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State Police Captain Kevin Devall, son of Hammond police chief, leads charmed life; cleared twice by Internal Affairs

October 6, 2015 by tomaswell

When State Police Capt. Barry Branton, a supervisor with a previously unblemished record, approved a Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) on fellow Troop D Lt. Harlan Chris Guillory, it did not seem to matter that Guillory was indeed found to be abusing prescription drugs while on duty.

Instead, Guillory was subsequently promoted to captain and made Commander of Troop D while Branton was placed on administrative leave and demoted the rank of lieutenant. He appealed and eventually reached a settlement by agreeing to accept the demotion in exchange for having the suspension expunged from his record and his receiving full back pay.

But the bottom line was Branton was demoted for initiating a PMP out of concern for the professionalism of a fellow officer.

That stands in stark contrast to the decision not to punish a state trooper in Washington Parish after he and his brother, a DEA agent, were reported to have threatened a Metairie lawyer with bodily harm, imprisonment, and closure of his law practice—all over the issue of the attorney’s having parked his vehicle near their deer stand in December of 2012.

Michael Gahagan, a Metairie immigration attorney, on Tuesday provided LouisianaVoice with a three-page affidavit he filed with the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office following a December 21, 2012, confrontation with State Police Captain Kevin Devall and his brother, Drug Enforcement Agent Page Devall.

Both men are the sons of Hammond Police Chief Roddy Devall who is said to be a strong supporter of State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson.

Gahagan told LouisianaVoice that he was “assaulted, threatened, and abducted by the brothers after they blocked his truck which he said was parked on the roadside next to a hunting lease controlled by the Parish Line Hunting Club. Gahagan said he was a member of the club and was hunting from his deer stand around 4 p.m. on December 21 when he heard an all-terrain vehicle drive up to his truck and stop and then leave after a few minutes.

He said he climbed down from his deer stand about 5:15 intending to drive home only to find his truck blocked by Kevin Devall’s full-sized white pickup truck and a black trailer. When he asked the brothers, who were standing nearby, to move, they approached him cursing and grabbing the front of his shirt with their faces touching his.

He said he broke free and began walking backwards down the road that led away from his truck and into the woods in an effort to get away from them. He said as he walked backward, he extended his hands in front in an effort to keep them at arms’ length. All the while, he said the brothers were screaming threats at him. Page Devall yelled that he was a DEA agent and that “I kick in doors for a living” as he repeatedly “reached out and put his finger in my face and pushed my face,” Gahagan said.

Kevin Devall, he said, boasted that “I make the laws in Louisiana” and that he “would throw me in jail for the rest of my life and take away my law license if I didn’t do what he said.”

Fearing that he would be severely beaten or even killed, he considered drawing his handgun that he was carrying in his back waistband. He said he is a registered concealed carry permit holder and that if the two had not been police officers, “I would have defended myself and shot and killed them in order to prevent a beating and escape the attack and illegal detention.”

Because the two men were police officers, he said, “I chose not to draw and fire my handgun,” he said. “I did not use deadly force to defend myself because I was afraid what would happen to me after I was arrested by other police officers for shooting a police officer in self-defense.”

He said after about 45 minutes of repeated threats from the two, Kevin Devall ordered him into the Devalls’ ATV “so that he would drive me back into the woods and show me where he would allow me to park my vehicle.”

Before getting into the ATV, Gahagan was ordered by Paige Devall to disarm “or we will never let you leave,” he said. Gahagan said he removed his handgun and placed it into his truck and locked the truck. “Then Paige Devall gave me a full-body pat down (without probable cause or reasonable suspicion that I had committed any crime).”

Gahagan said he was then driven “several miles” into the woods and shown where he would be allowed to park.

He said he was finally allowed to leave the area around 8 p.m., nearly three hours after his ordeal began.

Following the confrontation, State Police Internal Affairs conducted an investigation of the allegations during which Gahagan was administered a polygraph test but neither of the Devalls were required to take a polygraph.

That was similar to the case of State Police Lieutenant John Cannon who was accused by a woman of twice paying her to have sex, once in the rear seat of his patrol car. The woman was given a polygraph but Cannon was not even though he did admit to twice having sex with her while on duty but denied paying for sex.

Two other significant events followed Gahagan’s encounter with the Devalls, he said.

First, Parish Line Hunting Club discontinued the Devalls’ membership at the hunting lease and after Gahagan filed a formal complaint against Paige Devall with his employer, DEA, Gahagan, his wife and his law practice were subjected to IRS audits. “I had never been audited by the IRS before in my life,” he said. “It seems awfully coincidental that I would be hit with three simultaneous audits at that particular time.”

LouisianaVoice has made a formal public records request to State Police for Kevin Devall’s personnel file and all Internal Affairs investigative reports on him.

Here is the sworn affidavit Gahagan filed with the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office following his encounter with the Devalls (Warning: this document contains graphic language that may be offensive to some): AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL GAHAGAN

Nor was the 2012 incident the last time that Kevin Devall has had a complaint filed against him.

About 16 months later, on April 22, 2014, the estranged wife of St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta filed a formal complaint against Kevin Devall for the manner in which he investigated her report that her husband, a former police officer, had forced her to perform oral sex on him and then raped her the previous October. Here is her formal complaint: SHARON PERALTA COMPLAINT

Sharon Peralta said Devall, instead of arresting her husband, was laughing and joking with Dave Peralta on the front lawn and that her husband was never handcuffed but instead was allowed to walk around the front lawn freely. “I was told to leave and they would handle things from there,” she was quoted as saying by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. She said Dave Peralta subsequently intimidated her into dropping charges against him. http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/state_police_probe_sharon_pera.html#incart_email

It took exactly five days after Mrs. Peralta’s charges were made public for State Police Internal Affairs to clear Devall of any improper conduct in the manner in which he conducted his investigation. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/04/state_police_clear_captain_of.html

But on April 23, a St. Bernard Parish grand jury indicted Dave Peralta on a charge of sexual battery, which could have carried a 10-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors dismissed that case on a technicality in April but in August of this year, Peralta was re-indicted by a St. Bernard Parish grand jury that accused him of using parish employees to help him stalk his ex-wife as well as other offenses. In September of 2014, he was indicted by a St. Tammany Parish grand jury on charges of felony stalking and in May of this year, he was indicted by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury on three counts of filing false reports and for perjury.

Posted in Corruption, Ethics, State Police | 14 Comments »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

October 4, 2015 by tomaswell

“After they had sex, Lt. Cannon realized his unit was stuck….”

State Police internal investigation report, detailing in what is assumed was an unintentional double entendre how state police lieutenant John Cannon’s patrol car got stuck during a back seat sexual encounter while on duty near St. Francisville on March 4, 2014.

Posted in Corruption, Ethics, Notable Quotables, State Police | 3 Comments »

You couldn’t time an egg with this guy: State Police Lt. has sex twice on duty, once in back seat of patrol car; still on job

October 4, 2015 by tomaswell

 

Louisiana Troop A State Police Lieutenant John Cannon remains on his $115,690 per year job despite having been reprimanded for numerous offenses including theft of satellite television signals, failure to file required Daily Activity Reports (DARs), unauthorized voiding of traffic tickets, failure to investigate a fleet crash, failure to deliver fatality packets to the families of traffic fatality victims, and twice having sex with a woman while on duty—with one of those times being in the rear seat of his patrol unit.

Legislators approved two double digit state police pay increases six months apart earlier this year even as more than 35,000 state civil service employees were learning that they again would not receive 4 percent pay increases. https://louisianavoice.com/2015/09/29/state-general-fund-has-yet-to-see-any-of-the-11-million-in-delinquent-fine-collections-to-pay-for-state-police-pay-raise/

http://theadvocate.com/news/13605105-128/no-pay-raises-for-most

Troop A includes the eight parishes of East and West Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, East and West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston, Ascension and part of St. James. Cannon, a shift supervisor, has been a state trooper since 1990. He was promoted to sergeant in July of 2000 and to lieutenant in August of 2010.

LouisianaVoice obtained the 38-page state police internal affairs investigative file on Cannon through a public records request. That file indicates Cannon was never demoted for his actions. His most severe punishment included a 36-hour suspension without pay and a $904.96 per pay period reduction in pay for nine two-week pay periods (the equivalent of a 240-hour suspension)—from Oct. 27, 2014 through June 21, 2015, that was handed down by letter of Sept. 10, 2014 from Lt. Col. Charles Dupuy.

The internal affairs investigation of claims that Cannon had sex with a woman on two occasions while on duty was launched on May 15, 2014, after West Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputies reported they had a woman in custody for possession of Lortab and marijuana. The woman, whose name was redacted throughout the report, told deputies that she twice had exchanged sex for money with Cannon.

She repeated her story to state police detectives but failed a polygraph test on the question of her being paid for sex, the report said. Cannon subsequently admitted to detectives that he had sexual intercourse with the woman but denied he paid her for sex although he did admit that he twice gave her money. He said the money was given immediately before or after each sexual encounter but that on the first occasion the money was to pay her cell phone and the second time was to pay her rent and that he was only trying to help her and to establish a friendship.

While the woman was twice subjected to polygraph tests and failed on the key point of payment for sex, the state police report never indicated that a similar test was administered to Cannon even though that was the only aspect of the entire affair that would have actually been criminal in nature.

The two first met on Feb. 16, 2014 in, New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish where Cannon was working a seat belt grant. The woman told investigators that the two had multiple conversations by phone before meeting behind the parish library in New Roads on Feb. 21 “sometime between 9 and 11 p.m.,” but that they did not engage in sex on that occasion. She said they subsequently “negotiated sex on the phone.”

Cannon later called her at her father’s home in St. Francisville where she was living and told her he “needed her,” she said. The woman told authorities that she told Cannon she was out of money and that he later picked her up in his marked state police unit near her father’s residence and “immediately gave her $120, which she claimed was for sex,” according to the report. Cannon later said the amount was closer to $60 and was not for sex but for her cell phone bill. The report by internal affairs put the date as March 4, 2014.

She told investigators that their first sexual encounter took place in a wooded area south of St. Francisville just off U.S. 61 and lasted “approximately two minutes.” Afterward, she said, Cannon realized his patrol car was stuck and that she smoked a marijuana joint while he checked to see how badly the car was stuck. Apparently realizing how it might look if he were caught with her in such a secluded area, especially given the fact that he was dating an employee of the West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office at the time, he ordered her to walk to the main highway and catch a ride while he called for someone to pull him out.

She did catch a ride to her father’s house while Cannon called the sheriff’s department for help in removing his vehicle.

Almost two months later, on April 29, Cannon picked her up—in his state police unit while on duty and in full uniform—from an apartment in Baker where she was living with her boyfriend. Cannon drove to a home she told authorities she believed to be in Baton Rouge but which Cannon later admitted was a friend’s home in Prairieville in Ascension Parish. They again had sexual intercourse in a bedroom of the home, that time for a duration of about three minutes, she said. She told investigators she requested $150 afterward but Cannon gave her only $100. He admitted that he stopped at a Regions Bank ATM on Highland Road in Baton Rouge in order to withdraw some cash. He said the amount he gave her was closer to $60 to $80 but when advised that she claimed it was $100, he told investigators it “was possible he could have given her that amount,” the report said.

The report reiterated Cannon’s claim that while he gave her money, it was to pay her phone bill and to pay her rent but was never given in exchange for sex

While en route from Baker to Prairieville, she activated Cannon’s patrol unit’s siren which resulted in other motorists moving out of the way and that she videoed the interior of his unit with her cell phone. She said she also took a photo of the house to show her boyfriend. She said Cannon was aware of her videoing the inside of his patrol car but that he did not know about her taking a picture of the house.

His 36-hour suspension ran from Oct. 10, 2014 through Oct. 13, 2014, and he was allowed to return to work from Oct. 15 through Oct. 26.

That 224-hour time frame actually covers 18 pay periods because, according to the specified dates of his suspension, he was suspended only on every other pay period, thus allowing him to work during alternate pay periods.

The suspension also contained no prohibition to Cannon’s being able to work overtime in order to make up for the $904.96 reduction in pay for each pay period for which he was suspended. LouisianaVoice has submitted a follow-up public records request for documents related to all overtime worked by him from Oct. 27, 2014, and June 21, 2015.

Cannon has had a checkered record in his 25 years as a state trooper.

  • On April 12, 1995, he received a letter of reprimand for his involvement in a traffic accident in his state police car, a not uncommon occurrence for state police.
  • On Jan. 25, 2001, he was suspended for 80 hours after being found in possession of an illegal satellite access card for Direct TV.
  • On June 6, 2003, he received an eight-hour suspension for failure to submit his Daily Activity Reports (DARs).
  • On April 27, 2006, he received a reduction in pay equivalent to a 24-hour suspension for failure to investigate a fleet crash.

And even after Dupuy’s letter of Sept. 10, 2014, which imposed the 240-hour suspension for his sexual misconduct while on duty, he received a reprimand but no suspension on March 18 of this year for his failure to act upon six traffic citation void slips and for failure to follow state police procedure with nine other citations.

Additionally, a review revealed that Cannon had seven fatality reports that are provided by state police as a courtesy to families of the deceased which he had not delivered. The fatalities had occurred between the dates of March 24, 2014, and Oct. 1, 2014, but still had not been delivered to families of the deceased as of Dec. 4, 2014.

And while technically, Cannon claims he was not paying for sex, a case could be made that because he was on duty at the time of his trysts, he was being paid for sex.

All of which raises the obvious questions: Was he being protected from above and if so, who was protecting him?

Here is Lt. Col. Dupuy’s letter of Sept. 10, 2014, to Cannon (Click on image to enlarge):

IMAG1320IMAG1321IMAG1322IMAG1323

Posted in Civil Service, Corruption, Ethics, Legislature, Legislators, State Police | 28 Comments »

State general fund has yet to see any of the $11 million in delinquent fine collections to pay for state police pay raise

September 29, 2015 by tomaswell

None of the $11 million earmarked to pay for state police pay raises through enhanced debt collection efforts by the Office of Motor Vehicles has been submitted to the state general fund, according to a spokesperson for the House Appropriations Committee.

Meanwhile, a confidential report prepared for legislators has been obtained by LouisianaVoice which indicates that despite State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson’s claim last January that the pay raise would not affect “upper echelon” personnel, 145 lieutenants, captains, and majors got pay raises totaling $5.3 million per year. Additionally, four deputy superintendents received raises averaging $26,170 (23 percent) each.

Seven pilots ($29,769, or 39 percent), 24 emergency services personnel ($31,247, or 45 percent), two polygraphists ($33,995, or 49 percent), and six support personnel ($25,309, or 31 percent) also received pay hikes.

The breakdown shows that 13 majors and 106 lieutenants received 46 percent pay hikes and 26 captains got bumps of 53 percent. The average salaries ranged from $108,571 for lieutenants to $136,333 for captains, the report indicates.

The largest individual salary increase was $57,252 and the largest single percentage increase was 74 percent, the report says.

State classified employees, when they receive merit increases, generally receive only 4 percent increases but those salaries have been frozen for nearly six years because of budgetary constraints.

Moreover, a separate national study released on Tuesday (Sept. 29) listed police departments from three Louisiana cities as among the worst paying in the nation, including one rated as the lowest.

Altogether, 945 state troopers, ranging from cadets to majors, accounted for more than $20 million in pay increases, thanks to two measures passed by legislators six months apart in 2015.

Unsaid in the report was the effect the pay raises will inevitably have on the unfunded accrued liability (UAL) of the Louisiana State Police Retirement system.

State senators, with minimal discussion, approved the $11 million pay increase during the waning days of the 2015 legislative session only six months after troopers received their first sizable increase. Together, the two raises boosted state trooper pay by 30 percent, according to calculations by the Legislative Fiscal Office.

The first state police pay adjustment was approved in June of 2014 but the money did not become available until the Jan. 19 increase took effect.

In the case of the second pay raise, however, the funds were committed before they were received and none of the anticipated $11 million from old tickets has been received by the state general fund, a situation that could leave the state another $11 million short if the money is not forthcoming by the end of the current fiscal year which closes next June 30.

Lines 42-47 on page 65 of House Bill 1, the Appropriations Bill, appropriates the $11 million “Payable out of state general fund by Statutory Dedications out of the Debt Recovery Fund to the Office of State Police for additional salary support for state troopers, in the event that House Bill No. 638 of the 2015 Regular Session of the Legislature is enacted into law.”

HB 638, by State Rep. Barry Ivey (R-Baton Rouge), which was enacted into law and signed by Bobby Jindal as Act 414, provides that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) collect certain fees “associated with the suspension of an operator’s license” which are related to auto liability insurance requirements. The fees become delinquent after 60 days and are referred to the Office of Debt Recovery.

The bill earmarks $25 million from the Debt Recovery Fund for use by the Office of State Police. Here is the legislative digest of HB 638 (ACT 414)

But with none of that money having been yet gone to the general fund, legislators are beginning to worry.

Additionally, the state police pay increases have not yet produced additional sergeants’ positions. The report said, “State Police leadership claimed in two meetings that the agency was experiencing difficulty attracting Master Troopers who were interested in applying for Sergeant Positions.” The number of Sergeants, however, has only increased by four, from 193 to 197, it said.

Moreover, there have been only 123 promotions within state police ranks and 44, or more than a third, were from cadet to trooper.

There has been one promotion from captain to major, five from lieutenant to captain and 11 from sergeant to lieutenant, the report indicates.

Here is the BREAKDOWN OF STATE POLICE PAY RAISES

Coincidentally, even as the two pay increases combined to make state police the highest-paid law enforcement agency in the state, a national survey Tuesday (Sept. 29) listed three Louisiana cities as among the 30 with the lowest pay for police officers.

Alexandria had the lowest pay in the nation among major cities with an average salary of $31,370 per year for officers. Monroe, with an average salary of $34,000 was eighth lowest, while Lake Charles was 21st lowest in the state with an average salary of $35,320.

The State Police Retirement System (STPOL) had the smallest UAL of four state retirement systems which combined for an UAL balance of $18.588 million in 2013. The breakdown for the individual systems shows that the Teachers Retirement System (TRSL) had the largest UAL of $11.13 million, followed by the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) at $6.25 million, the Louisiana School Employees Retirement System (LSERS) at $863.7 million and STPOL at $305.4 million (up from the $166.5 UAL of 2006).

STPOL receives revenues from the state and from taxes on insurance premiums but the funding levels from the state have decreased steadily since the high of 73.1 percent of 2007 to 59.1 percent of 2013.

 

Posted in Audit Reports, Budget, Legislature, Legislators, Public Records, State Police | 20 Comments »

Jindal administration can’t break contracting frenzy; farms out administration of state FMLA to Chicago firm for $497k

September 29, 2015 by tomaswell

In a state drowning in consulting contracts, what’s one more?

Bobby Jindal is a lame duck governor who long ago set his sights on bigger and better things. He has abdicated every aspect of his office except the salary, free housing and state police security that go with the title. In reality, he has turned the reins of state government over to subordinates who are equally distracted in exploring their own future employment prospects.

His only concerns in almost eight years in office, besides setting himself up to run for President, have been (a) appointing generous campaign donors to positions on state boards and commissions and (b) privatizing state agencies by handing them over to political supporters.

To that end there has been a proliferation of consulting contracts during the Jindal years. The legislative auditor reported in May that there were 19,000 state contracts totaling more than $21 billion.

So as his term enters its final months and as Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols has less than a month before moving on to do for Ochsner Health System what she’s done for the state, what’s another $500,000?

LouisianaVoice has learned that Nichols signed off on a $497,000 contract with ComPsych Corp. and its affiliate, FMLASource, Inc. of Chicago, to administer the state’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) program. FMLA CONTRACT

It is no small irony that Nichols signed off on the contract on May 19, less than two weeks after the legislative auditor’s report of May 6 which was highly critical of the manner in which contracts are issued with little or no oversight.

The latest contract removes the responsibility for approving FMLA for state employees and hands it over to yet another private contractor.

Apparently FMLA was just one more thing the Jindal administration has determined state employees are incapable of administering—even though they have done so since the act was approved by Congress in 1993.

Because no state employees stand to lose their jobs over this latest move, the contract would seem to simply be another consulting contract doled out by the administration, obligating the state to more unnecessary expenditures.

Whether it’s farming out the Office of Risk Management, Office of Group Benefits, funding voucher and charter schools, or implementing prison or hospital privatization—it’s obvious that Jindal has been following the game plan of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to the letter. That plan calls for privatizing virtually every facet of state government. If you don’t think the repeated cuts to higher education and health care were calculated moves toward ALEC’s goals, think again.

The contract runs from May 17, 2015 through May 16, 2016, and the state agreed to pay FMLAServices $1.45 per state employee per month up to the yearly maximum of $497,222.

Agencies for which FMLAServices will administer FMLA include the:

  • Division of Administration;
  • Department of Economic Development;
  • Department of Corrections;
  • Department of Public Safety;
  • Office of Juvenile Justice;
  • Department of Health and Hospitals;
  • Department of Children and Family Services;
  • Department of Revenue;
  • Department of Transportation and Development.

The legislative auditor’s report noted that there is really no way of accurately tracking the number or amount of state contracts. STATE CONTRACTS AUDIT REPORT

“As of November 2014, Louisiana had at least 14,693 active contracts totaling approximately $21.3 billion in CFMS. However, CFMS, which is used by OCR to track and monitor Executive Branch agency contract information, does not contain every state contract.

“Although CFMS, which is a part of the Integrated Statewide Information System (ISIS), tracks most contracts, primarily Executive Branch agencies use this system. For example, Louisiana State University obtained its own procurement tracking system within the last year, and most state regulatory boards and commissions do not use CFMS (Contract Financial Management System). As a result, there is no centralized database where legislators and other stakeholders can easily determine the actual number and dollar amount of all state contracts. Therefore, the total number and dollar amount of existing state contracts as of November 2014 could be much higher.”

The audit report also said:

  • State law (R.S. 39:1490) requires that OCR (Office of Contractual Review) adopt rules and regulations for the procurement, management, control, and disposition of all professional, personal, consulting, and social services contracts required by state agencies. According to OCR, it reviews these types of contracts for appropriateness of contract terms and language, signature authorities, evidence of funding and compliance with applicable laws, regulations, executive orders, and policies. OCR also reviews agencies’ procurement processes against competitive solicitation requirements of law. The contracting entity is responsible for justifying the need for the contract and conducting a cost-benefit analysis if required.
  • However, state law does not require that a centralized entity approve all state contracts.
  • According to the CFMS User Guide, OCR is only required to approve seven of the 20 possible contract types in CFMS. The remaining 13 types accounted for 8,068 contracts totaling approximately $6.2 billion as of November 2014. Exhibit 2 lists the 20 types of contracts in
  • CFMS and whether or not OCR is required to approve each type, including the total number and dollar amount of these contracts.
  • In fiscal year 2014, 72 agencies approved 4,599 contracts totaling more than $278 million.

The Office of Contractual Review was since been merged with the Office of State Procurement last Jan. 1.

 

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Audit Reports, Contract, Contracts, DHH, DOA, Economy, Finances, Governor's Office, Health Care, Higher Education, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, ORM, Office of Risk Management, Prison, Privatization, State Agencies | 25 Comments »

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