzella from 3 p.m. until at least 6:30 p.m.

His time sheet indicates that he was traveling from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, where he lives, from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m.

After publication of the photos of the two leaving the theater and later checking into the hotel, he was called back to Baton Rouge and met with Reeves from noon on Friday until 2:30 p.m. and submitted his resignation from the LSPC shortly thereafter.

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