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House Bill 207 would create special exception allowing Sen. Cassidy to double dip as LSU prof despite questions of 2014

April 20, 2017 by tomaswell

An updated variation of the infamous Mike Edmonson Amendment has made its way into the 2017 legislative session in an effort to help yet another public official scratch out a little more money from the public fisc.*

*fisc (fisk) noun: The public treasury of Rome.

It’s really amazing how these legislators can work so diligently on behalf of certain connected individuals while ignoring much larger problems facing the state.

As much as LouisianaVoice criticized Bobby Jindal during his eight years of misrule, it was the legislature that allowed him to do what he did. It was the legislature that brought about the state’s fiscal problems by refusing to stand up to his ill-advised “reforms,” and it’s the legislature that has steadfastly refused to address those problems with anything approaching realistic solutions.

But when there’s a chance to help one of their own: stand back, there’s work to be done.

Rep. Gary Carter (D-New Orleans) has introduced House Bill 207 aimed specifically at benefiting U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy.

Louisiana, it seems, has this pesky little dual office holding/dual employment law that might otherwise prove a hindrance to Cassidy’s ability to moonlight by teaching at the LSU Health Science Center while serving in the U.S. Senate.

Carter wants to remedy and if you don’t think this bill was written specifically for Cassidy, here’s the particulars of the bill:

“To enact R.S. 42:66(E), relative to dual officeholding and dual employment; to allow a healthcare provider who is a member of the faculty or staff of a public higher education institution to also hold elective office in the government of the United States…”

The bill would provide an exception to the current law which prohibits “certain specific combinations of public office and employment, including a prohibition against a person holding at the same time an elective or appointive office or employment in state government and an elective office, appointive office, or employment in the U.S. government.”

We could be wrong, but it just seems to us that serving in the U.S. Senate is a full-time job that demands the full attention of whomever happens to be representing Louisiana in that august body.

It was just such an amendment in 2014 that helped prove the eventual undoing of Edmonson’s career and his political aspirations. The word was that Edmonson planned to seek the state’s second-highest office in 2015—and was considered a fairly viable candidate.

LouisianaVoice broke the story of State Sen. Neil Riser (R-Columbia) and his tacking an amendment onto an otherwise benign bill that would have given Edmonson between $50,000 and $100,000 per year in additional retirement income. Because of the resulting furor over that amendment, State Sen. Dan Claitor (R-Baton Rouge) successfully sued to block the increase in Baton Rouge district court.

A veteran political observer recently told us, “If you hadn’t broken that story, Mike Edmonson would be lieutenant governor today.” (We don’t know about that but at least he’d be better than what we now have in that office.)

Remember in the 2014 senatorial race between then-incumbent Mary Landrieu and challenger U.S. Rep. Cassidy when Landrieu claimed Cassidy was paid for time lecturing classes not supported by his time sheets?

Jason Berry, publisher of The American Zombie Web blog said that on no fewer than 21 occasions over a 30-month span, U.S. Rep. Cassidy billed LSU Health Science Center for work supposedly performed on the same days that Congress was in session and voting on major legislation and holding crucial committee hearings on energy and the Affordable Care Act.

“On at least 17 different occasions,” Berry wrote, “he (Cassidy) spent multiple hours in LSU-HSC’s clinics on the same days in which he also participated in committee hearings and roll call votes.”

Landrieu said at the time of the revelations that Cassidy, while claiming to serve the poor, was in fact, “serving himself an extra paycheck. That’s not right. It could be illegal and it looks very much like payroll fraud.”

The arrangement apparently also troubled then-Earl K. Long Hospital Business Manager William Livings who said in an email to Internal Medicine Department Head George Karam, “We are going to really have to spell out exactly what it is he does for us for his remuneration from us. Believe me, this scenario will be a very auditable item and I feel they will really hone in on this situation to make sure we are meeting all federal and state regulations.”

In addition to Cassidy’s salary, Berry said, LSU also paid for his medical malpractice insurance, his continuing education and his licensing fees, “expenses that can easily total in the thousands.”

And now Carter wants to make it all nice and legal—but only for Cassidy. All other state employees who would like to do a little double-dipping to supplement their income can just fuggedaboutit.

Posted in Congress, Corruption, Ethics, Fraud, LSU, Politicians, Senate | 16 Comments »

Iberia Parish Sheriff Ackal’s legal problems could be putting strain on parish finances and detracting from official duties

April 20, 2017 by tomaswell

Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal’s travails (largely of his own making) continue with the filing of yet another in a series of legal actions, this one a federal LAWSUIT filed by a former female deputy.

As is usually the case, no matter how the trial (or settlement, which is more likely) eventually turns out, the real winners will be the attorneys who will have managed to drag out legal proceedings for a minimum of 18 months, barring any further delays in the trial tentatively set for June 4, 2018.

If the case follows the all-too-common trend, however, there is almost certain to be unforeseen delays and continuances that will push that date back even further as attorneys (and there is a gaggle of those) continue to rack up billable hours.

Candace Rayburn, a deputy sheriff for more than five years, claims she was unceremoniously and summarily terminated after she spoke up in the defense of a female co-worker filed an EEOC sexual harassment charge against a male deputy.

Rayburn’s is another in a string of lawsuits filed against Ackal, who was recently acquitted in Shreveport federal court of criminal charges of abusing black prisoners of his jail. Those charges included beatings of prisoners and turning a police dog on a helpless prisoner, a gruesome scene that was captured on video and posted by LouisianaVoice earlier.

Ackal is also being sued for wrongful termination by another former deputy and by the family of a prisoner who died of a gunshot wound while handcuffed and in the custody of Iberia Parish Sheriff’s deputies. The official coroner’s ruling was that the prisoner, Victor White, died of a self-inflicted wound.

The sheriff is also indirectly involved in the manslaughter arrest of a man instrumental in starting a recall of Ackal over the White shooting. https://louisianavoice.com/2017/03/21/man-indicted-for-manslaughter-after-he-is-rear-ended-by-man-later-killed-in-separate-accident-his-sin-was-recall-of-sheriff/

Rayburn initially named both Ackal and the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office as defendants but recently amended her petition to include Ackal as the only defendant.

Ackal, who paid premium fees in his criminal defense, in a classic case of fiscal overkill, has opened up the parish bank in hiring not one, not two, not three, not four, but five defense attorneys, all from the same law firm.

That’s right. Because he’s being sued in his official capacity as sheriff, Iberia Parish taxpayers will pick up the tab for his legal bills—all of them.

Rayburn, who was employed as a Sheriff’s Deputy for IPSO from July 21, 2008 to November

15, 2013, says she received “overwhelmingly positive reviews from her Supervisors” and was even named “Employee of the Year” in 2012.

But when Deputy Laura Segura filed a sexual harassment complaint against Chief Deputy Bert Berry, she voiced her support of Segura. Within two weeks, she says, she was brought before the department’s disciplinary board which recommended a one-year probationary period and that she be offered remedial training. Instead, she claims in her suit, Ackal fired her for “multiple (uncited) policy violations,” actions she claims were committed “with malice.”

Rayburn is claiming loss of pay, loss of benefits, loss of earning capacity, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.

She is seeking reinstatement, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

To say Ackal has lawyered up would be an understatement. He has retained half the Lafayette law firm of Borne, Wilkes & Rabalais: Allison McDade Ackal, Homer Edward Barousse, III, Kyle Nicholas Choate, Joy C Rabalais, and Taylor Reppond Stover.

Rayburn is represented by Justin Roy Mueller, also of Lafayette.

The calendar, rules, and SCHEDULE set forth by the court are simply mind-boggling and serve to illustrate why our courts are so backed up—and why justice is only for those who can afford it.

The court, invoking something called Rule 30(a)(2)(A), placed a limit of 10 on the number of depositions that may be taken in the case, limiting each to one seven-hour day—absent written stipulation of parties to the suit or of a court order.

Should the parties participate in the maximum 10 depositions with each one running the full seven hours allowed, that’s 70 hours of legal fees for which the parish must stand good.

Applying an arbitrary rate of $200 per hour (which most likely is considerably less than the hourly rate the parish paid his attorney in his criminal trial), that comes to $14,000—and that doesn’t count the costs of court reporters, expert fees, filing fees and countless other hours the five attorneys will be billing the parish for, or the Segura settlement which reportedly cost the parish in the ballpark of $400,000.

All in all, with all the legal expenses incurred by Ackal and his deputies in all the lawsuits and criminal charges, the folks in Iberia Parish must be asking themselves about now if they can really afford to keep such a financial liability in office.

Some might even call him high maintenance.

Others might call him a genuine physical threat.

By anyone’s definition, though, he is a loose cannon.

Posted in Budget, Corruption, Courts, Ethics, Finances, Judges, Lawsuits, Politicians, Politics | 2 Comments »

Jeff Landry the ‘Publicity Prostitute’ ignores all but the low hanging fruit in his quest for justice—and governor’s office

April 19, 2017 by tomaswell

Question: What’s worse than being a publicity whore?

Answer: Being a publicity whore with a double standard.

Attorney General Jeff Landry has been unabashedly running for governor ever since he was inaugurated as Attorney General in January 2016 and he obvious subscribes to the same theory as Donald Trump: any publicity is good publicity—maybe even this post itself.

And he’s certainly not above picking the low-hanging fruit in his quest for ink if it will lead him to his ultimate goal: the fourth floor of the State Capitol.

Here is his latest press released ginned out by his dutiful public information office (PIO):

Attorney General Jeff Landry today announced the arrests of two women on Medicaid Fraud charges, whose alleged crimes costed (sic) the State over $10,000.

“My office will not rest in our pursuit of those who rob much needed services from our State’s most vulnerable,” said Attorney General Jeff Landry. “Our award winning fraud detection and prevention unit remains committed to uncovering, investigating, and arresting those who attempt to defraud the system.”

Amanda Hollins, 31 of Ruston, was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on four counts of Medicaid Fraud for allegedly submitting timesheets and service logs for services not rendered. 

Erica French, 34 of New Orleans, was arrested and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on three counts of Medicaid Fraud for allegedly falsifying official records which indicated she had seen a number of patients who she actually had not.

Medicaid fraud occurs when providers use the Medicaid program to obtain money to which they are not entitled.

His PIO personnel must be exhausted from following him around as he personally rounds up Louisiana’s miscreants and personally places them under arrest as and personally slaps on the cuffs (well, all his press releases do say that he made all those arrests). Move over, Wyatt Earp, Sgt. Joe Friday and Walker Texas Ranger: there’s a new sheriff/prosecutor in town.

In fact, the old Richard Boone TV western Have Gun, Will Travel has been supplanted by Landry’s 2.0 version, Have Writers, Will Pander.

One can almost imagine him standing at a busy intersection holding a sign that reads: “Will Grandstand for Votes.”

So where is the double standard?

For openers, he is such a vocal opponent of fraud that, in a classic Let’s Make a Deal (apologies to Monty Hall and Wayne Brady) bargain, he placed a woman who pleaded guilty in 1999 to three counts of credit card fraud in the attorney general office’s Fraud Division. She was hired solely for the purpose of securing the endorsement of her mother (the third-place finisher in the 2015 attorney general’s race) in Landry’s runoff election against incumbent Buddy Caldwell.

How’s that for irony?

And even though one reader suggested (perhaps correctly) that it was time to move on and quit beating up on former State Trooper Ronald Picou, it’s difficult not to wonder where our attorney general is on this case.

Or in the case of this report by the Legislative Auditor’s office which showed that Sandy Edmonds was not only illegally accruing annual, sick and compensatory leave as the part-time executive assistant for the Louisiana Auctioneers’ Licensing Board which “costed” the state more than $11,000 but, according to a second report by the Office of Inspector General, was found to be claiming to be at work at the same time she was vacationing in New York, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Jersey and Orange Beach.

Or this one.

Or this one:

Or even this obvious case of intimidation by an attorney in the case of Landry’s former client, Billy Broussard, who was cheated out of about a million bucks in a cleanup project in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita way back in 2005.

Yeah, we know all about the statute of limitations on the Sandy Edmonds and Billy Broussard cases. And we know the attorney general is constitutionally prohibited from infringing on the local district attorneys as concerns non-state employees, but we threw those in to illustrate a point:

The scales of justice don’t always tilt toward the just and Lady Justice may be blindfolded but that doesn’t mean she’s impartial.

Related image

So sit back and resign yourself to two more years of daily news releases about Jeff Landry personally arresting slackers, losers, hustlers, and enemies of the people—on a very selective basis, all calculated to shore up his gubernatorial bid.

Posted in Politics | 8 Comments »

Church Lady: ‘How convenient’ that LSP can find no text messages from troopers on October Las Vegas excursion

April 17, 2017 by tomaswell

Image result for cell phone text photos

One of our sources told us early on to make a public records request for all text messages to and from the four State Troopers who drove to that infamous social event in San Diego by way of Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon last October as well as like messages from former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson.

“Get those texts and you will see that Mike Edmonson knew the whereabouts of those four the entire trip,” our source said. “They were texting each other every mile of that trip. The four in the vehicle even sent photos.”

So, it was no surprise when The Baton Rouge Advocate ran a page-one STORY in which we learned that Louisiana State Police (LSP) had no texts—sent or received—from Edmonson, his former Chief of Staff Charles Dupuy, or any of the four who drove.

It was an LSP Ford Expedition issued to Dupuy that the four drove to San Diego via Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

What are the odds that there would be no text messages or photos of the trip?

In this case, 100 percent.

And lest one take this too lightly, consider this: LSP was—and remains—under investigation for that trip, not only because of the vehicle being taken, but because Edmonson flew about a dozen others, including a part-time student worker, to San Diego at taxpayer expense just so they could witness him receiving a national award.

The FBI is known to be investigating the Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) for political contributions funneled from the association through its executive director’s personal bank account. The scope of that investigation could extend to the San Diego trip, though that is not known for certain.

When you’re under investigation, it’s called evidence tampering to destroy electronic communications—if that’s what happened. And authorities normally frown upon the destruction of evidence. In fact, it’s a criminal offense.

Ironically, one of those making the drive to San Diego in that Expedition was Derrell Williams. At the time, he was head of LSP’s Internal Affairs which is charged with investigating reports of misconduct on the part of state troopers. He has since been relieved of those duties but he, of all people, should know the consequences of exorcising electronic communications that might have a bearing on an investigation.

As The Advocate pointed out, it’s improbable but possible that no text messages were sent by any of the six individuals. And, reporter Jim Mustian wrote, it’s even possible that messages, if any, were automatically deleted through some type of customized setting.

Of course the official word from LSP is that the agency has no formal retention policy regarding text messages.

So it would seem that all the bases are covered in the LSP Textgate mystery.

It’s like the lawyer who, upon being sued because his dog bit someone walking past his house responding by saying (1) “My dog doesn’t bite,” (2) “I keep my dog inside a fenced yard,” and (3) “I don’t own a dog.”

Now all other state agencies, thanks to LSP, can forgo instituting a retention policy or quietly go about abolishing any such policy they may already have just in case some other reporters come snooping around.

After all, if a no-policy is good enough for the state’s top law enforcement agency, why should other agencies be burdened by such an encumbrance?

Posted in Politics | 14 Comments »

LSP, Picou agree on resignation in payroll fraud matter; attorney blames entire affair on ‘irresponsible’ reporting

April 13, 2017 by tomaswell

Little more than a year ago, on February 15, 2016, Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) case worker Kimberly Lee of Calhoun in Ouachita Parish was ARRESTED and booked into jail with bond set at $25,000.

Her crime? She was accused of falsifying entries in her case records showing she had made home visits to foster children when she hadn’t. Her agency had undergone massive budget cuts and the cuts, combined with more children entering foster care, meant an impossible caseload. That, in turn, had prompted a Shreveport DCFS supervisor to tell caseworkers that they could make “drive-by” visits to foster homes, which meant talking to the foster parents in their driveways. Policy says that workers will see both the child and the foster parent in the home, interviewing each separately.

On Thursday, the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), showing all the backbone of a jellyfish, accepted an agreement reached between Louisiana State Police (LSP) attorneys and former trooper Ronald Picou’s attorney Jill Craft of Baton Rouge.

That agreement called for LSP to rescind its letter of termination in exchange for Picou’s “resignation” for the same offense as Ms. Lee—except where her time sheet falsification was over a relative short time period, Picou’s went on for years.

And where Ms. Lee’s responsibility called for the oversight of the well-being of foster children (certainly a serious responsibility), Picou’s was for the general safety and protection of Louisiana citizens.

Nor was his caseload overly burdensome. He simply went home and went to bed after only two or three hours on his 12-hour shifts.

Craft, addressing the LSPC as if she were arguing a legal case, complete with the obligatory rhetoric, said her client was making a sacrifice for the benefit of his family and his “brothers in blue,” that he loved working “as a dedicated law enforcement officer for the better part of a decade,” and that a lot of “irresponsible reporting” had been done about Picou.

Funny, but when LouisianaVoice did a story about one of her clients winning a big court case, she never breathed a word about “irresponsible” reporting. Guess it depends on whose ox is being gored, eh counselor?

So, bottom line, Picou was allowed to walk away from his transgressions a free man. Unemployed at least for the time being, but free to accept another job in law enforcement for some city or town—or even another state agency as was the case of one terminated State Trooper who ended up policing for Pinecrest State School in Pineville.

“Irresponsible” are the actions of a man who ran a daytime construction business so he would cut his shift short by eight or nine hours so he could go home and sleep so he would be fresh when he did his day job.

“Irresponsible” are the tacit approvals given his actions by his supervisors at LSP Troop D in Lake Charles—Troop D Commander Capt. Chris Guillory and Picou’s immediate supervisor, Lt. Paul Brady.

“Irresponsible” are the sham investigations conducted first by Guillory and then by LSP Internal Affairs until LouisianaVoice published its “irresponsible” stories—backed up by Picou’s very own radio logs that repeatedly showed no activity after the first few hours of his shift. Only then did LSP conduct any semblance of a real investigation and subsequently gave Picou his walking papers. Of course he appealed his firing, which was the basis of Thursday’s scheduled hearing by LSPC until commissioners were informed of, and asked to approve, the settlement agreement. Commissioners went into executive session all of 12 minutes to discuss the proposed agreement before accepting it unanimously—and without comment.

Asked if the agreement precluded Picou’s ever working again as a police officer for another agency, commission Chairman T.J. Doss said the commission had no authority over that matter. Asked if commissioners, who had the power to accept or reject the agreement, could not have insisted on a clause in the agreement to that effect, member Eulis Simien, an attorney, reiterated the position that the commission had no authority over Picou’s future employment.

But the commission did have the authority to accept or reject the agreement. And while the commission has no enforcement authority, it certainly could have refused to rubber stamp the agreement until that wording was included.

The LSPC has evolved into a running joke with the resignations of five of seven commissioners within the past year and the forced resignation of former Executive Director Cathy Derbonne.

Only last month the commission rejected the appeal—with only member Calvin Braxton voting no—of a State Trooper who provided substantial evidence to back up his claim that he was harassed and ultimately suspended by supervisors in Troop F after he issued a traffic ticket to the teenage driver of a vehicle in which the son of Troop Commander Tommy Lewis was a passenger. For whatever reason, the commission apparently saw no reason to call in witnesses or to take statements from those involved.

The powers that be wanted the trooper punished and that was that.

On Thursday, it was determined that a Trooper who took an oath of office to serve and protect and to uphold the Constitution but who instead committed payroll fraud should be allowed to resign and walk away.

Does the term double standard carry any meaning anymore?

Perhaps it would be irresponsible to ask that.

Posted in Commissions, Corruption, Crime, Ethics, State Police | 20 Comments »

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