Sound Off Louisiana

LSP Trooper Michael Lynn Satcher, II

On September 10, 2020, we broke the story of LSP’s extreme secrecy entailing the in-custody death of Ronald Greene.  As we predicted at the bottom of the feature, the Greene incident soon got national and international coverage which led to a series of events to include:  1) the near-immediate notification to the late-LSP Trooper Christopher Hollingsworth that he would be terminated as a result of his role in the death of Greene; 2) Hollingsworth’s single-car-incident death mere hours after receiving his notice of intent to be terminated, with his death certificate indicating that he died as the result of an “accident;” and 3) the retirement of former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves after he was added as a defendant to a Federal civil suit entailing Greene’s death.  That suit alleges that Greene’s death was the direct result of extreme excessive force deployed by one or more LSP troopers and/or sheriff deputies and further alleges upon a subsequent amendment adding Reeves as a defendant  that Reeves knew of the means by which Greene died and aided and abetted an alleged cover-up of that death.

Perhaps because LSP Command Staff continued for months to portray Greene’s death as the result of an accident after his vehicle veered off the road after a multi-parish chase, there appears to be little evidence that any administrative investigation transpired until after Greene’s death and the circumstances surrounding his death began to be exposed in the media.

On November 4, 2020, we alerted our subscribers and the public at large about the status of LSP Trooper Michael Satcher, II’s prosecution for alleged domestic abuse of his dating partner, who is identified in the Bill of Information pertaining to his charges as Cynthia Chapman.

As our feature points out, it would be an understatement to state that the entries on the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court system entailing Satcher’s charges are confusing largely because of an entry on the system indicating that, upon motion of Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office (Landry had to become prosecutor because Rapides Parish DA Phillip Terrell recused himself due to his “close friendship” with Satcher), the domestic abuse charge was nolle prossed (i.e. not prosecuted).

When we reached out to Landry’s Office, however, the attorney handling Satcher’s prosecution, John Russell, IV, emphatically stated that is “not correct.”  From that feature:

As is evidenced by Russel’s correspondence, he indicates, “the lesser charges were technically nolle procssed because I upgraded them to felony offenses.”

As we indicated in the feature, we’ll continue to monitor Satcher’s criminal case in Rapides Parish.  In the meantime, the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) placed on its agenda for Thursday, November 12, 2020, an item to approve placing Satcher on leave without pay.  As we have previously reported, Satcher’s time sheets covering mid-September to early October of 2020 depict him as being on “forced annual leave.”  Let’s take a look at the LSPC segment from November 12, 2020 entailing Satcher:

LSP Trooper Michael Lynn Satcher’s placement on leave without pay is presented to and discussed by the LSPC at its meeting of November 12, 2020.

As is readily apparent on the above video (in fact, to be precise, beginning at the 3:07 mark), LSPC Trooper Member Robert Mire inquires as to whether the Department is waiting for the prosecution of Satcher’s criminal charges to conclude prior to launching an administrative investigation.  Newly-installed LSP Chief of Staff, Doug Cain, responds with, “No.  We began an administrative investigation this week.”  

We can therefore logically conclude that, just as Reeves apparently saw no need to convene any meaningful administrative investigation of Greene’s death (or perhaps did so but wasn’t happy with the findings and thus may have done as he has been alleged to have done in the Federal suit and actively engaged in a cover-up operation of the nature of Greene’s death), he likewise apparently saw no need to initiate an administrative investigation into Satcher’s alleged domestic abuse charges.  Perhaps newly-installed LSP Colonel, Lamar Davis, views the matter a tad differently based upon Cain’s response to Mire’s inquiry.

We have spoken with several sources with integral knowledge of just what transpired on October 12, 2019, the day of Satcher’s arrest for the domestic abuse charges.  We deem these sources to be extremely reliable, so we now provide an itemization of just what they indicate to us went down:

• Satcher allegedly showed up at Chapman’s home shouting in a very loud voice demanding the key to his truck and some other items;
• Satcher allegedly then shouted to Chapman, “Please don’t make me call the police.  I’m not going to lose my job over this.”;
• Satcher then stated to Chapman, “You are crazy.  You will do this to me,”;
• Satcher then allegedly indicated by, “swearing on my kids’ life” that he would call the police on Chapman;
• Satcher then allegedly began banging on glass to a door to Chapman’s home, at which time Chapman told him to, “Stop it!  You do not break into my home!”;
• Chapman then allegedly indicated to Satcher that she did not have any of his belongings and ordered him to leave;
• Satcher and Chapman allegedly then continued to counter one another about whether or not Chapman had possession of anything belonging to Satcher;
• Chapman allegedly repeated to Satcher several times that she had “already returned your things earlier,” to which Satcher accused Chapman of “lying,” by her statement that she had done so;
• Satcher then allegedly went toward another door to enter the home, after which an altercation ensued;

Upon hearing the specifics of the request for leave without pay and the apparent exhaustion of all of Satcher’s other leave available to him, we modified a previous public records request seeking all time sheets depicting “forced annual leave” from the period of October 12, 2019 forward to simply ask for all of his time sheets from October 12, 2019 forward irrespective of what is depicted on the time sheets.  LSP supplied us with that documentation at 1:30 p.m. today (Thursday, November 19, 2020).

Sather’s time sheets reflect him being on “other leave” in the days leading up to his arrest.  He remained on “other leave” through Wednesday, December 4, 2019, on which day his hours were split as four (4) for “other leave” and six (6) as “compensatory time.”  He then remained on “compensatory time” from December 4, 2019 through Friday, February 7, 2020, on which day his time sheet reflects nine (9) hours of “compensatory leave” and one (1) hour of “(forced) annual leave.”  He has remained on
“(forced) annual leave” through the final date on the time sheets provided, which is October 29, 2020.

Based upon the statement on the video above that Satcher’s next court hearing is “sometime in February,” it would appear that he will be both on leave without pay and under a protective order prohibiting him from carrying a firearm for a rather extended period.

We think it’s pretty clear what our opinion is entailing Col. Reeves’ tenure as LSP Colonel.  After all, we  openly called for his resignation as far back as March 4, 2020 (see “as for Col. Reeves”).  We’ll let our subscribers decide if Reeves’ apparent indifference to the Satcher matter further makes the case for the call we issued to him way back then to simply “resign in disgrace!”

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Former LSP Chief of Staff and current Gaming Control Board Chairman Mike Noel.

WBRZ (Baton Rouge Channel 2) investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto broadcast this feature on September 3, 2020 entailing LSP Trooper August McKay’s alleged reference to a colleague as a “f—— n—–.”  Sound Off Louisiana subscribers may recall that, at the October 8, 2020 meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), McKay’s attorney, Eric J. Hellser, addressed the LSPC and commenced to lambast Nakamoto’s feature as being “inaccurate.”

This past week, Nakamoto aired two follow-up features entailing his efforts to further investigate his original McKay feature.  In the first feature, which aired on Wednesday, November 11, 2020, Nakamoto revealed the fact that LSP supplied him with some 500+ pages of material related to his McKay investigation;  however, nearly 50 of the pages were redacted in their entireties.  In the second feature, which aired the next evening on Thursday, November 12, 2020, Nakamoto interviewed an attorney, Chase Tettleton,  identified as “WBRZ’s attorney,”  who outlined the utter absurdity of LSP’s action in providing all those fully-redacted pages.  Let’s take just a few minutes to see the two combined video features:

 Combined features (11/11/20 and 11/12/20 ) of WBRZ investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto on LSP’s providing of fully-redacted pages in response to his public records request.

Judging strictly by the contents of the consolidated Nakamoto feature above, it would appear that LSP is willing to provide him only with the equivalent of its internal affairs investigative report which is dated November 16, 2017.  Nakamoto does a great job of succinctly stating the core content of the report in the above feature irrespective of what documents he may have utilized from LSP facilitating that succinct summation.

The day after Nakamoto’s second feature aired, Friday, November 13, 2020, we made our own public records request of LSP, and we now itemize the components of our request:

• The disciplinary file of Kory York;
• The job description and required qualifications for a pilot position together with all documentation provided by all applicants for that pilot position ultimately awarded to Jordan Mayer;
• The job description and required qualifications for a pilot position together with all documentation provided by all applicants for that pilot position ultimately awarded to Michael Satcher, II;
• The job description and required qualifications for a pilot position together with all documentation provided by all applicants for that pilot position ultimately awarded to Alan Verhoef;
• All documentation pertaining to polygraphist Donnie Guidroz being transferred into the Air Support Section to include invoices in which LSP paid for any training Guidroz may have needed to obtain his multi-engine fixed wing rating;
• Any documentation pertaining to Donnie Guidroz’s transfer to the Gaming Section of State Police from the Air Support Section together with any emails and/or texts between Donnie Guidroz and Steven Lee for the period encompassing four months prior to Guidroz obtaining the Air Support position up to and including the date Guidroz transferred to the Gaming Section of State Police;
• Any and all documentation pertaining any efforts underway for Steven Lee to hire any civilian pilot onto LSP’s payroll along with any documentation that substantiates the fact that an LSP Pilot must have served as an LSP Trooper for three (3) years prior to being eligible for a pilot’s position within LSP;
• Any and all emails, voice mails, recordings, texts, letters or other forms of documentation either originating from former Lt. Col. Mike Noel and/or being received by former Lt. Col. Mike Noel which have the word “Greene” contained within the body or title of such correspondence or that verbally record Noel referencing the word “Greene” from the timeframe of May 11, 2019 through the date Noel transferred to the LSP Gaming Division.

LSP was quick to respond entailing when we can expect the records along with the usual and customary caveat that the agency will avail itself of any statutory authority by which it may withhold the release of any requested records.  The response range is from 60 days (for requests 1-4 itemized above) or 90 days (for requests 5-8 itemized above).  Accordingly, we have marked our calendars with the dates of Tuesday, January 12, 2021 for the receipt of items 1-4 above and Thursday, February 11, 2021 for items 5-8 above.

We’ll certainly alert our subscribers, many of whom may be quite intrigued regarding the nature of the public documents we’ve requested above, entailing what we uncover from that documentation via future Sound Off posts.  We’re certainly hopeful that we encounter a tad (okay, more than a tad) less  of the full-page-holdbacks like those encountered by Nakamoto illustrated in the above video.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Former Louisiana State Police Col. Kevin Reeves.

On Tuesday, October 27, 2020, former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves abruptly announced his “retirement” effective Friday, October 30, 2020.  The preceding link is an absolutely outstanding feature by WBRZ (Baton Rouge Channel 2) investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto who, in a little over three minutes, managed to cover numerous instances of apparent corruption and cover-ups within LSP.  Because that feature is so thorough and succinct, we want it to serve as the video we provide for this feature.  Here it is (from the preceding link):

Feature airing on WBRZ (Channel 2) on October 27, 2020 in which investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto covers controversies surrounding outgoing LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, who “retired” on Friday, October 30, 2020.

Though Nakamoto covers a litany of problematic matters at LSP in the above feature, no doubt the Ronald Greene matter, which we broke on September 10, 2020, was the biggest factor contributing to Reeves’ sudden and abrupt “retirement.”  In the video above, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards states that the media will have to “ask him (Reeves)” to find out why he retired and why so little time (three days) transpired between his announcement and the retirement itself.

Most any decent reporter realizes posing such a question to Reeves would be a complete exercise in futility because, in the highly unlikely event he would be willing to return a reporter’s phone call for inquiry, he would utter the same old worn-out excuse all such high-profile folk use upon departure of, “Well, it was time for me to spend more time with my family…blah, blah, blah.”

We believe we may have a more concrete reason, and that reason has surfaced in the ongoing Federal civil litigation filed by Ronald Green’s estate through his daughter.

The initial response, acting through their attorneys, from LSP troopers named as defendants in the litigation entailed motions to dismiss or to force Greene’s attorneys to “state a more definite statement.”  LSP relies upon the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity granted by the Eleventh Amendment of the U. S. Constitution to support its dismissal motions.

In the event the Court may be disinclined to dismiss the case, LSP attorneys seek a more definite statement.  They assert that the initial lawsuit filed by Greene’s estate is, “so vague and ambiguous that defendant cannot reasonably prepare a response.”  Each trooper filed essentially identical motions on September 14, 2020:  Dakota Demoss’ motion and Kory York, Floyd McElroy, John Clary, and John Peters’ motion.  The Court set an October 5, 2020 deadline for Greene’s estate to respond to the motions.

The attorneys for Green responded by amending the original petition on the Court-imposed deadline of October 5, 2020.  Then-Col. Kevin Reeves was added as a defendant in the litigation, as were “five Does” (and that’s not the female deer variety) being as-yet unnamed LSP Troopers or “related institutions” who are alleged to have conspired with Reeves to cover-up  Greene’s death.  The LSP attorneys asked for a “more definite statement,” and the amended lawsuit would appear to provide it.  From the amended lawsuit:

71. Colonel Reeves was aware of the true nature of the officer’s unconstitutional conduct. that the officers engaged in an unnecessary and vicious assault of Greene that resulted in his death.

72. Despite knowing that officers under his command had murdered Greene, Colonel Reeves permitted the officers to continue to function as officers.

73. Despite knowing that officers under his command had deprived Greene of his constitutional rights Reeves refused to produce or release bodycam footage, dashboard cam footage, discharge logs, use of force reports or any number of investigative materials that would reveal the unconstitutional conduct.

74. For more than 14 months, Colonel Reeves engaged in an active effort to portray Greene’s death as car accident, refusing to allow any information about the incident to become public.

75. The purpose of Colonel Reeves’ refusal to produce or release bodycam footage, dashboard cam footage, discharge logs, use of force reports or any number of investigative materials was to deny Plaintiff the right to institute an action to redress the deprivation of Greene’s constitutional rights.

76. Colonel Reeves conspired with the officers to misrepresent, conceal, and obfuscate the true nature of their unconstitutional conduct.

77. The purpose of Colonel Reeves’ misrepresentation, concealment, and obfuscation was to deny Plaintiff the right to institute an action to redress the deprivation of his constitutional rights.

The lawsuit also contains the damning words uttered by the late LSP Trooper defendant Chris Hollingsworth which were initially released by AP reporter Jim Mustian on October 1, 2020 (four days before the amended lawsuit was filed).  Mustian is a former Advocate reporter who covered LSP’s apparent improprieties with dogged determination, so much so that Reeves authored an Advocate editorial which barely concealed his utter glee at the departure of Mustian from The Advocate.  The damning words are also on prominent display on the Nakamoto feature above.  Again, from the amended lawsuit:

63. Master Trooper Hollingsworth confirmed the vicious and unconstitutional nature of the Officers’ conduct by confessing that he choked and “beat the ever-loving fuck” out of Greene until he was spitting blood and went limp.

Hollingsworth’s attorney, Scott Wolleson, filed a suggestion of death entailing Hollingsworth on October 26, 2020 complete with a statement from Ouachita Parish Coroner Chief Investigator Warren Lee in which he (Lee)  indicated that a death certificate would be released later which would convey the “final cause and manner of death.”  Four days later, on October 30, 2020, the Hollingsworth death certificate was entered into the record as an exhibit.  It lists the cause of death as “multiple blunt force injuries” and officially classifies the manner of death as “accident.”

We would respectfully suggest that it is these new allegations providing a “more definite statement” entailing former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves’ role regarding Ronald Greene’s death that prompted his abrupt retirement.  We would also suggest that is the rationale for why Gov. Edwards, despite stating on the above Nakamoto video that he, “has complete confidence in the Superintendent of State Police, Kevin Reeves,” found the grease getting a little too hot for Edwards’ comfort level where Reeves was concerned.  We believe that is why he was so evasive when questioned about Reeves’ imminent departure from LSP.

Finally, if the allegations contained in the amended civil lawsuit against Reeves are true, it would be our suggestion to Reeves (along with some other LSP Troopers, some of whom appear to be anticipated to be added as defendants to Greene’s civil lawsuit at a later date) that he have on speed dial a good criminal defense attorney.  We can suggest two for his consideration:  John McClendon and Lewis Unglesby.  Of course, despite  Unglesby’s incredible talent, which we’ve witnessed first-hand in the courtroom, even he couldn’t manage to get former Louisiana State Senator (and convicted felon) Larry S. Bankston off even in a criminal-friendly venue like New Orleans.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.