Did LSP’s Air Support Unit con the LSPC regarding hiring from within and the real reason for seeking a change away from flight hours for promotions?

Louisiana State Police Commission Member Brian Crawford.

When we published this feature entailing former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves’ granting of pay raises to his inner circle of cronies (including himself), we largely passed over emails we’d received from LSP regarding pilots in the Air Support Unit of LSP receiving pay raises.  Here’s all we said entailing those pilot pay raises:

The remainder of the response to our public records request deals with pay adjustments for pilots which we believe we recall being discussed by the LSPC together with a few emails entailing adjusting those salaries.

Once we posted this feature entailing Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s written commitment to pursue felony charges against LSP Air Support Pilot Michael Satcher II regarding the domestic abuse charges he faces in Rapides Parish, we got the attention of some folk with integral knowledge of LSP’s Air Support Unit.  Those individuals, with whom we’ve now engaged in extensive correspondence, expressed “elation” that all of the “corruption” at the LSP Air Support Unit is finally being exposed.

[Sidebar:  Our most-recent feature (prior to this one) revealed the fact that, despite Satcher’s arrest on October 12, 2019, LSP only got around to initiating an administrative investigation the week our feature was published.]

When we made public our request for documents pertaining to LSP Air Support promotion practices, that’s when the proverbial floodgates opened wide!  Let’s take a moment to revisit one very specific item we requested of LSP:

  • 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;

As one might imagine, we didn’t just fall out of bed and say, “let’s ask for this just for the heck of it.”  We have now received a plethora of material from individuals who clearly have very integral knowledge and details of the operations of LSP’s Air Support Unit.

Those individuals have also alleged that LSP has been actively seeking to hire a private pilot in apparent direct violation of LSP policy as reflected in our request above.

Our sources indicate that they do not know at this juncture whether the individual has actually been hired or is in the final stages of being hired.  Furthermore, since we’re awaiting responses to our public records request above, we’re going to refrain from referencing the individual’s name even though we have been provided with his name and his prior place of employment until his recent retirement from that entity.

As mentioned above, we said we “believe we recalled” the pilot salary increases being discussed by the LSPC.  We found the act of trying to find that discussion, however, much like searching for a needle in a haystack.  That’s when a retired LSP Trooper (and perhaps most prominent LSP watchdog), Leon “Bucky” Millet, volunteered to help.  Just as an aside, it was Millet whom former LSPC contract attorney T. Taylor Townsend is said to have stated to one LSPC member upon Millet’s first attending an LSPC meeting, “Don’t worry….its been my experience that people like him typically show up at one meeting and then you never see them again.”  Boy, did Townsend ever call that one dead wrong, or what?

Right off the bat, Millet said that he certainly recalled being present when the matter was discussed, which meant it had to be pre-COVID.  That’s because Millet hasn’t attended a meeting since the pandemic broke but is anxious for its conclusion so he can resume attending.  He therefore committed that he would do the research to find the meeting at which the discussion transpired.  True to his word (which we’ve found to always be the case entailing Millet), he called us about an hour later and said, “It was the November 8, 2018 meeting.”  Sound Off’s Burns responded to Milket with, “Thanks.  I’ll take it from there!”

First, from the agenda for that meeting:

3. Request of the Department of Public Safety, Office of State Police, for one (1) unclassified Command Pilot position, in accordance with State Police Commission Rule 4.1(d)2, effective November 8, 2018. (Representative from the agency to be available to answer any question for the Commission.)
4. Request from the Department of Public Safety, Office of State Police, to edit the job specifications for Pilot, Senior Pilot, and Master Pilot to reflect the change in reporting relationships as well as edit the minimum qualification requirements for the
Pilot series, effective November 8, 2018. (Representative from the agency to be available to answer any question for the Commission.)

We draw our subscribers’ attention to the parenthetical disclosures above entailing an LSP Representative being available from the agency to answer LSPC members’ questions.  One individual present was Steven Lee, who, at least on paper (there’s a reason we’re saying that which will likely be fully exposed in a subsequent feature as we’re conducting a very thorough investigative series on the Air Support Unit of LSP), heads the LSP Air Support Unit.  Lee was accompanied by Mark Morrison.  LSPC Commission member Brian Crawford asked a very specific question regarding whether the requested position outlined in agenda item # 3 above would be filled from within or by someone outside of LSP.  Let’s take a look at Crawford posing that question and Morrison’s response, shall we?


Mark Morrison responds to LSPC Member Brian Crawford’s inquiry of whether the requested pilot position will be filled from within LSP ranks or whether someone from outside the agency will fill the position.

In our opinion (and we think any objective person would agree), Morrison’s response can only be interpreted to mean that all pilot positions are filled from within LSP ranks since he indicates that “first and foremost” the criterion for hiring pilots is that the applicant be a trooper.   He also reinforces that policy by stating that, “being a Trooper is the bond that links all of us together.”  Morrison also voluntarily adds that another commonality shared by LSP Air Support pilots is that, “We all started at Troop A.”

With that being the case, it will sure make the response to our public records request item above interesting.  If that response comes back as so many sources have now indicated to us that it will (that active efforts have been initiated and are very far along if not at full fruition to hire a private pilot for a current opening), it will certainly be interesting for someone from the Air Support Unit to explain.  After all, the statement was made to the LSPC on November 8, 2018, and it would beg the question as to why two years later there is an apparent effort to defy what was specifically stated to be LSP Policy to Crawford and the other members upon Crawford asking the question.

We’ll now direct everyone’s attention to item number four taken from that November 8, 2018 agenda.  Let’s take a look at what many of our sources entailing LSP Air Support’s operations have classified as nothing short of a “con job” perpetrated on the LSPC.  Let’s examine that segment of discussions on that matter now, shall we?:


Morrison explains the rationale behind the request of the LSPC entailing item # 4 dealing with lowering the number of flight hours required for pilot promotions.

One of our sources with integral knowledge of LSP Air Support operations stated to us:  “Air support has long history of hiring ‘good ole boys’ not most qualified.  This is a safety concern to everyone especially LSP personnel and the Governor and staff who flies frequently.”

Our sources have indicated that, contrary to what Morrison stated above, the motivation behind passing over pilots with more hours of flight time in order to promote pilots with fewer hours (which Morrison conveniently never even mentioned would be a consequence of the requested LSPC “edit,”) is because the real reason for the edit to lower the hours was to enable the promotion of pilots with close ties to LSP Air Support’s top brass.   Prior to the requested “edit,” the ability to make such promotions was hampered due to the extensive focus on flight hours as the dominant factor for obtaining such promotions.

Our public records request linked above, when combined with a supplemental request which we’ll link shortly, should shed light on the degree to which such promotions were awarded to pilots with fewer flight hours over other candidates posting for the same opening who had more flight hours.  Since the “edit” became effective November 8, 2018, it will be interesting to see if any trend started shortly thereafter.

Also, at the 1:55 mark of the preceding video, Morrison draws attention to the fact that LSP has a “diverse set of aircraft.”  We’re curious to know whether that “diverse set of aircraft” includes fixed-wing, multi-engine aircraft.  Accordingly, we made a public records request of LSP seeking evidence that LSP presently has or has ever been in possession of any fixed-wing, multi-engine aircraft.  We also asked to see invoices that LSP paid for any of its pilots’ tuition to attend school(s) for courses offering fixed-wing, multi-engine aircraft certification.

We’ll report on our findings of whether LSP has possession of (or has ever had possession of) such fixed-wing, multi-engine aircraft.  We’ll also reveal whether any pilots had their school tuition paid by LSP to obtain training and certification on aircraft that are actually not a part of that “diverse set of aircraft” (i.e. fixed-wing, multi-engine aircraft).  The results should be interesting, at least based on what our sources have indicated to us should be the results of our public records request.

As we conclude this feature, we feel compelled to point out an error we made on the public records request we made public on one of the linked features above.  We apologized to LSP in making an amended and expanded public records request on November 16, 2020.  We’ll draw attention to our error now:

I supplied the name of Donnie Guidroz when the correct name should have been Donnie Guitreau.

We at Sound Off Louisiana are human, and we certainly regret the error, which was pointed out to us by yet another source with integral knowledge of LSP Air Support operations who was most gracious and professional in pointing out our above error to us.

It was also that individual who pointed out our error who prompted us to add an item on the amended and expanded request linked above, and we’ll also focus on that one other item we requested:

 Any documentation evidencing LSP Chief of Staff Doug Cain having a period of separation of service from LSP.

While that final item has no bearing on LSP Air Support Operations, we just decided we’d keep our subscribers informed by letting them know it has been requested.  Again, we’ll report on any findings we obtain in response to that requested item.

This is going to be the first of an as-yet-undermined number of investigative features drilling down deep into the operations of LSP’s Air Support Unit.  We appreciate all of our loyal subscribers taking the time to view and read our features, and we trust that you find them informative.

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.

 

 

LSP Chief of Staff Cain admits no administrative investigation commenced for alleged domestic abuser Satcher until soon after Col. Kevin Reeves’ departure.

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!”

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.

Will Sound Off’s PRR for LSP’s air support hiring practices, Noel “Greene correspondence” bear more fruit than Nakamoto’s recent N-word McKay PRR?

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.