Contractor Billy Broussard, rebuffed by CPPJ Attorney Sam Gabb on request to dissolve restraining order, disseminates petition to call upon Police Jury to insist on dissolution.

Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (CPPJ) attorney Samuel Gabb.

Shortly after publishing our sneak a smooch feature entailing the former Gravity District 8 of Ward 1 of Calcasieu Parish attorney, Russell J. “Rusty” Stutes, and his efforts to have his assistant, Kim Bienvenu, lure contractor Billy Broussard into a conference room and thereafter attempt to “sneak a smooch” from him (thus likely leading to sexual harassment allegations, if not even worse allegations against Broussard), he (Broussard) fired off this email seeking for the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (CPPJ) attorney, Samuel Gabb, to dissolve the approximate 6-year-old restraining order prohibiting Broussard from conversing with members of the CPPJ.

Broussard’s March 31, 2021 email to Gabb basically hit him right up against his forehead with a 2″ x 4″ similar to the way Broussard did with his previous attorney, Robin Sylvester, resulting in her losing all self-control and severing ties with Broussard.  In doing so, she was quick to reference “crooked judges” in Calcasieu Parish as being a key reason she was severing ties with Broussard.

Unlike the knee-jerk reaction of Sylvester, Gabb chose to ignore Broussard all together, which we could have informed him is no more advisable than Sylvester’s knee jerk reaction!

Accordingly, after permitting Gabb with a three-week period to respond to him and hearing nothing, Broussard put his offensive team back on the field by filing this online petition to be submitted to the CPPJ seeking for them to insist that Gabb dissolve the restraining order.  We’re going to reproduce the content of Broussard’s petition at this time because it succinctly states what Broussard alleges transpired that they want him to keep his mouth shut about:

Contractor Billy Broussard contends FEMA fraud was committed by Drainage District 8 of Ward 1 of Calcasieu Parish wherein funds intended to be paid to him for cleanup work after Hurricane Rita were instead re-directed to pay the Drainage District directly and thereby stiff him.

He claims that documents critical to prove his contention were withheld from him and his legal team (current Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and attorney Robin Sylvester) by the Drainage District.

Upon him uncovering those damning records after his litigation via his own public records requests, the Gravity Drainage District and the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury (through their respective attorneys, Russell Stutes and Sam Gabb, respectively, who acted on their own and WITHOUT a vote of either body) drafted a Restraining Order prohibiting Broussard from making further public records requests of either body and further prohibiting him from speaking with members of either public body.

The purpose of this petition is to seek for the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury to dissolve the restraining order and thereby restore Billy Broussard’s Constitutional Rights to speak with its members about what all transpired!

The petition obtained 67 signatures in no time flat, and we certainly welcome others to visit the petition’s website and sign for those who would like to show support for Broussard’s efforts.

On Monday, May 10, 2021, Broussard sat down for a brief video explaining his rationale for organizing the petition.  We began his interview, however, with a brief mention that, regarding our last feature (Rep. Villio’s patently-absurd effort to load esthetics students down with another 250 hours of schoolwork), her bill was scheduled to be heard today (Wednesday, May 12, 2021) in the Senate Commerce Committee.

We’ll give Villio credit for sizing up the impending bloodbath she was going to encounter at that Senate Committee meeting and sidelining the bill for this session.

The benefits of her bill (for us at Sound Off Louisiana) are that we got quite a few phone calls after we published our feature.  Those calls came from the sources for some of the prior features linked in Sunday’s feature on Villio’s bill.  The bottom line is that the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology is comprised of members who are akin to problematic kids.  You leave them alone to act responsibly, and they start throwing temper tantrums and get emboldened to hoot, holler, and carry on (and in the case of one Board Member, start pounding his fist on his chest as if he’s God).  We therefore are going to resume our filming of their meetings for an indefinite period until these unruly kids’ behavior starts to improve!  We’re sure they’re delighted for us to regularly resurface once again because we could see from last week’s meeting just how much they  have missed us and especially our camera!

With that little disclosure out of the way, let’s take a look at Broussard’s video of Monday, May 10, 2021:


Broussard’s 5/10/21 video elaborating on his online petition seeking to have the CPPJ direct its attorney, Samuel Gabb, to dissolve the restraining order HE (not the CPPJ) placed upon Broussard.
[Editor’s Note:  We began filming Episode 2 of the feature referenced above; however, we encountered technical difficulties with our camera, so that video will be produced and included in a subsequent feature].

Now, we know the question that is on everyone’s mind:  Folk openly wonder why we at Sound Off Louisiana continue to publish features on Broussard when the fraud which he contends transpired was many years ago.  The answer is simple.  On September 29, 2020, an important meeting transpired in which Broussard walked away very, very pleased!  We were told of the specifics of the meeting, and we certainly can understand why Broussard was so excited.  There was supposedly just one little requirement.  As noted above, Gabb used the “stick” years ago to silence Broussard.  From this meeting, a “carrot” was dangled in front of Broussard, but the carrot also had a catch just like Gabb’s stick.  What was that catch?  Broussard tells us that it was that he had to keep his mouth shut!

As of the date of this publication, we are now 225 days after that all-important meeting Broussard told us about (there were other meetings soon thereafter).  Obviously, Broussard is no longer elated and is, in fact, quite frustrated.  While the matter as it pertains to that all-important September 29, 2020 meeting remains open, Broussard’s willingness to keep his mouth shut (for which no written agreement for him to do so was ever presented to him) is clearly waning as evidenced by the petition in which he seeks to be permitted to open his mouth and discuss his whole matter with the CPPJ.  The big question is:  Will the CPPJ do as his petition asks and direct Gabb to dissolve the restraining order against him or will that body go along with Gabb’s rogue action and decline to direct Gabb to dissolve the restraining order?  That ball is clearly now in the CPPJ’s court!

In wrapping this feature up, we’ve seen in news reports in the aftermath of the two hurricanes which struck the Lake Charles area last year that recovery is “painstakingly slow.”  That doesn’t surprise us because, with Sound Off Louisiana’s founder, Robert Burns, having worked as a Federal government fraud investigator in his past, he has little doubt at this point that FEMA has shifted from a trusting approach with Calcasieu Parish officials to one of apprehension and perhaps even downright distrust given the sheer magnitude of the fraud Broussard alleges transpired in Calcasieu Parish in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.  That’s just a thought, but it should be as good of an explanation as any as to why recovery from last year’s back-to-back hurricanes seems to be “painstakingly slow.”

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Estheticians, blindsided by Rep. Villio’s bill to require an additional 250 hours of schoolwork, gear up to actively oppose her effort in Senate Commerce Committee.


At the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology meeting of Monday, May 3, 2021, Executive Director Steve Young (pictured above) has to emphasize to Chairman Edwin Neill that there is “no such thing” as a pure esthetics school and that any school needs to be a cosmetology school which may merely have a focus on esthetics.

It’s been quite some time since we last reported on the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC – note if anyone tries to access that website during any weekend period, it won’t function as the Board’s IT chief still has concerns over “hacks” — never mind that the rest of America and world have functional websites on both weekdays OR weekends).

We have always taken the approach that, if our phone isn’t ringing or we’re not receiving email complaints about the Board’s actions, everyone must be somewhat content (or perhaps more appropriately, too fearful of retribution) to justify reaching out to us.

That changed about 10 days ago when a number of Louisiana estheticians began calling, emailing, and texting to us their extreme frustration concerning HB-327 (the Legislature apparently IS capable of operating a website on weekdays OR weekends, so feel free to click on that link anytime!) by Rep. Deborah Villio (R-Kenner).  Villio succeeded Rep. Julie Stokes, who opted not to seek re-election in 2019.  Her bill, if it becomes law, would require an individual seeking to specialize in the practice of esthetics to take an additional 250 hours of coursework (in addition to the 750 already required) in order to tout an esthetics specialization (i.e. be an “advanced” esthetician).

There was a huge backlash among estheticians.  Consequently, the bill was amended so that all estheticians having a license on or before April 30, 2022 are grandfathered and exempt from the requirement to take the additional 250 hours.  Hence, one of the biggest losers of passage of this bill would appear to be juniors in high school because they will graduate in May of 2022.

The amended bill sure does beg the following question:  If the LSBC is so concerned about public health and safety, which is ostensibly the Board’s mission (trust us, they’re not — they’re concerned ONLY about maximizing revenues for cosmetology schools by loading students down with more and more hours of instruction, especially when the tuition for such coursework is covered with Federal funds as is stated to be the case for these 250 additional hours), then why are existing estheticians grandfathered and exempt from the bill’s requirements? 

Apparently, it’s just fine if existing estheticians continue to practice without this knowledge that only newly-minted estheticians are deemed to need to possess.  We can only surmise that the LSBC is of the belief that the public is welcome to still be subjected to the harm the existing estheticians may inflict upon it from not having this knowledge of “advanced” esthetics being required of the new kids on the block!

As everyone knows, we love videos because we strongly believe, whenever possible, in letting Louisiana citizens tell their own stories (i.e. letting them “Sound Off”).  Three estheticians who are not happy at all with Villio’s legislation, which had already passed the House Commerce Committee without any of them having the slightest clue the bill had even been proposed, did magnificent jobs of “sounding off” before, during, and after the LSBC meeting of Monday, May 3, 2021.  Let’s take a look:

 
Estheticians Christy Mackiewicz, Kristen Ruel, and Lauren Prats literally sound off to the LSBC on Monday, May 3, 2021.


Mackiewicz, Ruel, and Prats spend just a few minutes after the LSBC meeting to state the degree, if any, to which the amendments allay their concerns regarding the bill.


Prats self-produced this video slamming Villio and others over this bill.

Villio states at the outset of the third video above (and we want to make certain to quote her VERBATIM!!!):  “House Bill 327 is, in all seriousness, a public protection bill.”

WOW!!  Villio may be the most out-to-lunch, out-of-touch Legislator in the ENTIRE Louisiana Legislature!  Let’s take just a few moments to provide highlights of just how concerned with “public protection” the fine folks at the LSBC are (we could provide plenty more, but these will suffice for purposes of this feature):

Historical Corruption and Job Obstruction Acts by Louisiana Cosmetology Board:

  1. Massive legal fees to resolve Vietnamese discrimination litigation during which Federal Judge Brian Jackson openly stated, “Constitutional rights were clearly violated.”  [Additional reference:  former Congressman Joseph Cao lambasts the Cosmetology Board for recklessly disregarding search and seizure rights entailing Vietnamese manicurists].

 

  1. More massive legal fees entailing litigation regarding eyebrow threaders.

 

  1. For two consecutive years, thwarting Rep. Julie Emerson’s initiatives to permit hair braiders to practice with no license and, in fact, openly cheering Sen. Regina Barrow’s initiative to impose MORE licensing requirements on hair braiders! They did this notwithstanding the fact that the governor who appointed them, Gov. John Bel Edwards, openly supported Emerson’s initiative!

 

  1. A Board employee, Winn Johnson, routinely selling answers to the cosmetology licensing exam for $500/pop.

 

  1. Closing down Jennifer Menard’s mobile salon, which was a huge benefit for residents of assisted living facilities for obtaining hairstyling.

 

  1. Having done absolutely NOTHING about licensed instructor Kevin Martin’s permitting unauthorized “observers” on to a public school campus in Lafayette Parish (with it having been stated these unauthorized “observers” may have been charged $5,000 “cash under the table” in exchange for him allowing them to “observe” these courses and take the cosmetology licensing examination).

 

We feel KLFY’s follow-up feature is worthy of repeat at this time:

 


KLFY feature of May 22, 2018.  CLICK HERE to view the actual letter sent by Lafayette Parish District Attorney Keith Stutes to Burns.

Now, entailing KLFY showing up at Martin’s school and thereafter Attorney General Jeff Landry announcing to KLFY that his office was “launching an investigation,” (see opening seconds of above video and the caption on the screen shot above), our source for the feature was nothing short of ecstatic.  We quickly cautioned that source, however, that, “Yes, and Landry can very easily close the investigation five minutes after the camera crew leaves.”

One of our sources in Landry’s office telephoned us about seven months later and stated, “Mr. Burns, I feel someone owes it to you to let you know that we never conducted any investigation.”

Given the absolute mockery Landry has made of the AG’s Office and the absolute total joke it is now viewed as by Louisiana citizens with even a few functioning brain cells, we were by no means surprised.  Furthermore, being blunt, we believe Landry’s much-anticipated run for Louisiana Governor in 2023 is doomed from the outset due to actions like the one we just stated (and we’ve heard from TONS of folk frustrated by incidents like what Landry did with us)!  That’s to say nothing of Landry’s other recent well-publicized problems which we won’t even bother with repeating on this feature.

Most folk who’ve followed this blog for an extended period already know what our sentiments were toward former Rep. Julie Stokes.  Her lack of fiscal conservatism and lack of any desire to control an out-of-control state budget, combined with some very dogmatic ideas she had on tax reform, in our humble opinion, contributed to what she had to assess as an  utterly embarrassing 5th place showing in a Special Election for Secretary of State.

How was anybody to know that her successor, Rep. Villio, would cause some conservatives, and that certainly includes us at Sound Off Louisiana, to be willing to get down on our hands and knees and beg for Stokes to come back over her clearly-out-to-lunch, TOTALLY out-of-touch successor, Deborah Villio?  We feel certain she’ll have strong opposition in 2023 based on what we’ve seen so far!  To say that she is an absolute unmitigated disaster is a huge understatement!

In the meantime, we’ll see how she and her initiative fare in Senate Committee, where we fully anticipate a very different forum to include very stiff opposition to this bill, to be in the offing.  If this piece of absolute garbage legislation manages to pass and get signed into law, God help us all who strive to make Louisiana a business-friendly state!

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Mona Hardin, Ronald Greene’s mother, likens Louisiana State Police Troop F to “modern-day KKK;” asserts goal was to “run out clock” to bar wrongful death civil action against State Police.

Mona Hardin, mother of Ronald Greene, who was a guest on a Zoom meeting of the Louisiana ACLU of Monday, May 3, 2021 during which she shared her concerns about Louisiana State Police’s alleged murder of her son on or about May 10, 2019.

Yesterday soon after the noon hour, we received an invitation to a Zoom meeting transpiring at 6:00 p.m. CDT of the Louisiana ACLU Justice Lab.  We received the invitation from Ms. Belinda Parker-Brown, whom we’ve frequently provided a forum at Sound Off Louisiana for her and her organization, Louisiana United International, to air concerns about allegations of “predatory policing” and prison conditions in Louisiana.

We attended the Zoom meeting, and we’d like to share with everyone what the meeting was touted to be about.  From our invitation email:

Tonight at 6 PM ET we’re hosting a virtual town hall featuring the family of Ronald Greene and Aaron Bowman. Mr. Greene and Mr. Bowman were brutally beaten by Louisiana State Police 10 days apart – Mr. Greene was killed, and Bowman has sustained serious injuries. Together we’ll be discussing how Louisiana officials and lawmakers can respond to demands for police accountability and justice.

One of the revelations we learned from watching and listening to Hardin which heretofore we were unaware is that the family still has not viewed the full body cam video of Ronald Green’s arrest and the beating he endured.

We have followed both Greene’s case and that of Aaron Bowman very closely, so if we weren’t aware of that fact, we feel certain that the average Louisiana citizen (and others) were under a false impression after a news conference was held touting that the family had been provided an opportunity to view the full video.  Instead, Hardin revealed last night that the Greene family has only been provided with “snippet” clips of the arrest.

Hardin also indicated that, seven months after her son’s death, there had been no push to have the FBI investigate her son’s death, and she contends LSP’s primary goal was to “run out the clock” to block any effort on the part of Greene’s family to file a civil action against LSP.  Also, without naming Gov. Edwards by name, she indicates that, “higher ups in political seats” in Louisiana government have seen the video but nevertheless they continue to “turn their backs” on her family and permit her family to “go through hell.”  Let’s take a look at this fascinating presentation by Hardin:


Mona Hardin elaborates on what the Greene family’s life has been like after his death and her frustrations at the stonewalling of LSP and governmental officials to provide her family with answers regarding his death.

Next up was a first-person account from Aaron Bowman, who was also allegedly viciously beaten by LSP Troopers within 10 days of the Greene incident.  Immediately after Bowman’s account, Hardin concluded by stating that LSP’s Troop F is akin to a “modern-day KKK” and referencing that LSP’s Troop F is “evil.”  Here’s that segment of the meeting:


Aaron Bowman provides his first-person account of the brutality of LSP’s confrontation with him upon him returning from a quick shopping trip to the Dollar store and thereafter Hardin has some pretty harsh words for LSP’s Troop F after hearing Bowman’s recounting of his experience with LSP.

Next up was Louisiana ACLU’s Stephanie Willis providing an update on House Bill 430 by Rep. Ted James (D-Baton Rouge) to modify Louisiana Police Officers’ Bill of Rights.  Here’s that commentary:

 
Louisiana ACLU’s Stephanie Willis provides update on Rep. Ted James’ bill to modify provisions in Louisiana’s police officer Bill of Rights.

Next up, two of the Louisiana-based attorneys representing Greene and Bowman, Ron Haley and Doneca Banks-Miley, provide their commentary on the incidents.  Haley states that, because of the civil actions, they find themselves in “legal purgatory,” and further names former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves as having “cut his teeth” in Troop F and that his son is “a part of Troop F.”  He also states that, “any cover-up as it pertains to what happened had to get their direction or the blind eye turned from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”  Let’s take a look at their commentary now:


Haley and Banks-Miley provide their commentary on the Greene & Bowman matters.

Finally, the Louisiana ACLU gave special thanks to Parker-Brown for having provided video graphic evidence of an alleged excessive force incident entailing St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Deputies.  Let’s take a look at that video:


Parker-Brown is recognized for her role in providing evidence to support this Federal lawsuit filed on 5/3/21.

CLICK HERE to see the Zoom meeting in its entirety.

We sincerely appreciate the invitation extended by Parker-Brown and ACLU officials, and we trust our subscribers and site visitors find the meeting to be as intriguing as we did.

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