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Rispone distorts LouisianaVoice Katrina recovery story to smear Edwards with claim of 2016 flood recovery contract

November 13, 2019 by tomaswell

I had no sooner posted my story of earlier today when I received a text from a friend asking me what was up with what he described as an Eddie Rispone “hit piece” against Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Pleading ignorance, I asked what he was talking about. He said it was an ad that’s running that features a LouisianaVoice story—obviously something that would reflect badly on Edwards.

So, I captured the 30-second ad which opens with aerial footage of the devastating 2016 flood that ravaged southeast Louisiana.

The ad, which says Edwards was caught “flat-footed” (Not really too unbelievable since the victims, yours truly included, were also caught flat-footed and had little time to try and save anything), quickly cuts to a legislative hearing in which Edwards is grilled by a grandstanding lawmaker (more interested in making a political point than in helping victims) who demanded to know how many people were displaced.

Click HERE to see the ad.

The legislator, seizing the opportunity to cast Edwards in as bad a light as possible, when told by Edwards that he didn’t have a clue how many people were impacted, asked, “You’re that clueless?”

That was patently unfair and at its very best, a cheap shot by a snotty-nosed political opportunist.

That was bad enough, but at the 12-second point of the ad, the ad, purchased by the Republican Governors Association PAC flashed a huge headline superimposed over an image of Edwards as he testified.

The headline read: “Flood Recovery Government Contracts Provide Riches to Consultants.”

The source of the headline: a LouisianaVoice story dated March 7, 2018.

I went to our archives and pulled up the story. Here is the LINK.

As you can see, the actual headline reads: “Hurricane, flood recovery government contracts provide riches to consultants, little else but frustration to victims.”

The ad conveniently deletes the words “Hurricane” and “little else but frustration to victims.”

That’s because the story, while citing a $15,000 campaign contribution to Edwards by IEM, which subsequently landed a $308 million contract, concentrated more on administrative costs and the frustrations flood victims encountered with FEMA. Frustrations with things like knowing that of the $1.3 billion appropriated for reconstruction, only $207 million had actually been allocated 19 months after the flood. And today, after another 19 months, little has changed.

And while I’m still smarting over the lack of progress in disbursing recovery funds now three years-plus after the flood, IEM could hardly be classified as a political crony of Edwards, its owner’s $15,000 contribution notwithstanding. Bobby Jindal, Rispone’s mentor, after all, received far more than that from the principals of the Baton Rouge Business Report and its publisher landed a spot on the LSU Board of Supervisors and on the Superdome Board. Likewise, Jindal also appointed Lee Mallet to the LSU Board after receiving more than $150,000 in contributions from Mallett’s family and businesses.

Compared to those contributions, IEM’s $15,000 would hardly classify it as what the ad describes as a”top campaign donor.”

But back to my story of March 7, 2018. The thrust of that story was the contracts awarded for recovery from Katrina and the ensuing fraud. And the main point made regarding flood recovery was not the contract to one firm, which the ad misleadingly said failed, but the ineptness of FEMA which threw up roadblock after roadblock to recovery.

But the main point here is how a candidate, or those working on his behalf, can take a half-truth and turn it into a campaign issue.

It’s done at every level of politics and no one should be surprised at the practice and everyone should cast a jaundiced eye at all such campaign rhetoric although frankly, I firmly believe that despite the expenditure of the millions of dollars on ads in the waning days of the campaign, no more than a dozen or so votes have been changed. Despite those who claim to be undecided in the polls, I believe voters made their decisions weeks ago.

 

Posted in Politics | 8 Comments »

Signed copies of ‘Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs’ still available

November 13, 2019 by tomaswell

LouisianaVoice’s October fundraiser is over, but we continue to offer a signed copy of my latest book Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption to anyone who contributes $100 or more.

This 355-page book paints a comprehensive picture of how sheriffs, the most powerful person in any parish, can—and do—abuse the powers vested in them. Instead of adhering to their oath of office in which they pledge to carry out the duties of their office in accordance with the laws of Louisiana and the Louisiana State Constitution, many sheriffs put profits over the public, giving priorities to filling jails with state prisoners—for pay—and in some cases, becoming involved in drugs, theft, prostitution, and gambling.

It begins with the 1951 New Orleans congressional hearings on organized crime by U.S. Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. That hearing revealed the active involvement in gambling, prostitution, and smuggling by the sheriffs of four Louisiana parishes.

It also includes accounts of:

  • A sheriff indicted by a federal grand jury for physical and mental abuse of prisoners, only to be acquitted, though several of his deputies were convicted and sentenced to prison;
  • A sitting sheriff sentenced to federal prison following his conviction of drug trafficking;
  • A former sheriff said to have been a bag man for Carlos Marcello;
  • A defeated sheriff who planted a bomb that blew off the foot of his successor;
  • A sheriff who conspired with the local district attorney to wrongly convict a national rodeo star of murder;
  • A sheriff whose office was leasing a marina for $1700 per month who, when the BP spill occurred, sub-let the marina to BP for staging its recovery efforts for a mind-boggling $1.7 million per month—paid to his department.

Those are only a few of the stories contained in this book. Traditionally, Louisiana citizens pay far too little attention to the actions of their sheriffs because, truth be told, they answer to no one—not Congress, not the president, not the governor, not to the legislature.

Former Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee, once rumored to be considering a run for governor, responded, “Why would I want to be governor when I can be king?” No truer words were ever spoken in describing the powers entrusted to Louisiana sheriffs.

You can order the book by clicking on the oval yellow BUTTON in the column to the upper right of this post.

The button looks like this: Donate Button with Credit Cards

But don’t click on this image; it won’t work. Click on the button to the upper right.

If you can’t spring for a $100 contribution, you may still purchase a copy of the book for $30 (Amazon’s price is $35).

Be sure to provide your mailing address so I can get your book shipped out immediately.

Posted in Politics | Leave a Comment »

TGINO (Thank God it’s nearly over): 2019 gubernatorial campaign of negative ads in final gut-wrenching days

November 13, 2019 by tomaswell

It’s been a long time since an election in Louisiana has featured the level of accusations and misleading ads.

Like four years.

It was in 2015 when then State Rep. John Bel Edwards rolled out his “Prostitutes over Patriots” ad to taint U.S. Sen. David Vitter in the latter’s attempt to succeed the controversial Bobby Jindal to the state’s governor’s mansion next to Capitol Lake.

That ad was a reminder of Vitter’s embarrassing scandal over his skipping a vote to honor 28 soldiers killed in action in favor of taking a call from a PROSTITUTES.

That ad eclipsed Vitter’s attempt to smear Edwards for his visit to a black nightclub that featured semi-nude dancers.

In an ugly sidebar, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand, a Republican who succeeded the colorful—and controversial—Harry Lee, got involved in the race, first by endorsing Edwards and then by collaring an apparent campaign mole attempting to record a session of Edwards supporters at a coffee claque.

Ugly indeed. Worthy of Earl Long.

Fast forward to 2019 and little has changed.

Both candidates, incumbent Gov. Edwards, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Eddie Rispone have unloaded a spate of attack ads against each other that have Louisiana voters suffering severe cases of campaign fatigue. If possible, the barrage is worse even than the avalanche of lawyer ads that seem to obscure local newscasts.

Edwards convinced black leaders in New Orleans to remove an ad comparing Rispone to David Duke, prompting Rispone to accuse Edwards of playing the race card, accusing Edwards’ family of racism because his ancestors were slave owners.

Ugly.

Even Donald Trump has inserted himself into the governor’s race, appearing at rallies over the state and charging that Edwards is pro-abortion and anti-2nd Amendment.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Edwards broke with his own party to support and sign into law one of the harshest anti-abortion laws in the nation—the constitutionality of which will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. And Edwards, himself a hunter, is a strong advocate of the 2nd Amendment.

Rispone has fashioned himself as a “jobs creator,” but Edwards ads point out that he has a record of outsourcing jobs to foreign workers who subsequently sued him over benefits. And as for the jobs Rispone says he “created,” Edwards has noted that Rispone’s company has received millions of dollars in tax exemptions for businesses that created precious few jobs.

Rispone has an ad attacking Edwards as being “too liberal for Louisiana” that inserts Edwards responding to the hypothetical “how liberal is John Bel Edwards,” saying “That’s a stupid question.”

Problem is, the Edwards comment is taken out of context. The remark was in response to Rispone’s debate question about New Orleans being a sanctuary city—which, in fact, was an uninformed question, much like Rispone’s claim that the State Constitution contained 400 pages just on the state tax code.

Ugly.

The Edwards campaign features an ad that shows Rispone introducing then-Gov. Bobby Jindal at some function (we don’t know what, but it does appear authentic). His introduction is interspersed with negative news headlines about major budget cuts and budgetary shortfalls that occurred during Jindal’s eight years. Rispone can be heard congratulating Jindal on “a great job.”

The end concludes with a warning that we can’t go back to the Jindal years.

Recently, Secretary of State KYLE ARDOIN apparently violated a state prohibition against him (or any secretary of state) from participating in any partisan election other than his own—because as secretary of state, he is in charge of impartially overseeing all elections in the state—when he appeared in a Trump rally in Monroe and endorsed Rispone.

Ugly.

A Rispone ad inaccurately accused one of Edwards’ supporters, a West Point roommate, of landing a STATE CONTRACT worth up to $65 million. The facts revealed that while Murray Starkel did bid on the coastal restoration contract, neither his firm nor any of the other three bidders received the contract. The ad was subsequently pulled.

A Rispone ad attacking Edwards’ MILITARY RECORD was particularly ugly, especially in light of the fact that Rispone’s primary benefactor, Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby, DROPPED OUT of West Point.

And while Rispone appears satisfied to attack Edwards vis TV ads, he seems reluctant to face Edwards face to face, one on one, other than the formal debates to which he committed earlier. But he was a NO SHOW at a Baton Rouge Area Chamber forum as well as a Baton Rouge Press Club debate, prompting one observer to speculate that he didn’t get Grigsby’s permission to attend.

And while Rispone offers no hard solutions to any of the state’s problems other than to say he is a “jobs creator,” Edwards can—and does—boast that he took over a state wallowing in eight consecutive years of budgetary deficits of the Jindal administration to produce a $300 million budget surplus.

Rispone’s most effective ad features his daughter Dena extolling his family values, his faith and the fact that he is not only a wonderful father, but a “good man.” It’s easily the least offensive ad that either candidate has rolled out, even more effective than the image of Edwards driving down the road in his pickup truck with his arm draped around his wife’s shoulder. That ad may have been genuine, but I couldn’t help but feel it appeared contrived, posed. Rispone’s daughter, by contrast, was about as sincere as any ad in the entire festering campaign and, looking directly into the camera, she comes across as a truly loving daughter. Nothing about it seems rehearsed.

Rispone, however, all but negates that ad with another in which he opens by saying Louisiana is the best state in the nation but immediately clicks off a multitude of poor rankings that causes one to question his claim of our being the “best” state.

There can be no denying there are lingering problems that are so entrenched from decades of back room politics that put lawmakers’ personal gain of the state’s best interests.

In 2018, Louisiana had an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, fourth-highest in the nation, and a poverty rate of 18.6 percent, the nation’s third-highest.

There are those who are not as enamored as Rispone’s daughter. And the skeptics include at least two elected Republicans.

One, a state senator, cautioned, “If you think Jindal was bad, just wait until you see what happens if Rispone is elected.”

Another, a parish official, said Rispone would bring back former commissioners of administration Kristi Nichols and Angelle Davis from “political oblivion” to work in his administration.

Those two, and others Republicans with similar opinions, will be targeted by the State Republican Party as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).

Regardless, the citizens of Louisiana will breathe a sigh of relief when this circus is over.

Political campaigns in Louisiana can wear even the most resilient observer down to his or her last nerve.

Ugly.

Posted in Corruption, Elections, Ethics, Governor's Office, Media, Politicians, TV News | 2 Comments »

LDAA executive director Loren Lampert should adopt Beach Boys’ hit record ‘I Get Around’ as his personal theme song

November 11, 2019 by tomaswell

Loren Lampert, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association (LDAA), gets around.

And around.

Lampert began his career as a deputy sheriff in his native Rapides Parish before receiving his law degree from Oklahoma City University in 1996 and being named Assistant District Attorney, where he served for the next 13 years. While working for the Rapides DA, he was named that office’s Chief Felony Narcotics Prosecutor.

He has held a multitude of prosecutorial positions in several parishes in different judicial districts, some of them overlapping, in apparent violation of the state’s dual-officeholding statutes.

His documented odyssey of multi-tasking for various district attorneys had its beginnings as early as 2012 and continued through mid-September 2018.

In 2011, he became Chief of Police for the City of Alexandria and remained in that $150,000-per-year post until he was appointed as part-time Assistant District Attorney for Calcasieu Parish on May 9, 2017, earning $41.96 before being promoted just two months later to full-time at a six-figure salary.

But wait. We’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Lampert in the unique position of having served as a prosecutor, in more than one judicial district simultaneously—an apparent violation of the state’s dual-officeholding statutes.

His employment becomes rather murky after signing an Oath of Office as Assistant District for the 14th JDC in May 2017 pursuant to his appointment to that position by DA John DeRosier. KTBS-TV in Shreveport ran a story on Oct. 23, 2017, about the Natchitoches Parish conviction of a man accused of crashing into a Natchitoches police vehicle, injuring three officers.

The last paragraph of that story said, “Assistant District Attorney Loren Lampert prosecuted the case.”

And in a letter to the secretary of state dated Nov. 2, 2017, by 10th JDC (that would be Natchitoches Parish) District Attorney Billy Joe Harrington, the appointment of Loren M. Lampert as assistant district attorney “effective 8/30/17,” was announced. A copy of Lampert’s oath of office also accompanied that letter.

That’s less than four months after he signed on as a part-time assistant DA for Calcasieu Parish and only six weeks after that part-time position had been super-sized to ADMINISTRATIVE FIRST ASSISTANT DA in DeRosier’s office on July 17, 2017, at a SALARY salary of $105,000, which was increased to $106,068 on Dec. 18, even though he continued living in Alexandria, not Calcasieu, all that time.

Sources claim that Lampert’s appointment by DeRosier was a means of grooming him for bigger and better things.

In June 2018, according to a story in the Natchitoches Times, Lampert was also the prosecutor in ANOTHER CASE involving a man subsequently found guilty three of four charges involving a disturbance at the Natchitoches Parish courthouse.

In other words, he was being paid a six-figure salary as First Assistant DA in Calcasieu while also being paid as a prosecutor in Natchitoches Parish in 2017 and 2018—all the while living in Rapides.

But it gets murkier still.

KALB-TV in Alexandria ran a story on July 3, 2018, announcing that Lampert “has been named the ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR of the LDAA and is on the fast track to transition to the top spot as executive director next summer.”

Lampert submitted his resignation as DeRosier’s Administrative First Assistant DA on Sept. 13, 2018 and his last day with the Calcasieu DA’s office was Sept. 28.

Today, Lampert appears to have finally settled into one position as EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Louisiana District Attorney’s Association, succeeding long time Executive Director Pete Adams upon the latter’s retirement.

But maybe not. In May of this year, well into his tenure as associate director of LDAA, the omnipresent Lampert was still working as an assistant DA in Calcasieu, serving as prosecutor in the case of Felton Felmon Thompson, charged with first-degree murder.

“We did a general request for resumes and interest in the position,” Adams said in announcing Lampert’s hiring as associate director in July 2018. “Loren was one of many candidates who applied. He was clearly number-one in the selection process. And he was approved by the board,” Adams said.

It must seem like old times to Lampert who, along with DeRosier, previously served as an LDAA board member. DeRosier served as president of the board in 2012-2013. Lampert served as a board member in 2017-2018.

And as LDAA’s new executive director, he will continue working with a 2019-2020 BOARD OF DIRECTORS that included at least one familiar member: Natchitoches Parish DA Harrington.

Here are copies of Lambert’s OATHS OF OFFICE  which show the overlapping times of employment by the four district attorneys.

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »

Alleged victim of sexual abuse by Baton Rouge physical therapist accuses DA, sheriff’s office of dragging heels

November 8, 2019 by tomaswell

A Baton Rouge physical therapist has been formally charged with inappropriate touching of female patients and inappropriate comments about their bodies, but the bill of information from the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s office might never have been submitted had it not been for the dogged pursuit of one woman who refused to allow her complaints to be ignored despite the best efforts of the DA’s office and East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s investigators to do just that.

Physical therapist Philippe Veeters, doing business as Dutch Physical Therapy, was first arrested last February on the basis of complaints by several of his female patients, but East Baton Rouge Parish DA Hillar Moore didn’t get around to submitting a bill of information against Veeters until Nov. 1.

The woman, who requested that her identity not be revealed, says she was assaulted by Veeters on June 7, 2018, said, “After dealing with the sheriff’s office for months, I contacted the FBI with all my documentation showing how the police kept lying to me and changing their stories. they did try to investigate them. However, Mr. Hillar Moore apparently invited himself to that meeting and shut that meeting down. Moore told the FBI that it is just too hard to go against a doctor,” she said. “This was disturbing and sickening, knowing Mr. Veeters had already admitted to the detectives within one week what he did to me without consent—trying to pretend it was a normal Medical procedure.

“I have since learned another victim went to the sheriff’s office in 2012…but no one ever took her seriously or even investigated her assault,” the woman said. “I had to fight so hard against the people who should be protecting us. They had his admission on tape, they had others who reported it to them and the board yet they kept lying to me. Why?”

She said sheriff’s office investigators initially were supportive and told her she was doing the right thing in filing charges against Veeters. But then she said authorities suddenly began “to tell me different stories and start(ed) deflecting when we question(ed) them on things” and opened and closed her case three times. “I now know why victims do not come forward. It takes so much power and strength to report something like this and you aren’t allowed to heal and push the memory away as quick (sic) as you would like.”

She said she and her husband met with sheriff’s office investigators but got no answers.

“I also have emails dating back to July 2018 between Hillar Moore and myself—where I’d share things with him about the sheriff’s office,” the woman said, “and from July 2018 until January 2019 he would tell me he’d get with them and they’d get back to me. He never got back to me!! It was almost comical. I went from patient to angry that someone didn’t want to protect the women in our community. He completely stopped responding to me once I told him I learned who Floyd falcon was. Never heard from him again!

“When I finally met with the assistant DA in May 2019, she claimed they were protecting me. I have no idea what they were protecting me from nor do I believe her. Considering they wanted all my medical records from the board and were upset my mental health records were not obtained, I doubt they were protecting me from anything.”

She also was critical of George Papale, legal counsel for the Louisiana Physical Therapy Board, which had received complaints of sexual abuse by Veeters from at least half-a-dozen women. The board finally got around to continuing a prior nine-month suspension handed down on Oct. 5, 2018, suspending Veeters indefinitely on September 13 of this year, seven months after his arrest.

The consent decree signed by Veeters and his attorney, Floyd Falcon, noted that “This is not the first disciplinary action” taken against Veeters “for related professional misconduct and sexual misconduct of a physical therapy patient.”

The board did not recommend disciplinary action on a similar complaint in 2012 and in January 2014, placed Veeters “on notice,” but took no formal disciplinary action against him.

The board’s reluctance did not deter Papale from firing off a 24-page letter of complaint to State Sen. John Alario in which he asked for an investigation “on behalf of the citizens of Louisiana” of actions taken by the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee during and following a May 15, 2019 hearing relative to the board, which Papale termed “unlawful and unprofessional.”

Papale, who no longer represents the board, complained that committee chair Karen Carter Peterson and Sen. Jean-Paul rebuked the board “with callous disregard for the truth” by repeatedly mischaracterizing the adjudication of a complaint by saying “a person who is under nine counts of sexual assault charges is under probation with the board” and “this guy got a nine-month slap on the wrist.”

His letter also accused the committee of threatening and attacking board members, its employees and contractors and of saying the board was failing the citizens of Louisiana “without investigation into the validity of the complaints, nor a basic understanding of administrative laws, processes, or procedure.”

To read the full text of that 24-page letter, go HERE.

Consent agreement of OCTOBER 5, 2018

Latest CONSENT AGREEMENT

 

 

Posted in Boards, Courts, Ethics, Senate | 4 Comments »

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