Louisiana Voice

“Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

—Pat Robertson

“The Antichrist is probably a Jew alive in Israel today.”

—Pat Robertson

“I have a zero tolerance for sanctimonious morons who try to scare people.”

—Pat Robertson

“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

“When you lose half of your IQ, you’re only left with “Q”.

—Two observations in response to NBC story about QAnon.

A West Monroe woman is suing Ouachita Parish Sheriff Jay Russell and Deputy Timothy G. Fischer in federal district court after Fischer allegedly entered her home illegally in search of another individual.

Leslie L. Stuart claims in her petition filed in Louisiana’s Western District in Monroe that Fischer, after being told that the person he was looking for, Mark Jones, was not at her home, drew his weapon. When she told Fischer he needed to leave her property, he placed her in handcuffs and placed her in his patrol car.

Fischer later released her from his vehicle but then placed her, while still handcuffed, in her home where she remained cuffed “for a significant period of time” as the deputy entered her home without cause and without a search warrant and “began rummaging about.”

Her lawsuit claims that despite the deputy’s claim that he was look for an individual, he “went through any number of complainant’s personal possession(s) and items, damaging a great many of these items, including a number of ‘collectibles’ that complainant had accumulated over the years.”

She is claiming damages from batter committed on her by Fischer who she claims, along with Sheriff Russell, is also guilty of:

• Deliberate indifference for legal standards in treating suspects;
• Disregard for probable cause, a history of recklessness and disregard for prohibitions against use of unnecessary for[ce];
• Failing to adequately train law enforcement personnel in the proper exercise of their duties and authority, and encouraging and sanctioning improper practices;
• Failure to promulgate proper training policies, practices and procedures to prevent occurrences such as the one which complainant alleges;
• Facilitating, condoning and approving such conduct and turning a blind eye towards same with a deliberate indifference to the effect that said policies, practices and procedure{s} have upon the constitutional rights of person.

Stuart, through her attorney, Lavalle B. Salomon, takes the position that neither Russell nor Fischer may claim qualified immunity because the conduct described in her petition “violates established law and is not objectively reasonable. The sheriff’s representatives used excessive force in their detention and treatment of complainant, who was not a suspect and not a criminal or perpetrator.”

Qualified immunity is a judicially created doctrine that shields government officials from being held personally liable for constitutional violations—like the right to be free from excessive police force —for money damages under federal law so long as the officials did not violate “clearly established” law.

The actions of Russell and his deputy, she claims, “were not related to any legitimate state objective, but were in bad faith, malicious, and with deliberate indifference to complainant’s rights, and with callous and reckless disregard for the same.

“[I]s there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) can do to change the course of the moon’s orbit or the Earth’s orbit around the sun? Obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate.”

—U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), in a question put to Jennifer Eberlien, associate deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service, during a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Tuesday. (They walk among us.)

Speculation has begun on Paul Mainieri’s successor as head baseball coach at LSU with The Baton Rouge Advocate’s report today that former Oregon State University Coach Pat Casey was interested in the position.

I’ve never met the 62-year-old Casey but I feel hiring him could be problematic from a public relations standpoint for LSU.

LSU is in the throes of an investigation of systemic sexual harassment in its athletic program, from former head football coach Les Miles and claims of individual players assaulting and even beating women. With the investigations and lawsuits over various claims swirling, hiring Casey might raise a few eyebrows.

He was coach of Oregon State 24 years, compiling a 900-458-6 record that included six College World Series appearances and three national championships (2006, 2007 and 2018). He was named national coach of the year five times.

But his tenure also included its own controversy in the manner in which he handled the admission by pitcher Luke Heimlich that he had molested his six-year-old niece when he was 15.

When world of his guilty plea surfaced in 2018, he withdrew from the Beavers’ CWS roster but vehemently denied the accusation to Sports Illustrated, saying that he “accepted a plea deal only to avoid a trial and jail time and to keep his schooling and baseball on track.”

If you know anything about police intimidation and overly aggressive prosecutors, you also know his claim is believable.

Without speculating on his guilt or innocence, it’s common for police, whenever a suspect fails to invoke his privilege to remain silent or to ask for an attorney, to browbeat the suspect into a confession just to end the barrage of accusations and questions. There are many documented cases of innocent people admitting guilt after hours upon hours of grilling just so they can sleep or go to the bathroom.

I know there are those who insist they would never admit to a crime they didn’t commit, but until you’re subjected to that kind of treatment, you really don’t know how strong or weak your resolve would be until you actually find yourself in that situation.

It’s also common for prosecutors to rely on jailhouse snitches and to threaten arrestees with humiliating trials and long sentences unless they plea to a lesser charge. Those kinds of deals are often accepted just to end the ordeal – even if the suspect is totally innocent. Moreover, there are documented cases where innocent persons are convicted and have served long sentences before exculpatory evidence surfaces that clears their names.

Even then, some are threatened with a new trial unless they plea to a lesser charge in order to get released for time already served. That’s an underhanded way for prosecutors to avoid legal action: if there is a guilty plea, even to a lesser charge, it’s hard to win a lawsuit against police or prosecutors.

That’s a lot of verbiage to get to the point that LSU could be buying a lot of bad PR if Casey is hired.

There are some other viable candidates for the job, though they have yet to express any interest in the position, But it’s a sure bet they’d be tempted by a huge increase in salary from what they’re presently being paid.

There’s Lane Burroughs up at Louisiana where the Bulldogs just compiled a 42-20 record and came within one win of advanced to a super-regional playoff against number one Arkansas. From a personal standpoint, I would not like that. Tech is my Alma Mater and I’d just as soon see Burroughs continue to develop my favorite sport in Ruston.

And then there is Jeff Willis.

Who?

Exactly. Willis has seemingly labored in obscurity as athletic director and head baseball coach at LSU-Eunice. He is fresh from leading the Bengals to an astonishing 51-7 record and the school’s seventh junior college national championship. That’s two more championships than LSU won under the legendary Skip Bertman.

Yes, I know junior college is not the Southeast Conference. No one would ever venture such a claim. But still, he assembled the players (three All-Americans on this year’s team), coached them and won against his peers.

And no one knows the difference between coaching a small program and one like LSU better than Smoke Laval who succeeded Bertman when he came in from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Even though he took the Tigers to the CWS, he never seemed like the proper fit and was eventually sent packing in favor or Manieri.

Still, it would be nice to see LSU name a proven local talent for the job.

Meanwhile, the 2021 version of Manieri Tigers are still very much alive in their quest to punch another ticket to Omaha.

Go Tigers!