Louisiana Voice

The indictment of a Livingston Parish deputy sheriff in connection with a traffic fatality in July has raised more questions than it answered.

Deputy Cory Winburn was indicted by a Livingston Parish grand jury on Monday for the accident in which Winburn crashed into a vehicle occupied by 33-year-old Christinia Estave who was taken to a Baton Rouge hospital but later died.

Winburn, who was responding to a call about a shooting incident shortly after 1 a.m. on July 15 when he rear-ended Estave’s 2004 Saturn in the southbound lane of LA. 16 north of Denham Springs. Neither Winburn nor Estave was wearing a seatbelt.

A witness said he had passed the Estave vehicle moments earlier and observed that it was stopped in the traffic lane without lights, according to information obtained by LouisianaVoice. The witness turned around to see if the driver needed assistance but by the time he returned to Estave, the collision had occurred.

It was the second time that Winburn had rear-ended another vehicle, according to a Baton Rouge TELEVISION STATION. The first resulted in a lawsuit but the litigation was subsequently dismissed. In 2018, he was fired by Ard but was rehired in 2020 after he spent about a year with the neighboring Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said the grand jury had the choice of indicting Winburn on negligent homicide or careless operation and chose to go with careless operation, a misdemeanor for which Winburn will be ticketed.

Among the questions left hanging are:

• Did Perrilloux exert undue influence on the grand jury in order to get the lesser charge? It’s common knowledge that prosecutors can influence grand juries. There’s an adage that says a skilled prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich or allow a killer to walk.
• Why did Sheriff Ard refuse to identify Winburn for nearly a full month – until he was finally identified with the indictment? Ard steadfastly refused to release any information about the accident, saying the criminal investigation had been turned over to State Police. Was that because it involved his department? He says his office is considering internal discipline for Winburn.
• Why was Estave stopped in the travel lane with her lights off? She was in 18-year-old vehicle; was she having car trouble? If so, that would explain the reduced charged against Winburn, but if so, why hasn’t Ard claimed as much?
• Why was Winburn driving a public vehicle (or any vehicle) without wearing his seatbelt? It’s the law and police in Livingston Parish periodically operate check points and ticket non-belted drivers. Seems law enforcement officials should be setting the example.

John Neely Kennedy, aka Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie, has gotten a lot of national publicity over his latest reelection ad in which he admonishes those who hate cops to “CALL A CRACKHEAD” the next time they’re in trouble.

And national publicity is exactly what he was shooting for. It was, especially with the not-so-subtle racist overtones, vintage Kennedy.

Louisiana’s answer to Foghorn Leghorn – “Son, Ah say, son, You ‘bout as useless as taste buds on a butthole” – is a throwback to Earl Long, but without the charm or the good looks. He is convinced (and he’s probably correct, given the collective depth of political perception of the average Louisiana voter) that the more homilies he can throw out, the more votes he will capture.

On President Biden’s announced intention of nominating a black woman to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, Jed Clampett, er Kennedy opined that he’d prefer a nominee “who knows a law book from a J. CREW CATALOG.”

Clever, Gomer, er Kennedy. Except when once used, you don’t keep coming back with the same line – or even a variation of it – like your earlier line which substituted L.L. Bean for L. Crew. I should know; it’s why I quit stand-up at a local comedy club. After years there, everyone in Baton Rouge had heard my joke.

And let’s not forget his opposition to all things that reek of socialism. Things like public roads and bridges, police and fire protection, water and sewer systems, public stadiums where rich athletes play, public schools, public libraries, recreation programs where your kids or grandkids play organized sports, zoos, social security, Medicare, FEMA, and the VA. And before any of you start confusing socialism with communism (they’re two entirely different philosophies), answer one question for me: what did you do with your stimulus checks you received during the pandemic? If you sent them back, you are free to criticize; If you cashed them, do not pass Go on this board game.

But what really puzzles me is why Kennedy, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and other fringe lunatic Republicans are so down on wokeness.

• Aren’t they the ones who insist that we “Don’t say gay”?
• Aren’t they the ones who insist that “offensive” books be removed, or at least relocated, in our public libraries?
• Aren’t they the ones who substituted “All Lives Matter” for “Black Lives Matter”?
• Aren’t they the ones who bitch and moan every time someone suggests a ban on assault weapons so there won’t be so many school children slaughtered?
• Aren’t they the ones who are scared to death of those hordes of murderers and rapists flooding our southern border?
• Aren’t they the ones stripping away women’s right of choice?
• Aren’t they the ones terrified of minority voting rights?

It doesn’t get any wokier than that.

Kennedy boasts in his ads that he was cited as one of the “10 most effective Republican senators in the 117^th Congress. Well, considering the competition, that designation is no great shakes.

There’s Rick Scott who, as CEO of Health Management Associates, agreed to pay a fine of $260 million for Medicare/Medicaid fraud; Ted “Cancun” Cruz, “Lapdog” Lindsey Graham, Josh “Watch Me Run” Hawley, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, and Tommy Tuberville, just to name a few of the contenders.

“All great libraries have something that will offend everyone.”

–Seen Friday on a Tee-shirt while shopping in Denham Springs.

Has anyone else noticed that the Special House Committee to Inquire into the Circumstances and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene hasn’t seemed to be in any particular hurry to move forward with its “investigation” in the past few months?

You’d think that if the committee has completed its work, it would have issued a report of its findings by now. Otherwise, what was the point of its creation unless it was to placate Greene’s family? If it has not finished its investigation, you might expect the committee to expand its probe into claims by a Louisiana State Police (LSP) detective who said he was targeted by superiors after he refused to take part in what he termed a “coverup” of Greene’s death at the hands of state troopers.

It’s been more than three years since Greene’s death, originally attributed to injuries suffered in a minor automobile crash but later revealed by video footage to have been a homicide. Only now do we learn from 3^rd JDC District Attorney John Belton that the case will go before a GRAND JURY by the end of the year.

Belton is district attorney for the parishes of Lincoln and Union. Greene’s death occurred in Union in May 2019.

Greene’s death has attracted almost as much national media attention as the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, almost exactly a year after Greene’s death.

The beating and tasing death of Greene was the latest of a string of incidents involving state police, supposedly Louisiana’s elite law enforcement agency but one that could well be headed towards a federal consent decree if it continues to exhibit an unwillingness to correct its many problems which have included beatings of other black motorists, particularly in northeast Louisiana’s Troop F, an academy cheating scandal, sexual escapades by troopers, and payroll fraud.

That special House committee put its hearings on hold at the end of the 2022 legislative session. Committee member Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge) said the committee planned to meet again but as yet…silence.

Belton was put into something of a legal bind when federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Louisiana’s Western District asked that he wait for the conclusion of their investigation before initiating state charges.

But in the end, federal prosecutors punted and turned over their files to Belton. That’s after LSP stalled and covered up and now after the House special committee is beginning to display reluctance to pursue the matter further.

LSP’s big ANNOUNCEMENT today that it has been accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project would almost seem as a defensive tactic to deflect attention from its multiple missteps over the past several years.

LSU and the Saints should be able to play defense so skillfully.

In an effort not to sound too much like TFG, aka 45, aka Don of Orange, who is never shy about sending out 20 or so emails per day, every day, Sundays included, begging for money, LouisianaVoice restricts its efforts to just twice a year – April and October. It’s October, so I remind you that we humbly solicit and need your support to do what we do here.

And what we do is to try and shine a light on the fakers, con-men, and political parasites who do not care about your concerns about health care, education, unemployment, inflation, environment, voting rights, women’s rights, and civil rights – but do care a lot about one thing and one thing only: remaining in office.

Incumbents become confortable in their positions and little by little, lose all connections to their constituents. Our job is to make them uncomfortable, if only a little bit. Even the most well-meaning officer holder can become complacent. We try to remind them that their first obligation is to the folks back home, not their reelection campaign.

To do that, we need your help. Please click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post and contribute by credit card or send your check to: Tom Aswell, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

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