Contractor Billy Broussard provides ODC with evidence of “violation of all the ethics rules” by Calcasieu Parish attorneys Gabb and Stutes; also files complaints against attorneys Sylvester and Pharr.

Contractor Billy Broussard, mere moments after he filed complaints against four (4) attorneys with the Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel on Monday, March 11, 2019.

Subscribers will recall from our last feature that contractor Billy Broussard sent formal demand letters to attorneys Robin Sylvester and Mark “Tiger” Pharr seeking their malpractice insurance policy information, and he provided a deadline of noon on March 7, 2019 for them to fulfill his demand.  On Monday, March 11, 2019, Broussard telephoned us and informed us that both attorneys had failed to conform to his demand and that he was in transit to the Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) for the purpose of filing complaints against both attorneys for failing to provide the requested information.

Broussard also informed us that he had isolated an audio clip of his former attorney Robin Sylvester advising him that he should file formal complaints with the ODC against the attorney for the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, Sam Gabb, and against Russell “Rusty” Stutes, attorney for Gravity Drainage District 8 of Ward 1 of Calcasieu Parish.  The audio clip is only 50 seconds in length, and Broussard provided it to ODC as part of his documentation against those two attorneys.  Let’s take just a moment to listen to Sylvester explaining exactly how she alleges Stutes and Gabb “violated all the ethics rules.”:

 
Robin Sylvester, in a meeting with her former client, Billy Broussard, on September 12, 2018, explains exactly how Stutes and Gabb “violated all the ethics rules” as she encourages Broussard to file complaints with the ODC over those alleged ethics violations.  Broussard took her advice and, on Monday, March 11, 2019, he filed a complaint against Stutes as well as a complaint against Gabb.

Now, when Broussard called us, we asked if we could meet him at the ODC and produce a brief video of him moments after he filed the complaints.  Here’s that video:


Broussard speaks with Sound Off Louisiana founder Burns moments after filing complaints against Russell “Rusty” Stutes, Sam Gabb, Robin Sylvester, and Mark “Tiger” Pharr.

 

Regarding reference in the above video, Stutes’ response to our public records request for his invoices for filing the restraining order he filed against Broussard, here’s the letter he sent in response:

 

Let’s take a brief look at the substance of Broussard’s complaints against Stutes and Sylvester, shall we?

Also, in reference near the end of the video about Legislative Auditor staffer John Morehead’s statements that “all the debris had to be eligible because Dan Kennedy signed off on it,” that’s contained in this Sound Off Louisiana feature.  In the video above, Sound Off Louisiana’s founder, Robert Burns, states that that meeting was in March of 2018; however, the actual date of the meeting was April 13, 2018.

There is a significant group in Calcasieu Parish which has gotten fed up with what they contend is massive governmental corruption in Calcasieu Parish and what they also contend is an abysmal failure on the part of the local paper, the American Press, to cover such corruption.  As a result, they have formed their own substitute medium for disseminating items of concern to them, and it has over 2,000 members!  That group is named Calcasieu Parish – In Check.  We’ve been extended a membership invitation which we accepted, and we’ve found their posts to the group to be of great interest to us.

Finally, frustration with American Press notwithstanding, they published an article yesterday regarding a proposal to consolidate all of the Calcasieu Parish Drainage Districts into only two.  Interestingly, in the third-to-last paragraph of that article, we find the following matter addressed by Chris Landry, Calcasieu Parish Police Juror for District 7, to be intriguing:

Landry also pointed out various issues drainage districts have encountered, such as not following budget requirements under state law, several years of not providing records and minutes of meetings and inadequate drug screen policies.

We find the “several years of not providing public records and minutes of meetings” to be quite revealing to be made in such a public format by a sitting Calcasieu Parish governmental official.  It’s possible Landry is referencing Broussard.  If not, it sure looks like there may be a pattern of withholding public documents, particularly when those documents may implicate Calcasieu Parish officials entailing alleged fraud against FEMA which  Broussard has contended for an extended period did in fact transpire regarding the Indian Bayou project in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

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Contractor Billy Broussard goes for jugular in seeking malpractice policy details on former attorney Sylvester and Attorney General Jeff Landry’s former law firm Galloway, Johnson, et. al.

 


Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry as he visits with President Donald Trump.

Subscribers will recall from a recent feature we published that the attorney representing contractor Billy Broussard, Robin Sylvester, cited as a key reason for withdrawing from representing Broussard her expression of reluctance to go up against Kelly Fontenot, who is the Business Compliance and Fraud Analyst at the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (though Fontenot describes her position as “layman’s terms ‘internal auditor'”); Rusty Stutes, who serves as legal counsel for Gravity Drainage District 8 of Ward 1 of Calcasieu Parish; and “crooked judges” serving in 14th JDC (presumably to include Judge David Ritchie since he is the specific judge that would have heard Sylvester’s arguments on Broussard’s behalf).  In fact, let’s take just 30 seconds to hear Sylvester state her sentiments on the matter as she angrily withdrew as Broussard’s counsel:

  30-second audio clip of Sylvester, on October 4, 2018, angrily withdrawing from Broussard’s litigation and citing key factors of why she’s doing so.

Broussard contends that he managed to obtain very damning documents which he asserts were withheld from his attorneys (Sylvester and Attorney General Jeff Landry, back when Landry was a private citizen practicing law) during his original case’s discovery phase.  Upon him obtaining them, he visited with Sylvester, and Broussard has indicated that she was impressed enough to enter into a contingency contract to file a brand new cause of action which Broussard and Sylvester executed on April 4, 2017.

As we indicated in our most-recent post on Broussard, he asserts that Sylvester repeatedly emphasized the importance of the date October 5, 2017 as being the deadline for Broussard to file the litigation to avoid prescription problems (statute of limitations in other states).  We asked Broussard if he could provide any documentation to substantiate Sylvester’s fixation on that date, and he provided us with the following document to fulfill our request of him:

As is obvious from the preceding document, Sylvester has clearly identified Friday, October 6, 2017 as the deadline for filing litigation for Broussard and cites the fact that the October 6, 2017 date represents “one year from the date that Danielle Aymond from GOHSEP told Billy that she had an additional disk not produced by Ben Plia.”  Plia served as Executive Counsel with GOHSEP at the time.  Broussard further provided us with a draft of a lawsuit Sylvester created seeking to sue GOHSEP entailing what all transpired regarding Broussard.

As we also referenced in our most-recent post on Broussard, he became concerned by Sylvester’s new-found timidity regarding suing GOHSEP and, as a result, retained the services of William Most to work in coordination with Sylvester, who had filed a motion to vacate the restraining order under which Broussard was placed prohibiting him from making further public records requests of the Drainage District or the Police Jury.

Broussard asserts that he made it clear to both attorneys what their roles were to be, and he sought for Most to be the “bulldog” attorney (given Sylvester’s new-found timidity) to sue to recover damages, and Sylvester’s role would be strictly to continue forward with having the restraining order lifted.  Nevertheless, as is obvious from the feature above, Sylvester, whom Broussard states that Most indicated had permitted his claim to prescribe, described all of Billy’s actions of prodding her to be more agressive as “bull s—” and proceeded to file a Motion seeking to substitute Most for ALL litigation, including the restraining order.  Broussard has indicated he protested Sylvester’s withdrawing from the entirety of litigation entailing him, but Sylvester nevertheless told him, “I quit.”

Most, whom Broussard indicated he was not happy with regarding signing the preceding linked motion, then represented to Broussard that, with him (Most) living in New Orleans, significant additional expense would be involved toward the litigation Sylvester initiated to have Broussard’s restraining order lifted.

None of these events went over well with Broussard, and accordingly, via a certified letter dated February 18, 2019, he demanded for Sylvester to provide the name and policy number of her malpractice insurance provider.  Broussard provided us with a copy of his letter, and it follows:

 

Broussard also sent a similar letter to the law firm of Galloway, Johnson et. al. for what he has indicated to us are his concerns regarding Judge Ritchie having stated that Attorney General Jeff Landry, while serving as a private-practice attorney with Galloway, Johnson, et. al. “filed an illegal lien” in an effort to collect money Landry represented to the Court that Broussard was owed.  Here’s that letter:

 

 

As the above letter makes clear, Broussard indicates that he visited the office of Galloway, Johnson, et. al. on Friday, December 14, 2018 “to seek your malpractice insurance policy carrier and policy number.”  Broussard has provided us with a copy of a recording of his meeting on December 14, 2018, and we believe it to contain some of the most intriguing dialogue we’ve ever presented on Sound Off Louisiana.  Broussard met with Ms. Jennifer Barnes, whom he has described to us as “about the nicest person you could ever hope to meet in your life.”  Their dialogue was very intriguing and, since less than 30 seconds into the audio, Broussard said that he “feels like Trump” in that “like Trump, I hired an attorney like Trump hired (Michael) Cohen..,” we figured we’d provide as a still photo for the audio, Attorney General Jeff Landry, whom Broussard repeatedly references in the dialogue, leaning over to state something to President Trump.  Here’s 20 minutes of the intriguing dialogue between Ms. Barnes and Broussard (we think you’ll find it WELL worth the listen!!):


Excerpts of dialogue between Galloway, Johnson associate Jennifer Barnes and contractor Billy Broussard of Friday, December 14, 2018.

Both letters provide a deadline of Thursday, March 7, 2019 at noon for providing the information.  Broussard indicates neither responded to his letter by today’s deadline.  We’ll report on whatever course(s) of action Broussard may pursue as his letter concludes “that I deem appropriate.”

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Pelican Institute Executive Officer Daniel Erspamer cites florists, interior designers, hair braiders, and alarm installers as Louisiana occupations for which licensing should be eliminated.

Pelican Institute Executive Officer Daniel Erspamer

Daniel Erspamer, who is the Executive Officer of The Pelican Institute, which is a Louisiana-based think tank promoting free market solutions to meet Louisiana citizens’ wants and desires, was the guest speaker at the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday, March 4, 2019.  Let’s drill down and examine a few things he had to say.

Erspamer devoted a significant portion of his presentation to outlining Louisiana’s onerous occupational licensing requirements for many professions which are not licensed in other states across the U. S.  Here’s what he had to say in that regard:


Erspamer on Louisiana’s onerous occupational licensing requirements.

Erspamer was pressed by Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s President and CEO Beth Courtney to supply three occupations in Louisiana for which he asserts licensing should be eliminated.  Erspamer had no trouble whatsoever responding, and he even provided a little lagniappe by providing a fourth.  Here’s Courtney’s question and his response:

 
Erspamer provides Courney with four occupations in Louisiana for which he believes licensure should be eliminated, and he references these four as the “easy ones” to identify.

In his opening commentary, Erspamer emphasized the need for overall budgetary and tax reform in Louisiana.  To that end, he stated that as many exemptions, credits, etc., that exist in Louisiana’s present tax structure as possible need to be eliminated and the rates of taxation reduced to provide a much fairer taxation system in Louisiana.  That commentary fed the narrative for his response to a question on Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP), video for which follows:


Erspamer responds to reporter’s question on Louisiana’s ITEP.

Erspamer also provided the Institute’s rationale for opposing any increase in Louisiana’s state-level gasoline tax, and he provided the Institute’s assessment of a better approach for highway road and bridge construction and repair funding:


Erspamer on increased gas taxes and alternative means of financing highway road and bridge construction and repair.

Erspamer indicated that he sees very little potential for any initiative  of much consequence to pass during the Louisiana Legislature’s 2019 Session, after which he responded to a question by Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns entailing whether he shares the recent enthusiasm of LABI President Stephen Waguespack regarding the large number of new faces which will appear in the Legislature in 2020 as a result of term limits and whether obtaining those new faces which may be favorable to the Institute’s causes may also be offset by the re-election of Gov. John Bel Edwards:

Erspamer provides his thoughts on the Louisiana Legislature’s makeup for 2020 and beyond.

To view Ersmaper’s presentation in its entirety, CLICK HERE.

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