Louisiana Voice

Motivated solely by curiosity I asked a long-time respected (now retired nuts & bolts) reporter in Monroe, Louisiana, recently if the media there had covered the still exploding scandal involving the hierarchy of the Louisiana State Police and the Governor’s alleged “stacking” of the LSP Commission which acts as a kind of Civil Service Board in order to allegedly protect the top people at LSP accused of various improprieties. Coverage of this has occupied a lot of television air time in south Louisiana for the past week or so along with plenty of space in the major newspapers in that region of the state. Herewith, a verbatim transcript of that conversation:

Me: “Has the Monroe media reported ANY of the Louisiana State Police Scandal?”

Retired newspaperman: “Not only NO, but HELL no!”

Me: “Why do you suppose that is?”

Retired newspaperman: “There really are no local media left.”

I’d mark that as a sad commentary for an area the size of Monroe-West Monroe which boasts three network-affiliated television stations, a Gannett daily, and at least two community-oriented weeklies. It’s enough to make you wonder if this is the kind of thinking that could put northeast Louisiana back behind the infamous “cowhide curtain.”

—Email received by LouisianaVoice from retired Monroe investigative reporter Ken Booth, now living in Arizona.

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Folks, I don’t want to claim any undue credit (after all, it was The Baton Rouge Advocate that broke the story about the trip to San Diego by 15 State Police personnel).

But I believe I can honestly say if LouisianaVoice had not broken the original story about State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson’s attempt to pad his retirement income illegally way back in 2014, none of the ensuing stories would ever have come to light.

If Louisiana Voice had not revealed all the other questionable practices at LSP—promotions of those with prescription drug addictions, troopers smuggling underage women into gambling casinos illegally, a trooper having sex with a woman in the back seat of his state patrol car, troopers being paid for being on the clock when in fact they were in the sack—the San Diego trip would never have been a blip on anyone’s radar.

If LouisianaVoice had not broken the story about the Louisiana State Troopers’ Association laundering money through its executive director to political campaigns—again, illegally—the practice would probably never have come to light.

And these are just the stories about State Police. We cover them all. We broke the story about Superintendent of Education John White’s plan to share sensitive student data with Rupert Murdoch. We revealed practices by White and Jindal’s staff to communicate via private email accounts in order to hide their activities from the public.

It was LouisianaVoice that broke the story about the shredding of documents at the Department of Health and Hospitals much to the consternation of the Secretary of State’s office. And it was LouisianaVoice that keeps you informed about state contracts going to big campaign donors.

It was LouisianaVoice that first revealed that former director of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control Murphy Painter was being set up by Jindal. It was LouisianaVoice that informed you of the activities of Painter’s successor Troy Hebert, including highly questionable activities involving a female restaurant manager in New Orleans.

And finally, it was LouisianaVoice that helped rein in the State Dentistry Board and to curb its illegal practices of extorting heavy fines from practicing dentists with threats of license revocations.

If you agree that we’ve done a pretty fair job of monitoring the activities of our elected and appointed officials, I ask that you consider helping defray our legal, travel, insurance, and research costs.

Doing this isn’t free even though we do not charge a subscription fee nor do we accept advertising.

We rely on your generosity and we only do this twice a year. The current fundraiser will run only a few more days.

Please help us continue our efforts. You may click on the yellow “DONATE” button to the right to contribute by credit card or you may send checks or money orders to:

Capital News Service/LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, LA 70727

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Feb. 22, 2017

Dear Governor Edwards:

This letter is to serve as my resignation from the Louisiana State Police Commission.

The commission cannot function as a Civil Service Board with the people you have allowed Col. Edmonson to place on the commission.

Col. Edmonson does whatever he chooses to do. He has no credibility when it comes to the truth, lavish spending, accepting of gifts, taking credit for awards others have earned, destroying evidence, and the list goes on and on.

Col Edmonson has brought shame and disgrace to the honest men and women of the State Police. They deserve better.

I won’t be a part of or participate in a commission that has no integrity or purpose but to rubber stamp what corrupt leadership desires.

May you continue to enjoy the “hayride” for three more years.

Respectfully,

Lloyd Grafton

U.S. Special Agent (Retired)

Associate Professor of Criminal Justice

Ruston, Louisiana

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LouisianaVoice has learned that U.S. Sen. John Kennedy is calling for the resignation of beleaguered Superintendent of State Police Mike Edmonson.

Given the strained relationship between Kennedy and Gov. John Bel Edwards, however, that call isn’t likely to have much sway with the governor.

Nevertheless, it is the first public call by an elected official for Edmonson to step down.

Edmonson was first appointed by former Gov. Bobby Jindal in January 2008 and was reappointed by Edwards when he took office in January 2016.

Before his appointment by Jindal, Edmonson was best known as the constant companion of LSU coaches Nick Saban and Les Miles as he stood ready to protect the two coaches from any hostile fans bent on doing bodily harm to the coaches and were able to first get past 100 beefy football players to get to the coaches. (Well, you come up with a better theory; that’s the best we could come up with.)

Kennedy, you might remember, even weighed in on that controversial Act 859 of 2014 which temporarily awarded Edmonson a $55,000-per-year retirement increase bump. In a special LouisianaVoice guest COLUMN, he called on then-House Speaker Chuck Kleckley to call for an investigation of the Act, pushed through in the closing minutes of the 2014 legislative session by State Sen. Neil Riser (R-Columbia).

Ironically, it was then-State Rep. John Bel Edwards who had requested that Kleckley conduct the investigation.

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This is a special appeal to the dedicated, hard-working State Troopers who read this blog and who are fed up with the way LSP Command in Baton Rouge has repeatedly embarrassed you, humiliated you, and punished you while taking care of their own.

Those of you who read LouisianaVoice on a regular basis know that the criticisms of LSP Command is not directed at you but instead is aimed at improving your morale and restoring the respect once bestowed upon you and your profession by Louisiana citizens.

It is in that spirit that I include you in this request to help support LouisianaVoice in its continued efforts to investigate official wrongdoing at all levels of state government—not just within the Department of Public Safety.

Every person who reads LouisianaVoice has a stake in cleaning up Louisiana’s sordid political image—from the governor’s office down to local sheriffs, police juries, school boards and mayors’ offices.

I am a retired state employee on a fixed income, so my financial resources are limited.

And it takes time and money to run down the many leads I get from readers and to pay for public records that I am constantly requesting. Occasionally, I even have to resort to filing litigation to obtain records.

This takes money.

LouisianaVoice is in the midst of a fundraiser and I humbly ask that you chip in what you can to help support efforts to keep you informed about your state and local government.

There are only two fundraisers per year and your help is desperately needed and greatly appreciated.

You may contribute by via credit card by clicking on the yellow DONATE button on the right of this post or you may send checks or money orders to:

Capital News Service/LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, LA. 70727

Thank you.

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