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Fire Marshal Browning likes to give high-salaried jobs to cronies with few qualifications and to vendor/legislators

August 14, 2017 by tomaswell

There have been some curious hires at the State Fire Marshal’s office which have attracted the attention of LouisianaVoice.

Two in particular: former State Rep. Bryan Adams and Dean Smith.

Of the two, Adams raises the most questions.

There is no question that Adams, unlike Smith, possessed experience in firefighting, having served as Chief of the Terrytown 5th District Volunteer Fire Department for 31 years, from 1982 to 2013.

But when he resigned from the Louisiana House of Representatives in July 2016 after four years, seven months in office to take a position as Deputy Chief-Investigations with the State Fire Marshal’s office, he was already working simultaneously as Customer Service Manager for Ferrara Fire Apparatus of Holden, a company that had extensive dealings as a major vendor for the Fire Marshal’s office at a whopping $120,000.

That, combined with his position as State Representative, might raise eyebrows. As a member of the Legislature, he had a vote on the budget for state agencies, including that of Fire Marshal, which did business with his employer. CLICK HERE.

He was elevated to Fire Chief on January 2 of this year but his salary did not change. He remained at the Fire Marshal’s office for only another month after that, until February 12, when he went to work for the Department of Revenue at a salary of $71,300, a drop of almost $49,000 in salary. He recouped some of that lost salary on June 19 of this year when he went to work as Executive Director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board at $91,000 per year (CLICK HERE).

Bryan Adams

Begin Date End Date Agency Job Title Biweekly Pay Rate
6/19/17 Present CRT-Office of the Secretary Executive Director $3500.00 (6/19/17 to present)
2/13/17 6/18/17 DOR-Department of Revenue Executive Staff Officer $34.30/hour (2/13/17 to 6/18/17)
1/2/17 2/12/17 DPS-Office of the State Fire Marshal Fire Chief 4615.39 (1/2/17 to 2/12/17)
6/24/16 1/1/17 DPS-Office of the State Fire Marshal Deputy Chief-Investigations 4615.39 (6/24/16 to 1/1/17)

So, who is Dean Smith?

No, not the legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach who passed away in February 2015.

We’re talking about the Dean Smith whose last day as police captain for the Pontchartrain Levee District was January 27, 2017, not quite seven months ago and who went to work as a Fire Chief for the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal (SFM) three days later at a cool $85,000 per year.

Nothing in his background would seem to qualify him as Fire Chief.

The Louisiana Civil Service Department says Dean Smith began working for the Pontchartrain Levee District as a Police Captain on July 1, 2010 at a salary of $61,000 per year.

On March 12, 2012, he was designated as a Police Captain A and on October 1, 2015, his salary was $71,000 and remained at that level until his departure on January 27 of this year. Three days later, with no professional experience to qualify him for his Fire Chief position, his salary jumped by $14,000 per year, to $85,000.

Dean Smith

Begin Date End Date Agency Job Title Biweekly Pay Rate
01/30/17 Present DPS-Office of State Marshal Fire Chief $3269.23 (1/30/17 to present)
3/5/12 1/29/17 Pontchartrain Levee District Police Captain A $2744.80 (10/01/15 to 1/29/17)

$2639.20 (10/1/14 to 9/30/15)

$2537.60 (10/1/13 to 9/30/14)

$2440.00 (10/1/12 to 9/30/13)

$2346.40 (3/5/12 to 9/30/12)
7/01/10 3/4/12 Pontchartrain Levee District Police Captain $2346.40 (7/1/10 to 3/4/12)

Smith was a volunteer fireman in Gonzales when Browning was Fire Chief there and the two are close friends, often joining each other on motorcycle rides.

Smith was also an Ascension Parish deputy sheriff at one time. While in that capacity, he had a gun to discharge accidentally, striking a prisoner in the spine and rendering him a paraplegic. He left the sheriff’s office after that, was elected a justice of the peace and eventually resigned to work for the levee board.

Irony of ironies, we are informed that one of the current duties of the man who once accidentally shot and paralyzed a man is to serve as firearms instructor for the Fire Marshal’s office.

Despite holding down a critical job like Fire Chief, it’s impossible to reach Smith by telephone because, you see, he has no phone extension at the Fire Marshal’s office. None. Nada. Nil. Zip. Attempts to call him on two separate occasions by LouisianaVoice met with explanations that he had no extension but that a message would be given him to return the call.

Of course, he never did.

Wanting to know just what it was that Smith did to earn his $85,000, we emailed State Fire Marshal Butch Browning, the man himself. He should know, after all:

From: Tom Aswell [mailto:azspeak@cox.net]
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 1:07 PM
To: ‘butch.browning@la.gov’ <butch.browning@la.gov>
Subject: FW: DEAN SMITH

Mr. Browning:

How long has Dean Smith worked for the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal and why does he not have a phone extension?

What, exactly, is his title and what are his duties?

You will notice our email was sent at 1:07 p.m. last Friday. Minutes later we received a receipt showing that Browning had read our email at 1:08 p.m.

_____________________________________________
From: Butch Browning [mailto:Butch.Browning@la.gov]
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 1:08 PM
To: Tom Aswell <azspeak@cox.net>
Subject: Read: FW: DEAN SMITH

Your message

To: Butch Browning
Subject: FW: DEAN SMITH
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 1:07:24 PM (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)
was read on Friday, August 11, 2017 1:08:01 PM (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada).

But Browning never answered our inquiry, so four hours later, at 5:12 p.m., a follow-up email was sent but alas, he must’ve already started his weekend for he never opened that message:

From: Tom Aswell [mailto:azspeak@cox.net]
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 5:12 PM
To: ‘butch.browning@la.gov’ <butch.browning@la.gov>
Subject: FOLLOW UP

I received the receipt showing that you read my previous email but you didn’t respond. You should know that it isn’t in your best interest to ignore me when I ask valid questions. And those were valid questions I asked before.

Not a threat, just friendly words of advice.

As we said, Butch, not a threat. But legitimate inquiries should never be ignored. As the slogan at the top of our web page says, “It is understandable when a child is afraid of the dark but unforgivable when a man fears the light.” The tactic of ignoring inquiries has never worked. It will not make us go away; quite the opposite, in fact.

So, to learn just what else besides teaching firearms safety does a Fire Chief at SFM do to earn his $85,000, we were forced to turn to other sources, current employees in the Fire Marshal’s office, both of whom said Smith and Browning are pals from way back.

One of those says Smith was hired to oversee the non-existent SFM fleet of boats. Well, it shouldn’t too difficult for a Fire Chief with no apparent firefighting experience to watch over boats that don’t exist.

He also cooked jambalaya for attendees at a firefighters’ conference held in Houma the weekend of July 19-22. Oh, well, at least there most likely was some fire involved with that.

If that conference could somehow be deemed an emergency, perhaps that might justify the use of the SFM’s special service trailer. The trailer was “up-fitted” in May 2015 from 5 Alarm Fire Apparatus of Raceland at a cost of $4,649 “for USAR emergency field food service cooking during emergencies.” The Fire Marshal’s office said at the time the expenditure was necessary, that the office “has no way of supporting USAR events or emergencies when they take place. This up-fit cooking trailer will now support events and emergencies with equipment for field food services when necessary.”

They probably also made good use of the 30-gallon roll-around combo set (complete with paddles for stirring the jambalaya) purchased in January 2015 from Krazy Kajun Cookware for $895.

But, despite the apparent critical need for an $85,000 per year Fire Chief, Boat Watcher and Jambalaya Cook, he doesn’t have a telephone extension at the Fire Marshal’s headquarters in Baton Rouge even though that’s where he works reports to collect his salary.

Posted in Corruption, Ethics, State Fire Marshal | 9 Comments »

Did LA State Troopers Association lobby for Manzella’s placement on LSPC? Pieces in place for such a scenario

August 13, 2017 by tomaswell

When Monica Manzella showed up for her first meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) last November, she received a warm greeting and a hug from State Police Lieutenant Rodney Hyatt.

We were curious how they knew each other so well. It was, after all, her first meeting.

Hyatt, other than his state trooper duties, also was—and still is—President of the Headquarters Chapter of the Louisiana State Police Association (LSTA). Click HERE. He is also one of the four troopers who drove a state vehicle to San Diego via the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas last October to cheer on and party with their boss, then-State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson as he received a national award.

Manzella, appointed to the LSPC last October, was an assistant city attorney for the City of New Orleans and had, as part of her duties, signed off on Local Agency Compensated Enforcement (LACE) contracts between the City of New Orleans and Louisiana State Police (LSP). Under LACE, state police are paid by the local district attorney to help beef up traffic enforcement. Some characterized her work on the contracts and her appointment to the commission as a possible conflict of interest but she dismissed that concern out of hand.

Other than his position as headquarters chapter president of LSTA and her signing off on LACE contracts, there was no apparent connection or any obvious reason why the two would be on such friendly terms at her very first meeting.

But thanks to the wife of retired state trooper Leon “Bucky” Millet of Lake Arthur, a connection that appears a little more than casual has been discovered.

Bucky Millet first set the stage a year ago at the LSPC meeting of August 11, 2016, when he filed a formal complaint about the manner in which LSPC members were supposed to be appointed and the manner in which those requirements were being ignored.

[Please keep in mind that LSPC is the Louisiana State Police Commission, which rules on appeals of troopers subjected to discipline and LSTA is the private, non-profit association comprised of active and (some) retired state troopers as members. Some retirees have been expelled from the LSTA for questioning certain activities. The two, LSPC and LSTA, are completely separate entities.]

In his complaint, Millet referenced Article X, Part IV, Section 43(C) of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 which stipulates the following:

  • The presidents of Centenary College at Shreveport, Dillard University at New Orleans, Louisiana College at Pineville, Loyola University at New Orleans, Tulane University of Louisiana at New Orleans, and Xavier University at New Orleans, after giving consideration to representation of all groups, each shall nominate three persons. The governor shall appoint one member of the commission from the three persons nominated by each president. One member of the commission shall be elected by the classified state police officers of the state from their number as provided by law. A vacancy for any cause shall be filled by appointment or election in accordance with the procedure or law governing the original appointment or election, and from the same source. Within thirty days after a vacancy occurs, the president concerned shall submit the required nominations. Within thirty days thereafter, the governor shall make his appointment. If the governor fails to appoint within thirty days, the nominee whose name is first on the list of nominees automatically shall become a member of the commission. If any nominating authority fails to submit nominees in the time required, or if one of the named institutions ceases to exist, the governor shall make the appointment to the commission.

LouisianaVoice had earlier made a public records requests for any such letters of nominations from the university presidents. Only a single letter from Centenary College President Kenneth Schwab to then-Gov. Mike Foster dated Jan. 15, 2003, was provided.

For the full story of just how dysfunctional the LSPC was at that meeting, click HERE.

So, when Manzella was appointed by Gov. John Bel Edwards two months later, was that procedure finally followed? Well, yes and most probably not so much.

Thanks to Vivian Millet’s extensive Internet search, we now know that Lt. Hyatt and Manzella had their own history, dating back to March of 2016.

It seems that both Hyatt and Manzella were among 28 attendees from across the U.S. who earned their security Master of Arts degrees in Security Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) in Monterey, California, on March 25.

The CHDS curriculum is an 18-month master’s degree program in homeland security.

Click HERE to see the press release and to see a class photo of the proud graduates. It’s a rather small photo, so here’s a little help with the identities: Hyatt is on the far right in the front row in complete Louisiana State Police uniform and Manzella is behind him and to his right, in the red top.

Which brings us to the question of how she got her appointment to LSPC.

She obtained her J.D. in Law from Loyola University of New Orleans in 2005 (click HERE). Loyola could have been expected to nominate one of its alumni—if it had been asked to do so.

That certainly makes sense. But it didn’t go down that way and with Hyatt in a key position with the LSTA and with LSTA the subject of what the LSPC attempted to pass off as an ongoing “investigation” of its illegal campaign contributions funneled through the personal bank account of the LSTA executive director, the stage was certainly set for a little politicking on her behalf. LSTA needed desperately to stack the commission with members friendly to the LSTA who would lend comfort and support to LSPC Chairman, State Trooper T.J. Doss and other like-minded members.

So, did Hyatt and the LSTA exert a little friendly persuasion to secure a seat on the commission for Manzella? Did they engage in a little back channel diplomacy in order to wrangle the appointment of a member guaranteed to be friendly to the LSTA?

Given the outcome of that investigation by Natchitoches attorney Taylor Townsend, who still has yet to provide a written report of his findings as required by his $75,000 contract and despite repeated demands that he do so, it would seem the Manzella—and subsequent—appointments have paid off handsomely for the LSTA. She has been everything LSTA could want—and more, as she moved from new member to vice chairman of the commission in a matter of just a few months while voting the LSTA line.

Which only underscores the necessity of at most, abolishing the LSPC and to put a constitutional amendment before voters to bring LSP under State Civil Service as it once was or at least, wiping the slate clean and beginning anew with all new members, unaffiliated with any political faction or with any organization and with the common goal of cleaning up the image of State Police and the troubled LSPC.

Failing either of those options, the term “Tarnished Badge” will soon refer to something other than just the nom de plume of a frequent commenter to LouisianaVoice posts.

Posted in Commissions, Corruption, Ethics, Governor's Office, State Police | 21 Comments »

Chair, Co-Chair of State Police Commission apparently share more than a ‘professional’ relationship; check into BR hotel

August 10, 2017 by tomaswell

Normally, a man’s tryst with a lady friend who is not his wife would be of no concern to us. It’s not an activity we would recommend but some things, after all, are really no one else’s business.

Unless the amorous couple happen to be chairman and vice chairman of a state commission that decides important issues like appeals of disciplinary action against state troopers or which votes on whether or not to conduct thorough investigations of illegal campaign contributions or which concocts evidence against its executive director in order to force her resignation because she insisted on following the law on certain procedures.

State Trooper T.J. Doss, a nine-year State Police veteran, is chairman of the Louisiana State Police Commission.

New Orleans attorney Monica Manzella, formerly the assistant city attorney for the City of New Orleans, was appointed to the commission by Gov. John Bel Edwards last October. She quickly rose to the position of vice chairman.

The commission has experienced considerable turnover in the past 12 months, with six members and an executive director submitting their resignations. After today, that number could increase to eight.

LouisianaVoice has been receiving tips that Doss and Manzella were each other’s overnight guests for several months—sometimes at the State Police Academy barracks where Doss was staying while assigned to Baton Rouge from his normal base at Troop G in Shreveport. Other times they were said to be staying at Manzella’s residence in New Orleans.

On Thursday, only hours after the monthly commission meeting, they got a little careless. We got word they were at a movie and were staying at the Watermark Hotel in downtown Baton Rouge. The hotel building, originally a bank, is the former State Office Building that was sold and transformed into an elegant hotel and restaurant.

Acting on our tip, it was a relatively easy matter to catch them exiting the movie theater CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO . As they exit, Doss can be seen carrying two mugs. They had just seen a movie at Baton Rouge’s Movie Tavern. The Movie Tavern serves beer and allows patrons to keep the containers. It is against State Police regulations to drink and drive a state police unit.

“Mug” shot

Less than an hour later, they can be seen exiting his state-assigned Ford Explorer entering the hotel where they went straight to the registration desk CLICK HERE, picked up their keys and headed straight for the elevators.  They carried no luggage, an indication that they—or at least one of them—had checked in earlier.

Checkin’ in

As said earlier, it’s normally no one else’s business but when two people sit on a seven-person commission that literally has the power to make career-altering decisions, it is critical that a professional relationship be maintained between members. Personal affairs should be strictly off-limits in the interest of fair and impartial decision-making, uninfluenced by personal feelings for fellow members. The fact that Doss and Manzella serve as chair and co-chair of the commission only serves to underscore the need for separation—literally and figuratively.

Moreover, the two arrived at the Watermark in a state-owned Ford Explorer assigned to Doss. State Police policy and procedure strictly prohibits the transporting of civilians in the state vehicles for any purposes other than state police business.

State Police Ford Explorer assigned to Trooper T.J. Doss parked outside Watermark Hotel Thursday…in spot reserved for Baton Rouge City Police.

Manzella is a civilian and they certainly did not appear to be on state business as she twice slipped her arm around Doss’s waist as they were at the hotel registration desk, once even patting him gently on his buttocks.

At this point, the only reasonable option left open for each of them is to resign immediately from the commission. Should they decline to do so, State Police Superintendent would seem to have no choice but to direct Doss to step down. In Manzella’s case, it would be the responsibility of Gov. Edwards to remove her—and Doss should Superintendent Kevin Reeves does not do so.

Posted in Politics | 57 Comments »

Former State Fire Marshal inspector critical of LOSFM cross-training; tells of booze run from B.R. to N.O. in state vehicle

August 9, 2017 by tomaswell

A former employee of the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal (LOSFM) has come forward to provide LouisianaVoice more damning information about the manner in which inspections and investigations are carried out by the office.

Byron Wade, who worked for the fire marshal’s office for 11 years before going to work as a boiler inspector for a private insurance company, also gave interesting insight into how the top brass at LOSFM party at the New Orleans Royal Sonesta Hotel.

Along the way, we also learned that one of those major expenditures itemized in our Monday story was for an entity not part of the fire marshal’s office or of any other state agency, making the expenditure potentially illegal.

“I left the fire marshal’s office in part because of the cross-training program Butch (Fire Marshal Butch Browning) put into place,” Wade told LouisianaVoice. “I’m certified as a boiler inspector and as an amusement ride inspector. They tried to make me an arson investigator and I was not qualified to do that and told them so.”

He said he was assigned as the lead investigator on a mobile home fire in which the resident died. “Brant Thompson (LOSFM Fire Chief) told Jason Johnson to make me the lead investigator. Jason Johnson is one of the best, most qualified arson investigators out there. I don’t know to this day why Thompson wanted me to be the lead investigator.”

Wade said allowing unqualified personnel to inspect rides and boilers is a recipe for disaster. “All you have to do is look at the hot water heater explosion in that school in OKLAHOMA,” he said, referring to the hot water heater explosion on January 19, 1982, in Spencer, Oklahoma, killing seven, including six elementary school children. “That hot water heater was never properly inspected,” Wade said.

“They (the fire marshal’s office) is still allowing unqualified personnel do these inspections,” he said. “When they told me I was an arson investigator, I asked a fire chief in New Orleans how much training is needed for that. His answer was to tell me, ‘Do not do arson investigations.’”

Wade also told a story LouisianaVoice had heard on several occasions about a party at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans. We held off publishing it because of the lack of a first-person account. He said, however, he could confirm the story because he was present at the event.

Browning, he said, was hosting a convention of firefighting personnel at the Royal Sonesta “four or five years ago” when it was noted that the party was beginning to run short of liquor. A call was put in to Baton Rouge and Shantelle Brent, Browning’s $71,000-a-year personal assistant (officially, an Executive Management Officer) promptly brought a Tahoe loaded with fresh booze from Baton Rouge to the New Orleans hotel, located at the corner of Bourbon and Conti Streets.

“I know about this because not only was I there, but I helped unload the liquor,” Wade said.

The Tahoe was a State Fire Marshal vehicle, he added.

On Monday, LouisianaVoice listed among the fire marshal office’s expenditures $4,900 paid to LR3 Consulting for creation of the “Louisiana Firefighter Proud” website. The organization, we have since learned, is a private entity unaffiliated with the state or the fire marshal’s office. That raises immediate questions as to the legality of the expenditure, particularly since it was done without obtaining bids or quotations—and during a time of repeated budgetary shortfalls and mid-year cutbacks to higher education and other state agencies during the administration of Bobby Jindal.

It also raises the question of whether Gov. John Bel Edwards can afford another public embarrassment from his Department of Public Safety like the one that plagued him during his first year in office with former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson.

Posted in Politics | 53 Comments »

Louisiana Inspector General Stephen Street rumored to be up for consideration for U.S. Attorney for Western District

August 8, 2017 by tomaswell

He was first appointed Louisiana’s Inspector General by Bobby Jindal in January 2008.

Now, nine years later, LouisianaVoice is picking up as yet unconfirmed reports that STEPHEN STREET could be the nominee to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Corey Amundson has been serving as Acting U.S. Attorney for the nine-parish district since Donald Trump requested the resignations of U.S. Attorneys throughout the U.S., including that of Obama appointee Walt Green last March.

It’s not uncommon for a new administration to clean house upon taking office, especially if the holdovers are from the opposing political party. What is unusual is the length of time it is taking Trump to nominate new appointees.

Street’s office was tainted by his raid on the home of contractor Corey DelaHoussaye under the mistaken assumption that DelaHoussaye was contracted to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) when in fact, he was contracted to the Livingston Parish Council where Street had no jurisdiction. DelaHoussaye was subsequently exonerated of all charges but never collected all that he said Livingston Parish owed him.

Street’s office also prematurely terminated an investigation into the case of Billy Broussard who was contracted by FEMA to clean a bayou in Calcasieu Parish following Hurricane Rita in 2005. Broussard was instructed by the gravity drainage district in which the canal was located to also remove pre-storm debris, mostly cypress logs, that had sunken to the bottom of the canal over the years. He was told that FEMA would pay for the additional work but FEMA did not and the drainage district left Broussard holding the bag to the tune of about $1 million.

Likewise, it was Street’s office that investigated and found no wrongdoing in the case of two assistant district attorneys in CADDO PARISH applying for a grant to obtain eight automatic M-16 rifles from the Department of Defense’s Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO). The two claimed on their application that they, as part of a Special Investigations Section (SIS), “routinely participate in high-risk surveillance and arrests (sic) activities with the Shreveport Police and Caddo Sheriff.” Persons interviewed from both agencies, however, refuted the claim that SIS employees took part in such operations.

Street also failed to follow through on an investigation into widespread abuses by the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry. The board, with the aid of its investigator who employed questionable methods, was imposing excessively high fines against dentists for relative minor infractions and even bankrupted one dentist who blew the whistle on faulty jaw implants developed by a dentist at the LSU School of Dentistry.

Retired State Trooper Leon “Bucky” Millet said he filed a formal complaint on February 19 with Street’s office against the four State Troopers who drove the state vehicle to San Diego last October but never received an acknowledgement from Street. “I know he received because I sent the complaint by certified return receipt mail,” Millet said.

Street’s office, in response to a November 2016 public records request from LouisianaVoice, provided a list of FUNDS recovered totaling more than $5.3 million since July 1, 2013, for which he claimed credit.

  • U.S. v Delrice Augustus, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS): $155,305;
  • U.S. v. Daniel Garcia, Louisiana Economic Development (LED): $900,000;
  • U.S. v. Kaneasha Goston, DCFS: $10,023;
  • U.S. v. Charlotte Johnson, Office of the Governor: $99,874;
  • U.S. v. Winn Johnson, Louisiana Board of Cosmetology: $1,575;
  • U.S. v. Matthew Keith, LED: $1.2 million;
  • U.S. v. George Kostuch, Department of Revenue (LDR): $161,850;
  • U.S. v. Corey Polk, DCFS: $30,760;
  • U.S. v. Gregory Walker (no agency provided): $1,833,619;
  • State of Louisiana v. Theresa Burris, Town of Arcadia: $49,829;
  • State of Louisiana v. Deborah Loper, Department of Health and Hospitals: $1,018,423.

Of course, the recovery of funds is quite different from orders of restitution, which was what each of these cases was. An order of restitution means little if there are no funds to be recovered.

“We have no information regarding amounts collected by those office and we receive none of the funds,” said OIG General Counsel Joseph Lotwick in a letter to LouisianaVoice.

In the Loper case, for example, most of that money had disappeared into slot machines at area casinos so any real chance of restitution is, for all intents and purposes, non-existent.

The LouisianaVoice request was made pursuant to Street’s claim for an accounting of public funds recovery stemming from OIG investigations.

What Street’s office did not say, the difficulty of actually collecting notwithstanding, is that the OIG’s role in many of the above investigations was secondary to the U.S. Attorney’s role and restitution payments, if any, are made through either U.S. Probation or, in the case of the state’s being the lead prosecutor, to Louisiana Probation and Parole.

LouisianaVoice attempted to obtain confirmation of the reports that Street was up for the position from both U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and from Street but received no response from either.

One law enforcement official, while saying Street was largely ineffective as inspector general, said the U.S. Attorney’s post could be a fit. “What you have to look at is who he appoints as his first assistant,” he said.

“Do you remember Eddie Jordan? He was the U.S. Attorney in New Orleans and got the credit for convicting Edwin Edwards. But his First Assistant was Jim Letten. Jordan went on to become New Orleans District Attorney and was a disaster. It’s the First Assistant U.S. Attorney who gets the job done. The U.S. Attorney just goes around making speeches and Street might be good at that.”

 

Posted in Courts | 12 Comments »

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