Sound Off Louisiana

Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper Garrett Yetman, appearing before the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) on Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Editor’s Note:  Regarding our previous feature entailing former LSPC Member Calvin Braxton’s testimony before the Greene Committee, multiple sources have informed us that, notwithstanding Braxton’s testimony to the contrary, Gov. Edwards “stands by” the date he says he first learned of the true nature of Ronald Greene’s death (September 10, 2020). 

Since that is the case, we recommend that the Greene Committee subpoena “Val” from Gov. Edwards’ office and have her either corroborate or repudiate Braxton’s testimony.

The meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) of Thursday, May 12, 2022 was likely the most content-packed meeting we’ve ever attended in the 5 1/2 years we’ve been attending and filming the meetings.  Let’s break it down:

The meeting began with Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns making public comment (for only about the third time in those 5 1/2 years) entailing the April 14, 2022 LSPC meeting and the leaving of four (4) potential recording devices (two iPads and two iPhones) during the Executive Session of that meeting during which attorney Jill Craft’s contempt allegations against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP itself were being discussed.  Here’s that video:

5/12/22:  Burns makes public comment about three (3) Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) associates [Interim President Hackley Willis (iPad), Executive Director (and former President) Jay O’Quinn (iPad), and former Executive Director Mark Oxley (iPhone] left recording devices during the LSPC’s 4/14/22 Executive Session.  We have also confirmed that LSP Chief Legal Counsel Gail Holland also left an iPhone in the room during Executive Session.

For about the fifth time soon after LSPC meetings, Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns was asked to serve as a 90-minute guest, along with Louisiana United International founder Belinda Parker-Brown, on WBOK (1230 AM) Gerod Stevens’ “The Reality Check” show.

Stevens gave the radio-equivalent of “bringing the house down,” when, upon hearing about the phones and iPads being left in Executive Session, he said, “I’ll tell you how you handle that!  You go up to all these guys and say, ‘You know what?  We know you guys are into sanitizing phones.  We hope you don’t have anything important on these phones because we’re going to take them for the next few hours and give them a good sanitizing.  We’ll get them back to you in a few hours.'”

Burns replied to Stevens:  “I like your style, Gerod!”  Parker-Brown then emphasized that, from what she has observed, such acts demonstrate the utter arrogance of LSP and its repetitive thumbing of its nose at the taxpayers of Louisiana.

After Burns’ public comment came consideration of another one of those, what Belinda Parker-Brown likes to call, “taxpayer-funded vacations.”  This one is for alleged domestic abuser Garrett Yetman.  Let’s take a look:

5/12/22:  Yetman seeks 900-hour exhausting of annual leave, K-time, and 1.5K-time before being placed on LWOP (leave without pay).

It should also be noted that Yetman was President of his Cadet class at LSP and, further that, upon graduation, LSP Chief of Staff Doug “Let’s Sanitize My Phone” Cain, praised Yetman and said how so very thankful he is to God for, “introducing Garrett Yetman into my life.”

Yetman has also been identified as one of the chief culprits of the massive LSP Academy cheating scandal that blogger Tom Aswell of Louisiana Voice exposed on Friday, May 13, 2022.  From that Louisiana Voice feature:

“She (Small) said she got the test from another cadet (Christopher Sink),” Richards said, adding that both were immediately fired. Another source, also a retired trooper, said Sink was rehired.

The same unidentified source, who leaked nearly 350 pages of interagency communications regarding the cheating investigation, said eight other cadets who resigned or were fired were also rehired but Richards said the number was actually four who resigned and were rehired.

In a memorandum from Richards to Lt. David Ryerson, Richards said an inspection of the mobile data terminal (MDT) of cadet Michael Starling contained an online chat with his wife (all outside communications are also prohibited during the time cadets attend the academy) that said, “Just took the test…it was the same one I got from (Garrett) Yetman.”

Now, a little more than two years after the cheating was revealed, the intern who sources say stole test and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) material, Tia Laverdain, is now a state trooper assigned to Internal Affairs (IA) and working under the supervision of her mother, Treone Laverdain. Their uncle is State Rep. Ed Laverdain (D-Alexandria).

Treone Laverdain was named, along with then-IA Commander Capt. Chavez Cammon and Master Trooper Kevin Ducote, as having conspired to cover up the Ronald Greene death at the hands of Troop F troopers. Treone Laverdain has since been promoted to the rank of major.

“I advocated terminating the entire class,” said Richards. “But I met opposition from LSP command and from legal. LSP’s executive legal counsel at the time, Faye Morrison even said of the cheating, ‘That’s how I got through law school.’ I was incredulous that she would say such a thing.”

As indicated in the comments to that feature by Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns, Retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet put in an enormous amount of effort trying to substantiate much of the material above over a year ago (and more – and there are links to Millet’s extensive efforts in the comments).  We salute whomever provided Aswell, Greene Committee Chairman Tanner McGee, and Greene Committee Member Debbie Villio with the damning documents which Millet couldn’t obtain despite his extensive efforts through public records requests last year to do so.

We’ll hope something significant comes of it, and it would be our recommendation to establish yet another oversight committee dedicated to getting to the bottom of the extent of the massive cheating scandal and implementing whatever action may be available to take against those responsible for it or who actively participated in it.

Aswell posted yet another feature today (Sunday, May 15, 2022) indicating that LSP is actively pursuing the leaker of the material upon which he based his first feature.

Next up at that May 12 LSPC meeting was consideration of the appeal of Albert Paxton’s letter of reprimand entailing his having allegedly transmitted documentation of his investigation of the Ronald Greene matter to his wife, who is an attorney, to proofread.  Here’s that video:

5/12/22:  Former LSP Sgt. Paxton’s appeal of his letter of reprimand is deliberated.

As the mainstream media has extensive reported upon, Carl Cavalier (whistelblower in the Ronald Greene matter)’s attorney, Jill Craft, scored a trifecta entailing her contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP iteself.  Hence, we are merely going to present the following four (4) vidoes for folk to watch as little or as much as desired entailing those matters:

5/12/22:  Discussion of contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves.

 5/12/22:  Discussion of contempt charges against former LSP Major Jason Turner.

 5/12/22:  Discussion of contempt charges against LSP.

 5/12/22:  Rulings of the LSPC entailing contempt charges.

• Last, but certainly not least (well, maybe so given that everyone but Burns and one other person fled the room) was the report by Executive Director Jason Hannaman.  We’ll point out the fact that, upon the retirement of Active Trooper LSPC member Robert Mire, only one LSP Trooper in the entire state was even willing to place his name in the hat to replace Mire on the LSPC.  That was LSTA Troop B President Monty Montelongo.  Let’s hope he hasn’t already undergone training for leaving potential recording devices in the LSPC’s meeting room during its executive sessions (i. e. training to covertly record the sessions even as he attends them).   Here’s video of that Director Report:

5/12/22:  LSPC Executive Director Jason Hannaman presents his Director’s Report.

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Former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Member Calvin Braxton testifies before the House Special Committee Investigating the In-Custody Death of Ronald Greene on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.

As we indicated on Monday, we expected some fireworks from hearings this week entailing holding former Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Kevin Reeves in Contempt of the Special Committee investigating Ronald Greene’s in-custody death.  That already transpired earlier today.

Meanwhile, former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) member Calvin Braxton gave damning testimony before the Greene Committee.  In his testimony, Braxton flatly refutes that Gov. Edwards was not told of the nature of Greene’s death until he saw it published on our breakout feature on Greene’s death, which transpired on September 10, 2020.

We knew at the time that Edwards was being less than candid (a phrase we’ve observed Federal Judges like to use rather than lying) at the time.  Nevertheless, our hands were essentially tied about calling him out on the matter because it would have entailed outing one of our most key sources for being able to report upon Greene.  With Braxton having gone public today for all the world to see, those handcuffs are no longer around our wrists.

As a result, we can now state that Calvin Braxton (operating through retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet) told us about the Ronald Greene incident in early June of 2020.  At the point we were informed, we were also told that Braxton had told Gov. Edwards’ office about the matter.  We feel compelled to add that it was Braxton, through Millet, who specifically provided the very specific  detail to us that LSP Trooper Chris Hollingsworth had turned off his body camera during that arrest of Ronald Greene.

At the time, we were very naïve in believing that no trooper would escape discipline for intentionally turning off his or her body camera.  Obviously, we’ve learned a TON since then and are still learning.

Hence, we made public records request for Hollingsworth’s disciplinary file.  When LSP responded and the file contained no discipline for Hollingsworth’s then-alleged act, we did begin to have some doubt because it was simply mindboggling to us that a trooper could knowingly and intentionally deactivate his body camera and face no discipline.

Nevertheless, we had other sources whom we contacted and who were very emphatic that the Hollingsworth accusation entailing the deactivating of the body camera was in fact true.  Further, they indicated to us that we should not be startled in the least that Hollingsworth’s file would contain zilch in the form of discipline for him having done so.  That still blows us away to this day!

Accordingly, we proceeded with the feature linked above, and the rest is history!

The bottom line is that we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Braxton and Millet not only for the firm initial details of the Ronald Greene matter, but it was also Braxton (Millet) who tipped us off about trooper Michael Satcher II.

We have protected Braxton as a key source, but we can now vouch for everything he said in his testimony today as being consistent with what was indicated to Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns way back then.

In fact, after his testimony, Braxton told Burns, who attended the Greene Committee hearing today, “If I’d been asked who was the media outlet that was preparing to run a story on Greene, I was going to tell them ‘you.'”  That too would have been the absolute truth!

Here’s Braxton’s testimony in its entirety.  We think everyone will be impressed with whom Braxton initially chose to vet what he was told, but we’re requiring the viewing of the video below to find that out:

May 11, 2022:  Calvin Braxton testifies before the Greene Oversight Committee.

We feel compelled to make one final observation.  Given the now-seemingly-undisputed fact that Edwards was told in “April or early May of 2020” of the nature of Greene’s death, doesn’t it make the following statement by him regarding Reeves days before he retired all the more shocking?:

Gov. Edwards expresses the “utmost of confidence in Kevin Reeves as LSP Colonel” mere days before Reeves opts to retire and long after Braxton indicates that Reeves was summoned to Gov. Edwards’ office on the Ronald Greene death.

We hope former LSP Col. Reeves doesn’t take much of a breather because, as we reported Monday, he faces a second Contempt charge (this one of the LSPC) tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.

Somehow, we think attorney Jill Craft will be in rare form (and that’s saying plenty) tomorrow morning for that hearing!

We do like the fact that Craft is hammering home the inadequacy of LSP fulfilling her subpoena because, as everyone knows by now, we have a May 23, 2022 court hearing of our own entailing what we believe was excessive redacting on LSP records.

We figure, given the attorney we have for that one (Burns – who’s not actually an attorney and is suing pro se), we can’t lose on that hearing!  Yes, that’s an obvious joke, but Burns does plan to give it his very best shot before Judge Don Johnson in 12 days!

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At the House Oversight Committee Investigating the In-Custody Death of Ronald Greene of April 28, 2022, Rep. Debbie Villio (R-Kenner) poses some probing questions of LSP Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon regarding when Gov. Edwards may have been informed of the true nature of Greene’s death.

When everything was reaching a crescendo between legislators, the public, and Gov. Edwards entailing the Louisiana State Police (LSP) in-custody death of Ronald Greene, Gov. Edwards held a press conference on February 1, 2022 immediately after having met with the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus.

During that press conference, Edwards stated that he first learned of the nature of Greene’s death by reading material as part of a blog post (almost assuredly this one) which contained extensive details of allegations contained in a Federal Lawsuit filed by Greene’s family entailing his death.

We published that feature on September 10, 2020 before any feature of Greene’s death was published and, through investigative reporting of WBRZ reporter Chris Nakamoto, we later learned that Louisiana State Sen. Jimmy Harris (D-New Orleans) immediately shared it with Gov. Edwards’ Executive Counsel, Matthew Block (see texts here).  Hence, that’s clearly the reference Edwards was making, which would mean that he maintains that the date he first learned of the true nature of Greene’s death would be Thursday, September 10, 2020.

Several events, including one definite and one potential hearing for Contempt Charges lodged against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, may very likely shed significant insight into whether Edwards may have possessed knowledge of the true nature of Greene’s death far sooner than when Edwards admitted such knowledge at that February 1, 2022 news conference.

In a stunning development at the April 28, 2022 Louisiana House Oversight Special Committee Meeting on the Death of Ronald Greene, Rep. Debbie Villio (R-Kenner) openly inquired of Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon whether Gov. Edwards may have been told about the nature of Greene’s death far sooner than Edwards admits.

Her line of questioning seemed to catch Cammon off guard, particularly when Villio made reference to Calvin Braxton, a former member of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) and on whom we have reported upon extensively concerning his ongoing litigation against the Louisiana State Trooper’s Association (LSTA).  Let’s take just a few minutes to take a look at that fascinating exchange:

4/28/22:  Rep. Debbie Villio (R-Kenner) poses questions to Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon regarding when Gov. Edwards may have first been informed about the nature of Ronald Greene’s death.

The video above speaks for itself, so we aren’t going to elaborate upon it other than to say we would not be surprised to see Braxton appearing before the Committee soon to clarify matters.

Beyond what we anticipate in terms of Braxton testimony, there is a potential hearing before the Louisiana Sen. Judiciary B Committee entailing  potential Contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves.

If and when that hearing transpires, it will entail the House Oversight Greene Committee’s frustration that Reeves, guided by his attorney, Lewis Unglesby, is being quite selective about just what he will and will not release to the Committee Members entailing contents of several journals with handwritten notes he kept on LSP affairs.

Finally, Reeves faces a Contempt of the LSPC in a matter to be considered on Thursday, May 12, 2022.

That hearing will take place at 9:00 a.m.

Let’s take some time to see attorney Jill Craft, who serves as attorney for whistleblower Carl Cavalier (who was terminated by LSP Col. Lamar Davis but is appealing both a 200-hour suspension for writing a book and his termination as separate disciplinary actions) vent at the April 14, 2022 LSPC meeting.

At that meeting, Craft expressed extreme frustration at Reeves, retired LSP Major Jason Turner (both of whom did not honor subpoenas served upon them to appear before the LSPC on that date), and Louisiana State Police, all of whom (which) against Craft seeks to be held in Contempt of the LSPC:

4/14/22:  LSPC Meeting during which attorney Jill Craft seeks Contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP itself.

We’re going to wrap this feature up by outlining a few dates of which we have first-hand knowledge entailing the Ronald Greene matter:

The coming days and weeks could get very interesting indeed!

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