Louisiana Voice

Following testimony that Louisiana State Police attempted to cover up details of the beating death of Ronald Greene three years ago, comes the news that one of the troopers who participated in the Greene beating and tasing was arrested in ANOTHER INCIDENT in Troop F involving the beating of a black motorist.

Dakota DeMoss, who was among the troopers who beat and tased Greene to death on May 10, 2019, was arrested, along with fellow troopers Jacob Brown and George “Kam” Harper. Body-cam video showed them pull Antonio Harris from his vehicle in Franklin Parish in 2020 following a high-speed chase and then pile onto him, kneeing, slapping and punching him as he lay face down with his arms and legs splayed after he had surrendered.

All this comes on the heels of revelations that cheating at the State Police Academy in 2019 was far worse and more widespread than LSP command staff admitted at the time and that cadets involved in the cheating are now patrolling Louisiana’s highways as full-fledged state troopers.

On Oct. 8, 2019, duty officers assigned to the 2019 cadet class conducted an inspection of cadets’ living quarters and discovered a “burner” cellphone in the room of cadet Senette Small. Cellphones are prohibited during cadet training and Small at first denied the phone was hers. She finally admitted it was hers and she gave the passcode to investigators who discovered that the phone contained texts to other cadets concerning test material and that it also included what “appeared to be an actual ‘legal test,’” according to a copy of investigative findings provided to LouisianaVoice.

“Legal” was one of about a dozen separate disciplines cadets’ study during their stay at the LSP academy.

“They (LSP command) tried to say it was only study material, but make no mistake, it was wholesale cheating,” said retired LSP Capt. Mark Richards, one of the duty officers who conducted the inspection that revealed the existence of Small’s phone.

“She (Small) said she got the test from another cadet (Christopher Sink),” Richards said, adding that both were immediately fired. Another source, also a retired trooper, said Sink was rehired.

The same unidentified source, who leaked nearly 350 pages of interagency communications regarding the cheating investigation, said eight other cadets who resigned or were fired were also rehired but Richards said the number was actually four who resigned and were rehired.

In a memorandum from Richards to Lt. David Ryerson, Richards said an inspection of the mobile data terminal (MDT) of cadet Michael Starling contained an online chat with his wife (all outside communications are also prohibited during the time cadets attend the academy) that said, “Just took the test…it was the same one I got from (Garrett) Yetman.” Richards wrote that Starling “appears to be referencing the ‘Domestic & Family Matters’ exam…”

Yetman would go on to become a full-fledge state trooper but would be placed on leave after being ARRESTED in February of this year for domestic abuse.

“When we first reported the cheating the Col. Reeves (former State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves), he was adamant about punishing everyone involved, even if it meant firing every cadet in the class (of 2019),” Richards said.

“But when we told him that the cheating likely went back five years or more and involved current road troopers, former cadets, he immediately softened his approach.”

Asked why that was, Richards replied, “You were correct that Reeves was afraid the legislature wouldn’t fund another class if the extent of the cheating was revealed. Plus, Reeves’s son had gone through the academy just a few years before – more than five years, but who’s to say his class wasn’t involved? Also, the LSP command had sons and stepsons and children of friends who had gone through the academy in that five-year period.”

This would include as many as 50 to 100 cadets who may have been members of what the Department calls “Legacy” classes (immediate family members of LSP command staff, supervisors and troop commanders, and prominent politicians), according to Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet, a retired state trooper. That could obviously creat a potentially explosive situation should it be revealed that any of those were involved in cheating.

Now, a little more than two years after the cheating was revealed, the intern who sources say stole test and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) material, Tia Laverdain, is now a state trooper assigned to Internal Affairs (IA) and working under the supervision of her mother, Treone Laverdain. Their uncle is State Rep. Ed Laverdain (D-Alexandria).

Treone Laverdain was named, along with then-IA Commander Capt. Chavez Cammon and Master Trooper Kevin Ducote, as having conspired to cover up the Ronald Greene death at the hands of Troop F troopers. Treone Laverdain has since been promoted to the rank of major.

“I advocated terminating the entire class,” said Richards. “But I met opposition from LSP command and from legal. LSP’s executive legal counsel at the time, Faye Morrison even said of the cheating, ‘That’s how I got through law school.’ I was incredulous that she would say such a thing.”

A third LSP retiree said Richards was targeted by LSP administration dating back to the Mike Edmonson era. “The fact is Mark was one of the guys who was questioning all of the ethical silliness that Edmonson demonstrated in his last few years and it turns out he was correct to do so,” he said.

“They tried to isolate Mark and discredit his work and things didn’t get much better when Reeves came along. I suspect the administration’s handling (or mishandling) of the “cheating” scandal probably pushed him to retire.

“I was disappointed by every colonel I ever worked for over one issue or another, but despite those disagreements, they always managed make the necessary correction and stay an honorable course. Until now. 

“It breaks my heart to watch this slow-motion train derailment. It didn’t happen overnight and it will take a couple of generations for trust to be restored.  What started as an ethical erosion during Edmonson’s tenure evolved into something much worse under Reeves–the revelation of a rogue segment of the agency where arrogance and power became an operating norm.  And everyone implicated in north Louisiana had one thing in common: they either were hired, promoted or supervised by Kevin Reeves.  He is the common denominator, and I’m offended that his last comments to the committee taking testimony were not an acknowledgement of the tragedy of Ronald Greene’s death but rather that when he meets his maker, he will not have to account for participating in a coverup of Green’s death. Pardon me for questioning his faith, but where I come from, he’d be considered a hypocrite.”

The leak of nearly 350 pages of explosive confidential Louisiana State Police (LSP) internal documents shows to what extent LSP is willing to go to cover up scandals in order to protect its image as Louisiana’s premier law enforcement agency.

The failure of two members of the Special House Committee to Inquire into the Circumstances and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene to even acknowledge the receipt of documents on Monday may be an indication of just how serious the committee is in ferreting out details of Greene’s death in May 2019 and punishing those responsible.

Committee members likewise have shown reluctance to look into the physical abuse of former New Orleans attorney Ashton O’Dwyer by State Police from Troop F in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina despite his sending documents to the committee.

The internal communications contain information about an investigation into a cheating scandal by State Police cadets. The investigation was initiated in October 2019, just five months after Greene was beaten and tased to death by Troop F officers.

LSP quickly initiated damage control in what could have been a growing cheating scandal, fearing admission to widespread cheating could threaten future funding by the legislature of academy training.

Coming as it did on the heels of the Greene death, LSP command officials were desperate to conceal the fact that a copy of tests and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) materials were stolen from the academy in 2018 by intern Tia Lavardain.

Tia Lavardain is the DAUGHTER of LSP Internal Affairs head Treone Lavardain who it was revealed conspired with Internal Affairs Commander Capt. Chavez Cammon and Master Trooper Kevin Ducote to cover up the Greene matter, according to an email included in the trove of documents leaked to LouisianaVoice and committee chairman Tanner Magee (R-Houma) and committee member Debbie Villio (R-Kenner).

The email also claimed that LSP Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis “is aware of this.”

Treone Lavardain is the niece of State Rep. Ed Lavardain, III (D-Alexandria).

Neither Magee nor Villio, who were sent copies of the documents, has acknowledged their receipt.

The email said that retired LSP Superintendent Col. Kevin Reeves “likely has …information in his journal regarding …the academy staff’s recommendation of terminating an entire academy class” because Reeves “did not want the legislature to find out about it because he was worried you all (members of the legislature) would vote against funding another academy after they all got caught cheating.”

On Wednesday, the three-year anniversary of Greene’s death, the committee voted unanimously to hold Reeves in CONTEMPT and fined him $5,000 for his refusal to turn over handwritten journals he kept while serving as superintendent of LSP. If the contempt citation is affirmed by the full House, lawmakers will ask a court to compel Reeves to surrender three handwritten journals.

The email also said that Chavez, Ducote and Treone Lavardain “all conspired to cover the Ronald Greene murder and discredit the training academy and Sgt. Scott Davis, just in case they spoke out.”

Davis was said to have become aware of an online chat between Cadet Michael Starling and his wife in which Starling admitted to having a copy of an exam that he obtained from Cadet Garrett Yetman. That discovery led to revelations of more widespread cheating on the part of cadets.

Cadets were found to possess copies of POST lesson plans, LSP exams and a copy of the POST exam.

Conflicts in the cheating investigation and the IA investigation into Greene’s death were compounded by the fact that Cammon had been involved in sexual relations with a cadet from Troop I in Lafayette who was in the 2019 class, the email said. The female cadet had even made a snap chat video claiming she was “hooking up with the captain of Internal Affairs.” Cammon made her delete the snap chat from her cellphone.

He was subsequently transferred to Public Affairs.

The source of the leaked documents said that Lt. Col. Doug Cain was aware of the cheating scandal but claimed that cheating was “not substantiated.” Cain is currently on paid administrative lead in connection with the Greene matter.

LSP ultimately said cheating had been limited to the activities of two cadets who were fired. What was not said was that one of those was rehired and that eight others resigned but were allowed to “un-resign.”

Starling was one of those who was fired and later reinstated “when they (LSP) went into coverup mode,” the source said.

“Faye Morrison, the former lead counsel for state police, allowed these people to be hired back after being fired and resigning,” one of the emails said. “[This was] unprecedented.”  

“[Col. Lamar] Davis, Chavez [Cammon], Morrison and Cane (sic) are fully aware.  The current captain of the training academy, who was Doug Cain’s right-hand-man and the former Captain of the training academy, Mark Richards, are fully aware of this.”

There are probably more Marxists on college faculties in the United States than in all of Eastern Europe combined. They don’t want to go back to communism.”

– Ron (I wanna be Joe McCarthy) DeSantis

This quote, posted by The Hayride, shows just how unhinged DeSantis really is. One would almost believe he never even sat in a college classroom. Wonder where he learned to froth at the mouth?

A judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers, concerning a pending* or impending matter.

–Rule 2.9: Ex Parte Communications, Code of Judicial Conduct

The Louisiana Supreme Court heard ARGUMENTS yesterday in the case of convicted killer Reginald Reddick but far more than Reddick’s case is at stake in the court’s eventual decision.

Call me jaded, but I would be surprised, yea stunned, if there were not some ex parte communications between state district attorneys and certain justices on the Supreme Court.

The reason I feel this way is obvious: Depending on the court’s ruling, as many as 1500 prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, 80 percent of whom are black and who, like Redick, were convicted by split jury verdicts, could be eligible for re-trial.

Imagine the logistics involved in state district courts in 64 parishes having to suddenly schedule new trials for 1500 defendants – an average of 23 per parish – in a system already hopelessly backlogged with pending cases.

Reddick’s case centers around whether or not a 2020 US Supreme Court ruling striking down split verdicts should be retroactive.

Louisiana and Oregon were the last states in which a person could be convicted in a non-capital felony case by a vote of 10 of 12 jurors. Capital cases have always required a unanimous verdict but as late as 1973, Louisiana allowed 9-3 split verdicts. That was changed at the state constitution convention that year to 10-2.

The split verdicts were allowed as a means of maintaining “the supremacy of the white race” by basically negating the presence of blacks on juries and as an easier route to conviction of black defendants who the state would incarcerate and then lease out to private companies for cheap labor.

But in 2018, Louisiana voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring unanimous verdicts in jury trials for cases initiated on Jan. 1, 2019, or later.

The US Supreme Court, ruling in the Jefferson Parish case of Ramos v. Louisiana two years ago, said that non-unanimous verdicts were unconstitutional. The court mandated new trials for defendants with split-jury verdicts who were in the appeal process but did not apply to those who had exhausted their appeals.

In another case, Edwards v. Vannoy, the US Supreme Court ruled against making those cases retroactive and now Reddick is hoping the Louisiana Supreme Court will do what the US court would not.

Fat chance.

Not to trivialize the importance of the potential Reddick ruling, it’s like purchasing a car on Friday only to learn that the dealer begins offering a huge rebate for the same vehicle on the following Monday. It’s not fair, but in reality, there’s not much the buyer can do.

There was a time when I made a purchase at Sears only to see the product go on sale the following week. That really happened to me back in the ‘70s and I promptly returned the item for a full refund and then turned around and purchased it at the sale price. It was a practice approved by Sears at the time.

I am not suggesting that Reddick is innocent. That was never my argument. It’s about the application of the law to all defendants on a fair and equal basis.

And in his case, you might expect that Attorney General Jeff Landry, that towering champion of human rights – NOT – would be vocal in his opposition to applying the law retroactively.

And you’d be correct.

Landry has already come out with guns blazing. Or at least one of his hired hands has. Assistant AG Shae McPhee sniffed, “At the time, Mr. Reddick…was given a trial and his due process that was due under the constitution at the time. To allow him to continually relitigate the same issue eats up the resources of the state.”

Ah. There you have it. It all comes down to a question of money. The state would dodge its responsibility in the name of avoiding inconvenience and expense.

It’s the same logic prosecutors apply in their fight to prohibit DNA testing for those who insist they were wrongly convicted of crimes. They were convicted before the general application of DNA evidence, so why should they get a new trial now? They may have been convicted because of the failure to provide exculpatory evidence, but that was the practice at the time (even though it was illegal), so why should they get a do-over?

Never mind the application of basic human rights. It’s just too damn inconvenient to prosecutors and the justice system to oblige them with a fair verdict. Scheduling these retrials will simply overload the system.

That’s the argument and if you think one or more prosecutors haven’t committed ex parte communications through back door channels to make that fact known to the justices, then I have some lovely timeshare beachfront property in Dry Prong to offer you at a good price.

If you aren’t yet convinced that the Supreme Court’s anticipated ruling striking down Roe v. Wade is not a precursor of more restrictive crackdowns on voter rights, education, housing, LGBTQ rights, civil rights, and citizens’ rights in general, then you just haven’t been paying attention.

Hell, they’re even coming after a woman’s basic right to birth control. Don’t believe me? Go HERE, HERE, HERE,HERE, HERE, HERE, and  HERE.

The validity of the threat to contraception was underscored by Sen. Ted “Cancun” Cruz’s DENIAL (Do you actually trust anything he says?).

I don’t want to sound like some hysterical conspiracy nut, but all the indications of the Repugnantcans’ end game are right there in front of us and for those who can connect the dots, the evidence is there, in boldface black and white. Just look at the laws tightening voting rights, public education curricula, LGBTQ rights, etc.

The oppressive actions of right-wing Repugnantcans are advances not-so-slowly chipping away at the rights of free Americans just as happened in Nazi Germany 80 years ago.

That’s a brash claim but one that his historically accurate. One charismatic “leader” who echoes the injustices, real or imagined, heaped upon the uneducated masses is all it takes to start such a movement. Not that Donald Trump is charismatic in any sense – just listen to his speeches at any of his rallies – but he has struck a chord with the disillusioned millions who feel the government has not responded to their needs and somehow think he actually cares about their daily struggles.

The abolishment of Roe v. Wade and Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (which has received far less attention), are about more than a woman’s right to an abortion; it’s a power grab, plain and simple.

When no exception is made for rape, incest, or for fetuses that are revealed to be hopelessly deformed, then the argument has gone far beyond right to life. In fact, the mother’s right to life in dangerous pregnancies is given no consideration by states passing repressive anti-abortion laws.

Nor is there any consistency in this spate of state laws Repugnantcan legislators are falling all over each other to enact.

Take Florida and Texas for examples. In those states, a 12-year-old girl is considered too immature to learn about slavery or other sensitive subjects like say, birth control, in a classroom environment but if she becomes pregnant by an uncle, a sibling, a cousin, or anyone else, she must carry the baby to term. Of course, after that she’s on her own; don’t bother applying for medical aid or any other type of state assistance.

When you get right down to it, there’s no one capable of more extreme cruelty than those God-fearing, family-values Repugnantcans who insist on imposing their warped values on others but are quick to exempt themselves from the rules when those rules are inconvenient – especially when a Repugnantcan’s MISTRESS turns up pregnant something that’s already happened –  Go HERE, HERE (didn’t know that about Trump, did-ya?), HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and  HERE and it’ll happen again, guaranteed.

States are beginning to consider laws making a felony offense to have an abortion for any reason. Never mind the fact that Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation; the governor is considering outlawing contraception in any form. In Texas, they’ve placed bounties on pregnant women who seek an abortion by offering monetary awards to anyone who reports a woman for having an abortion or anyone, including a physician, who gives advice on such a procedure. If that’s not turning neighbor against neighbor reminiscent of what’s done in totalitarian nations, then I have to say there’s no hope for society. We’ve become a herd of 300,000 sheep.

Right here in Louisiana, a legislator is pushing a bill that would charge a woman receiving an abortion with MURDER.

Next thing you know, the Repugnantcans will call for the enacting of Deuteronomy 22:28-29 and Exodus 22:16-17 into law:

Deuteronomy 22: 28-29:

²⁸ If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, ²⁹ he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

Exodus 22:16-17:

¹⁶If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife. ¹⁷If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins.”

Like those biblical verses, Repugnantcans think of women as property. Never forget that. And there’s little evidence to deny that they feel the same way about the rest of us.

And remember this above everything else: It’s the Repugnantcans who profess to be the party that wants government out of our lives.