Sound Off Louisiana

Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis

On February 11, 2021, Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis assured Louisiana citizens that, if LSP is not, “doing the right thing,” then, “we’re going to hold them accountable.”  Let’s take a look at that 15-second clip:

2/11/21 video of LSP Col. Lamar Davis reassuring Louisiana citizens that “LSP is out there doing the right thing.”

It’s now fair game to ask if Col. Davis is a complete, 100% T-total fraud!  We already exposed in a feature earlier this week where attorney Michael DuBos lambasted the living daylights out of him.  Davis, in an utterly weak (and actually downright pathetic) attempt to defend himself, not only didn’t help his cause but, in our opinion, severely harmed his cause.

He did so when he stated that LSP Trooper William Woodward, III had full access to his body-worn camera to prepare for an Internal Affairs interview for which Davis and his administration declined to even tell Woodward what specific violations he engaged in during a DWI arrest.  DuBos then countered stating, “Col. Davis may not be aware of this, but Trooper Woodward was blocked from having any access to his body-worn camera.”

DuBos further stated that, when he asked for specificity on any factual allegations being lodged against his client, Woodward, as he asserted is “required” by LSPC policy, he indicated that he was defiantly told, “You got all you’re going to get!”

Today, Davis’ credibility took a total and absolute free fall as a result of this feature by Associated Press reporter Jim Mustian.  When we say free fall, we mean Davis’ credibility literally fell faster than Enron’s stock when its fraud was revealed years ago!  From the feature:

A key point under scrutiny in the federal investigation came just a day after the AP published the video, when the head of the state police, Col. Lamar Davis, and his chief of staff, Lt. Col. Doug Cain, made a hastily arranged attempt to dissuade state prosecutors from charging troopers in the Greene case, according to several people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it.

Davis and Cain traveled to District Attorney John Belton’s office in Ruston — more than 200 miles north of Baton Rouge — on May 20 to review the video frame by frame and make the case that the troopers’ actions were justified. Belton, who told colleagues he was deeply disturbed by the footage, referred the case to federal authorities in September 2019 but has not ruled out prosecuting the troopers at the state level.

Capt. Nick Manale, a state police spokesman, said the agency is continuing to cooperate with the federal investigation and “intends to release all documents and investigative files at the appropriate time.” He said the federal inquiry “prevents the release of further information.”

Davis has declined repeated interview requests. Cain did not respond to messages seeking comment.

What’s our best guess as to why Davis would do something like that when he knew reader comments associated with every media outlet covering the Greene case, along with civil rights organizations across the U. S. were calling for prosecutions of the troopers who arrested Greene?  The only logical explanation (to us at least) is that the “powers that be” beneath him (as well as likely Gov. Edwards) have known since Davis was appointed that he had some hidden skeleton he would never want revealed.  Once the video was released (by Mustian), they played the card!

That would fit in well with what we’ve observed of the way LSP operates.  It would also explain why Davis would say, “We’re out here doing the right thing,” and yet simultaneously approve numerous promotions (and highly questionable hiring decisions even within his own close inner circle) despite what we’ve observed to be widespread knowledge of serious problems existing entailing those hires.

Since Davis refuses to make comment on the matter above, we feel we’re at liberty to speculate, and that’s our best guess of what would otherwise seem absolutely inexplicable!

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Edwin Neill, III at the August 2, 2021 meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology.

Our subscribers will recall our May 9, 2021 feature entailing Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) Chairman Edwin Neill’s covert efforts to try to cram another 250 hours of schoolwork down students’ throats to obtain an “advanced esthetician” designation.  The feature showed three practicing estheticians who showed up at the Cosmetology Board meeting of that month and openly stated their opposition to the measure.

At that point, the measure had sailed through the Louisiana House of Representatives (without a single “no” vote); however, when the bill reached the Senate, it died on the vine without even getting so much as a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.  The author of the bill pulled it.

We knew that LSBC Chairman Edwin Neill, III would not be pleased with that development, but even we underestimated the level of his wrath and anger which clearly built up entailing Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns.  At the August 2, 2021 LSBC meeting, however, Neill’s wrath was on full display, particularly after the meeting when Neill openly pushed Burns in front of about 20 witnesses and, when Burns responded with, “You better back off!,” Neill (who is an attorney) upon getting right in Burns’ face (both masked), then inquired, “What are you going to do about it?”

What prompted such a hostile exchange on Neill’s part?  Well, at 9:40 a.m., as evidenced by the following screen shot of Burns phone, his dental office called to confirm his appointment for Wednesday, August 4, 2021.  Here’s the screenshot:

Believing that the incoming call would be as most doctor offices are now and be automated to just confirm the appointment, Burns slid the bar to accept the call in anticipation of merely hitting a couple of keys to confirm the appointment.  Instead, it turned out to be a live person to confirm the appointment, and Burns whispered (video file to be provided shortly) to confirm the appointment.

Neill absolutely exploded in anger and slammed the gavel down so hard it’s a miracle it wasn’t broken.  He further demanded that the phone call “be taken outside.”  The phone call was over with and the appointment confirmed before Burns could even make it fully out of the meeting room, but before exiting, he let it be known that Neill said absolutely nothing as fellow Board Member James Williams’ phone rang (not a vibrate which nobody heard as was the case for Burns’ call), not once, not twice, but three times!  We’re not talking about three rings for one call.  We’re talking about three separate calls, with Williams’ phone ringing aloud each time.

Here’s a two-minute video clip of the three phone calls Williams received and Neill’s nuclear reaction to Burns trying to merely confirm a dental appointment which he thought would be an automated process but instead got a live voice:

Two-minute video of LSBC meeting of 8/2/21 highlighting Board Member James Williams’ THREE ringing phone calls and when they occurred and Burns’ one silent phone call and him whispering to confirm a doctor’s appointment and Chairman Edwin Neill’s beyond-the-pale nuclear reaction to Burns taking the call.

Given Neill’s incredibly hostile reaction above (without even giving Burns the chance to exit the room), does anyone doubt his anger directed at Burns after the meeting?  We would hope not.  After the meeting, Burns drafted this email to LSBC Attorney Sheri Morris (with Gov. Edwards’ Office copied).  We hope nobody has a heart attack over the complimentary words in the email entailing Larry Bankston.  We promise, Burns is indeed the author of the email!

We guess the next LSBC meeting ought to be interesting, huh?

CLICK HERE for the August 2, 2021 LSBC meeting in its entirety.

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Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis, who came under sharp attack from an attorney representing LSP Trooper William R. “Roddy” Woodward at the July 8, 2021 meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission.

On March 24, 2021, Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper William R. “Roddy” Woodward III, a trooper assigned to Troop F, arrested a suspected DWI driver.  Woodward was subsequently notified by LSP that he was the subject of an investigation for alleged violations of “LSP and/or DPS policies and procedures.”

At the July 8, 2021 meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), attorney Michael DuBos (the same attorney who successfully obtained a Temporary Restraining Order blocking LSP’s investigation of other Troop F troopers for alleged excessive force during arrests) absolutely lambasted Col. Lamar Davis and his administration for, according to DuBos, “failing to provide the factual allegations of alleged wrongdoing” on Woodward’s part.  He openly stated, entailing Davis and his administration:  “It’s a habit of this administration!”

DuBos sought the factual allegations in order that his client, Woodward, could be better prepared for an interview being conducted by LSP’s Internal Affairs Division concerning the DWI arrest.  DuBos stated at the meeting that, when he requested the specifics of the factual allegations, the response he got back from Davis’ administration was that, “You’ve got all you’re going to get!”

Because the arguments DuBos poses go straight to the heart of LSP competency (or lack thereof), we believe his arguments are worth listening to in their entirety, so here they are:

DuBos slams Col. Davis and his administration entailing an alleged “habit” of not providing factual allegations when an LSP trooper is accused of wrongdoing.

Now, Davis was defended by three individuals:  himself, LSPC Member Sabrina Richardson, and LSPC Trooper Member Robert Mire.  Richardson began the defense and, in our view, was floundering so badly  that Col. Davis felt compelled to step up and take over.  Perhaps Richardson may be preoccupied with trying to replace supplemental income if she may not yet have fully recovered financially from a 2015  ban from New Orleans Police Special Events details.  From that article:

Our investigative report found that Sgt. Walter Powers, Jr., Sgt. Sabrina Richardson and Officer Christopher Avist were among just a dozen officers who together earned a third of the $306,000 that officers working those special events earned over a six-month period.

“This is another case that points to why the secondary employment issue was so central to the consent decree because of the potential for abuse as well as corruption,” said Dr. George Capowich.

In Davis’ defense of himself and his administration, he seemed to be of the impression that troopers accused of wrongdoing, “have access to body-worn cameras,” and the ability to talk with superiors at their troops.  Interestingly, DuBos flatly stated that, while Davis may not be aware of it, Trooper Woodward was specifically “blocked” from having access to his body-worn camera prior to being questioned by Internal Affairs.  DuBos also openly questioned the appropriateness of talking about the investigation with fellow troopers (to include superiors at his/her troop) because of the confidential nature of Internal Affairs investigations.

If the statement by DuBos regarding Woodward being “blocked” from accessing his own body-worn camera is true (and not a soul in the room said anything to contradict his statement), then it would be an indication that Davis is clueless regarding much of the daily operations at LSP and also that key underlings have him on a “needs to know basis,” which is something WBRZ investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto told Davis just may be a problem if Doug Cain served as Chief of Staff, at least according to Nakamoto’s sources.

We have further evidence that Davis is either being kept in the dark regarding names submitted for promotions who have problematic pasts, or else he knows about the problematic pasts and is nevertheless approving the promotions.  We’ll be exposing some of these promotions in future posts.

The bottom line is that Davis is a bigger lame duck than Gov. Edwards because the next Louisiana Governor is most assuredly going to name his or her own choice for LSP Colonel.

There can be little doubt that behind-the-scenes jockeying to be the next LSP Col. under the next governor is now and has been transpiring for quite some time.  We have little doubt Cain is a big factor in that jockeying, and perhaps Cain has made some of the recommendations he has made for promotions to appease the “old guard” and help solidify his standing for being named as the official LSP Colonel.  As we’ve reported previously, Cain, as Chief of Staff, is essentially LSP Colonel now as numerous troopers have told us that the actual LSP Colonel is merely the public face of LSP and that the Chief of Staff really runs the whole show.

At any rate, for Davis to make the public statement that troopers accused of wrongdoing have ready access to their body-worn camera footage and then be immediately countered by DuBos that Woodward was “blocked” from such access is a monumental embarrassment for Davis irrespective of the factors in play that caused him to be so out-of-touch with the operations of his own agency!

Being blunt, in our opinion, LSPC Member/Trooper Robert Mire’s defense of Davis was even weaker than Richardson’s.  Subscribers can hear what he had to say as we present the audio file shortly.

Only LSPC Member Brian Crawford, who has extensive experience entailing allegations of wrongdoing in his prior role with the Shreveport Fire Department, seemed to grasp just how absurd it is to accuse a trooper of wrongdoing and then leave him or her to guess what the heck he or she allegedly did wrong!

Crawford drove that point home very effectively, only to then be accused by Chairman Eulis Simien, Jr., of, “getting way into the facts.”  Crawford, who rarely (if ever) has even a modest counter-statement directed at Simien, took the opportunity to remind Simien that he sought no “facts” whatsoever but merely sought to find out from Davis’ administration if they spelled out the factual allegations of wrongdoing in the letter to Woodward and, if not, why they failed to do so.

Here’s the audio file of the incredibly weak defenses offered up for Davis and his administration by Davis himself, Richardson, and Mire, and Crawford’s questioning of why any factual allegations were not present in the letter to Woodward if they in fact were not:

Richardson, Davis, and Mire attempt to defend the letter to Woodward, while Crawford openly questions why factual allegations of alleged wrongdoing may have been omitted from the letter.

We will give credit to Richardson for one thing.  She asked LSP lawyers how the alleged wrongdoing on Woodward’s part came to light.  LSP’s response:  “Not through a public complaint but through an audit.”

We find LSP’s response very interesting, especially given that Woodward has requested that LSP, “cease and desist from retaliation against me…and treat me fairly without prejudice.”

We’ll report far more detail regarding why Woodward made the statement he made in the preceding paragraph as we publish the third installment of the LSPC meeting of July 8, 2021.

Regarding the present matter, DuBos sought for the charges against Woodward to be summarily dismissed based on the alleged inadequacy of LSP’s letter to him entailing an absence of factual allegations.  The LSPC voted unanimously to deny Woodward’s motion for his charges to be summarily dismissed, and the matter is set for hearing at the August 11, 2021 LSPC meeting.  We’ll certainly be there with our video camera to record that hearing.

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