Louisiana Voice

Well, it took only seven years, a pack of lies, an incredible, incredulous attempt at a clumsy, coverup, fumbled prosecutions of the perpetrators, no telling how much in legal fees, the empaneling of a legislative investigative committee that we said would do nothing (and we were right) for the Louisiana State Police (LSP) and the Louisiana Attorney General’s (AG) office to finally admit legal responsibility in the Ronald Greene matter.

Did I mention coverup? That, of course, is always—ALWAYS—the tactic of choice in official misconduct and it seldom works, and in the end, didn’t in this case.

But covering up its mistakes is what LSP seems to do best, aided and abetted by a reluctant governor’s office, an INEPT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, recalcitrant state troopers and an indifferent legislature—the same indifference, by the way, to the fate of its Black citizens as is presently being shown by the legislature in its redistricting fiasco.

Now we learn that the state has reached an agreement with the Greene family to SETTLE A CIVIL WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT over the beating death—after criminal prosecutions flopped miserably—for $4.85 million.

As bad as the Greene beating and subsequent death was, it was FAR FROM AN ISOLATED INCIDENT involving State Troopers and Black motorists.

For years, former Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Jim Mustian (he’s now with Associated Press) and I dogged LSP for public records of incidents involving misconduct of LSP officers and leaders, from troopers engaging in sex in their patrol cars while on duty to troopers attempting to sneak an underage woman (not his wife) into a Mississippi casino illegally to beatings of Black motorists to taking state vehicles to San Diego with a side trip to Vegas and the Hoover Dam to falsification of records and cheating on time sheets to making illegal contributions to political campaigns.

Through it all, LSP officials were unapologetic and, in many cases, downright arrogant about it all, never once showing any evidence of remorse.

The crowning blow came almost exactly seven years ago, on May 10, 2019, when five state troopers and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy beat, kicked, choked and tased a handcuffed and unresisting Ronald Greene until the life literally left his body. That was followed by the coverup in which LSP delayed investigating the incident for more than a year, insisting all the while there was no body cam footage of the event. That was a lie.

State police also informed Greene’s mother that he had died as the result of his car striking a tree at the conclusion of a chase that began in Ouachita Parish and ended in adjacent Union Parish. Another lie. The “accident” was when his vehicle simply brushed a tree, causing no extensive damage to his car. Troopers then dragged A STLL VERY MUCH ALIVE and apologetic Greene from his vehicle where they began working him over physically even as he begged for his life.

So much for that lie. Then, miraculously, A BODY CAM VIDEO SURFACED —nearly two years after the incident and denials of the video’s existence. Another lie debunked.

The entire sordid Greene affair, it seems, is a microcosm of how video evidence seems to be nonexistent—UNTIL IT SUDDENLY APPEARS—and how JUSTICE IS ADMINISTERED in Louisiana.

One thing has changed at LSP, however, and it certainly isn’t for the better. When Mustian, Robert Burns and I initially set out on our separate but dogged investigations of LSP, public records were relatively easy to obtain (with the exception of that trooper and the underage girl in the Vicksburg casino; the LSP document was so heavily redacted as to be useless. I had to travel to Jackson for an unredacted copy of the report).

Today, obtaining public records from LSP is worse than the proverbial pulling of teeth. A public records request is met with an automatic reply that an official response could take up to 45 days. Of course, when one is writing on a deadline, a wait of 45 days is tantamount to an outright denial. Then, to add insult to injury, LSP conveniently “forgets” about the request so that the 45 days pass with on response.

Such is the evolution of the spirit of cooperation from the agency charged with protecting Louisiana’s citizens.

That Jackson Parish sheriff’s race is turning out to be quite the typical Louisiana political campaign as Interim Sheriff Brent Barnett faces opposition for the office is seeking for a full four-year term.

It seems that former Sheriff Andy Brown may have hired Theresa Burris who stole more than $50,000 from the Town of Arcadia while she was employed by the city as a clerk.

Brown pleaded guilty to felony theft in 2014, the same year she was hired by Brown. In 2017, while working for the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office, she was sentenced to four years in prison with three years suspended, and was ordered to pay restitution.

Ms. Burris confirmed to LouisianaVoice that she is the same Theresa Burris who worked for the town of Arcadia “many, many moons ago.”

She continues to serve as an administrative assistant to Barnett.

Those who read this post regularly know of my disdain for candidates for judge falling back on party loyalties and devotion to partisan politics as qualifications to wear a black robe, sit on an elevated platform looking all-wise as they decide the fate of those appearing before them—based largely, by the way, on which attorney involved kicked in the biggest campaign contribution.

I’ve harped ad nauseam on the lack of commitment to the rule of law in favor of trying to convince voters that being “a Republican longer than Donald Trump” and dedication to conservative principles were somehow qualifications for a judgeship–as with the case of First Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Blair Downing Edwards who is seeking promotion to the Louisiana Supreme Court in this Saturday’s primary.

I have also written extensively about the national problem of child sexual abuse, even to the point of authoring a book about the epidemic entitled The Dinosaur Club. No one, it seems, is immune from the scandal which seems to be growing exponentially: priests, preachers, deacons, cops, celebrities, politicians, even judges–everyone, curiously, except the LGBTQ crowd which tends to mind its own business and asks only to be left alone.

In Amite, for example, a judge last year awarded full custody to a man who had raped the child’s mother, impregnating her, when she was a minor. Moreover, the child told a teacher that her father, John Barnes, had abused her both physically and mentally.

Despite all that, 21^st Judicial District JUDGE JEFFEY CASH awarded Barnes full custody of the child.

Now, let’s jump over a couple of parishes to the west where one West Feliciana Parish judge, Sydney Picou Walker, inexplicably removed a “no contact” bond condition for a man, Jacob Mansell of St. Francisville, accused of sexually abusing a juvenile and later that same day, a second judge, Kathryn Jones, granted Mansell immediate TEMPORARY SOLE CUSTODY of three juveniles in a civil suit involving his ex-wife.

What in the name of convoluted, ass-backward reasoning is going on with these judges? Whatever it is, I sure as hell don’t want what they’re smoking. It was almost as though the two judges were working together in Mansell’s defense.

Along with these two cases, LouisianaVoice has been fielding an increasing number of complaints about family courts all over the state. The problem, it seems, is no matter what testimony may reveal to the contrary, judges are consistently disregarding or even disallowing testimony by one parent while blatantly favoring the opposing parent. Often times, the prevailing parent just happens to have the financial resources to simply outlast the other one, often forcing them into financial ruin while attempting to protect the children.

Making matters worse, family court records are usually sealed, preventing independent investigations of proceedings.

Only two days ago, LouisianaVoice published a story about a judge in TERREBONNE PARISH who, in his desire to hurry things along, simply refused to allow one side’s witnesses to testify and ruled in favor of the other parent.

LouisianaVoice will be taking a much closer look at family courts and readers are invited to relate their experiences for investigation. But please: no innuendo. Everything MUST BE SUPPORTED by documentation. That will be a difficult task, considering the practice of sealing records, but provide whatever documented information you can.

Send your information to: louisianavoice@outlook.com

Pattern for Louisiana Senate’s proposed redistricting map

Geographic illustration of redistricting efforts is more than a little interesting

Wow. Five former employees of the Catahoula Parish Correctional Center have been indicted and a sixth has already entered a guilty plea following an investigation into abuse of prisoners at the facility two years ago.

The ANNOUNCEMENT of last week’s indictments of the prison warden, assistant warden and other supervisors was made by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Louisiana. They are accused of abusing 13 handcuffed prisoners with an electric riot shield and for then attempting to cover it up (yep, another coverup). The identities and titles of those indicted include:

• Jeremy Wiley, 44 of Harrisonburg, the former warden of CPCC, was charged with 13 counts of abuse of rights under color of law for using the electrified riot shield to shock and crush the 13 handcuffed, non-resisting prisoners, on Feb. 1, 2024.
• Gary Allen, 57 of Winnsboro, CPCC’s former assistant warden;
• William Savage, 57 of Monroe, CPCC’s former colonel;
• James Wathen, 37 of Jonesville, CPCC’s former chief of security, were charged with 13 counts of abuse of rights for their failures to intervene to stop the assaults;
• Chad Littleton, 45 of Harrisonburg, a former Catahoula Parish sheriff’s deputy, was charged with one count of abuse of rights for striking a prisoner in the head and genitals.

All five men were also charged with conspiring to violate the rights of the prisoners as well as falsifying reports about the incident (the coverup). Allen also faces one count of witness tampering.

In addition, on April 14, Carl Michael Williamson, 40 of Jonesville, a former CPCC transportation officer, pleaded guilty in a related case to one count of abuse of rights under color of law for striking one of the inmates in the head and one count of falsifying a report which covered up the abuse of the 13 prisoners.

Sheriff Toney Edwards immediately held a press conference, complete with a lineup of four mute but attentive deputies, hands clasped in front of them, at which he proclaimed with some hint of righteous indignation that each of the individuals named in the 34-count federal indictment have been “suspended.”

Edwards added that he was committed to keeping all prisoners under his supervision safe and that “everything humanely possible is being done to protect the community and uphold the integrity of this office.”

But hold on just a cotton-pickin’ minute there, Sheriff. Does this STATEMENT by Eldred Roy, your former chief detective, look familiar to you?

And there’s this LOUISIANAVOICE STORYfrom almost exactly two years ago which called attention to reports of inmate deaths, stabbings, beatings, the arrest of corrections center employees for smuggling contraband into the facility, the use of inmate labor to cut firewood that a prison official sold for personal profit and the use of inmate labor to perform construction projects for private citizens.

Of course, the Louisiana Ethics Board, as might be expected since Bobby Jindal and Jeff Landry gutted it of any real enforcement powers, cleared Sheriff Edwards of all charges of ethics violations. Again, that’s par for the course in Louisiana.

And Edwards denied involvement in ANOTHER ALTERCATION at an ICE facility in Catahoula Parish way back in 2020—even though he did admit that he and his deputies were at the scene at the time of a protest that detainees say was broken up by sheriff deputies with pepper spray and projectiles.

Awful lot of coincidences there, Sheriff.

Y’know, Sheriff, Harry Truman had a little sign on his desk that said the buck stops with the guy in charge. That would be you.

So, it’s kinda difficult to see how you could be taking the high road here. In the end, you have to take responsibility for the actions of your employees. That’s just the way it works.

It appears that Roy is saying you were informed as far back as nearly three years ago of mistreatment of inmates. It appears from our vantage point that you had ample time to conduct your own investigation before the feds stepped in and necessitated that you become proactive.

You knew of beatings, deaths and other charges yet chose to do nothing until the federal indictments came down.

Afraid I gotta say this is on you, Sheriff.