Month: May 2022

Photo of a “purple truck” which Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper Scott Lopez represented to the St. Martin Parish Council’s Planning and Zoning Commissioners on January 6, 2022 had been observed dumping vegetative materials on farmer Billy Broussard’s 33-acre property located on Duchamp Road in Broussard, Louisiana.

We’ve already indicated that LSP Trooper Scott Lopez gave quite the performance before the St. Martin Parish Planning and Zoning Commission on January 6, 2022.  One aspect of Lopez’s presentation drew particular attention on the part of SMPG’s legal counsel, Allan “Sprinky” Durand.  That aspect that drew laser-like focus from Durand was Lopez representing that Broussard had been, “permitting other companies and people to dump on his property illegally.”

Let’s take (literally) just one minute to watch Lopez make those statements, for Durand to ask him to back them up, and Lopez doing so via a picture of a “purple truck.”

 1/6/22:  LSP Trooper Scott Lopez makes his statements about Broussard, Durand asks Lopez to back up his claim, and Lopez does so by referencing a picture of a “purple truck” dumping on Broussard’s property.

Beyond that, SMPG appears to have relied exclusively upon the representations of Lopez to substantiate its allegations that Broussard is bailing hay for sale and doing the same with cattle.  Here’s a nine-second video clip of Lopez making that accusation of Broussard, which Broussard claims is flatly false:

1/6/22:  Nine-second video clip wherein Lopez makes the claim that Broussard is bailing hay for sale and raising cattle for “sale and/or slaughter.”

Regarding the hauling of the vegetative materials, Broussard has contended all along that the only person besides himself who has ever been permitted to dump on his property is 16th JDC Judge Anthony Thibodeaux.  Broussard’s attorney, Heather Duhon-Moore, called Thibodeaux as her first witness (he was taken out of order to facilitate him returning to his own courtroom) at the Preliminary Injunction hearing on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.

Thibodeaux testified that he was “desperate” to find a place to offload his own vegetative materials for his company, Anthony’s Tree Service and Stump Removal.  He further testified that he began by merely hauling “just mulch” to Broussard’s property but added that he later delivered tree limbs and the like similarly to what Broussard himself was hauling to the property.

Thibodeaux testified that he had hauled vegetative materials to Broussard’s property “approximately 30 times” beginning about “a year and a half ago” and that he stopped “about a year ago” only because he was hearing that St. Martin Parish may have issues with Broussard’s site.

Thibodeaux also testified that Broussard’s willingness to allow him to haul vegetative materials from his tree service company to the 33-acre site was immensely helpful for him and that he hoped one day that availability may be restored.  He testified that Broussard had never received “any compensation whatsoever” for permitting him to haul his vegetative materials to Broussard’s property.  When asked why Broussard would permit such activity by Thibodeaux for no compensation whatsoever, Thibodeaux responded (to the laughter of much of the courtroom), “Well, I guess it’s because he just likes me.”

When asked what Thibodeaux did once he opted to no longer access Broussard’s property, he indicated that he began taking the vegetative materials to Possum’s Tree Service’s site to dispose of his vegetative materials.  We should point out now that it is Possum’s Tree Service (though declining to name either the company or the owner) that SMPG Parish President Chester Cedars said has been “all for this ordinance, by the way.”  Let’s take a look:

8/3/21 SMPG Meeting:  Chester Cedars openly touts an unnamed tree service company (Possum’s) is “all for this ordinance, by the way.”

Starting to look just a tad suspicious (or maybe even devious)?  Well, to use some bad grammar, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

When SMPG made its bold claims in the C & D letter issued on June 20, 2021 and up to the point of suing Broussard for alleged charging for others to dump (apparently based solely and exclusively on representations made by Lopez), they had no clue that the individual hauling in vegetative materials was Judge Thibodeaux, much less that Thibodeaux was not paying a dime to do so.

When Cedars found out that it was Thibodeaux, he contacted Broussard enraged and scolded him for not having the “common courtesy” to let Cedars know it was Thibodeaux.  Broussard indicates that he responded, “I want to make sure I’ve got this straight.  You issue me a C & D letter.  Then you file a restraining order shutting down all of my farming activities, and you somehow believe that I owe some ‘common courtesy’ to you?”

It was at that point that SMPG, Lopez, and Dubroc became utterly desperate to come up with somebody (ANYBODY) whom they could assert had hauled in vegetative materials and who paid Broussard.  After all, as Duhon-Moore pointed out upon SMPG attorney Lee Durio objecting to Moore even asking if Thibodeaux paid to haul in his vegetative materials, “Your honor.  They make the claim in their filings that my client charged people to haul in vegetative materials.”  Judge deMahy overruled the objection.

It was the fact that SMPG had been so emphatic in its pleadings regarding Broussard that he had engaged in commercial activity by charging people to haul in vegetative debris that caused Cedars, Lopez, and Dubroc to desperately need to come up with something to substantiate that allegation, and that’s how the infamous “purple truck” came into play.

We want to emphasize that, contrary to our prior assumptions that Cedars never told Lopez about the agreement of September 14, 2021 enabling Broussard to continue operations, Cedars’ testimony made it crystal clear that he and Lopez were quite literally joined at the hips in going after Broussard.

In referencing the purple truck at that January 6, 2022 meeting (one which Cedars missed and testified at the May 3, 2022 Preliminary Injunction hearing that he was undergoing and recovering from hip surgery at the time), Lopez, Cedars, and Dubroc (the neighbor owning the used car lot and who is responsible for supplying photos to Lopez, who, in turn, supplied them to SMPG) all collectively gambled that Broussard would never be able to uncover the owner of that purple truck.

Their gamble came up snake eyes as Broussard has an associate who tracked down the owner of the purple truck.  His name is Arthur Trahan and, in the following recorded phone call between Broussard and Trahan of Monday, May 2, 2022 (the evening before the Preliminary Injunction hearing), everyone can hear Trahan reveal several facts, to wit:

1) He’s never gone on Billy Broussard’s property,

2) He almost never hauls vegetative materials but mainly hauls materials for construction,

3) That he has made deliveries to Billy’s Laotian neighbors,

4) That he knows LSP Trooper Scott Lopez “real well,”

5) That he also is related to Lopez’s one-time (perhaps still current?) supervisor, John Trahan,

6) That Lopez’s neighbors have blocked off Duchamp Road and told him, “Cuz, you can’t pass,”

7) That he responded to Duchamp Road being blocked off with, “You better unblock this road.  They got people on this road trying to haul materials.”

Here’s that recorded phone call for everyone’s listening pleasure!

5/2/22 recorded phone call between Broussard and the owner of the infamous “purple truck,” Arthur Trahan.

Regarding the reference to the Laotian neighbors of Broussard above, we’re not surprised that their surrounding neighbors apparently didn’t want them receiving their materials.  After all, as we’ve already pointed out, Dubroc’s family (who are direct neighbors to the Laotians) don’t even want the Laotians themselves being able to get to their property.  We’ll repeat video evidence of that once again at this time:

Video file of a threatening action allegedly sent by a relative of Dubroc to one of the Laotian neighbors soon after they legally drove down a servitude to go to property they own.

There was yet another text allegedly sent soon thereafter.  On it, a very young man is heard bragging about having, “chased after them with a hammer.”  Let’s take a look at the video from that text, shall we?:

Another video file sent to the Laotian neighbors wherein one young man brags of having, “chased after them with a hammer in my hand.”

We believe that the conspiracy of just what all has transpired to target Broussard with false allegations is becoming increasingly clear, but we certainly have far more material to present in our next Broussard/Lopez update.

For now, however, we have to get geared up for our May 23, 2022 court hearing on our Writ of Mandamus entailing LSP Trooper Lopez.  We welcome all of our subscribers and casual visitors (particularly the attorneys) to view the Opposition Memorandum to our Writ if anyone is so inclined.

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Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper Garrett Yetman, appearing before the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) on Thursday, May 12, 2022.

Editor’s Note:  Regarding our previous feature entailing former LSPC Member Calvin Braxton’s testimony before the Greene Committee, multiple sources have informed us that, notwithstanding Braxton’s testimony to the contrary, Gov. Edwards “stands by” the date he says he first learned of the true nature of Ronald Greene’s death (September 10, 2020). 

Since that is the case, we recommend that the Greene Committee subpoena “Val” from Gov. Edwards’ office and have her either corroborate or repudiate Braxton’s testimony.

The meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) of Thursday, May 12, 2022 was likely the most content-packed meeting we’ve ever attended in the 5 1/2 years we’ve been attending and filming the meetings.  Let’s break it down:

The meeting began with Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns making public comment (for only about the third time in those 5 1/2 years) entailing the April 14, 2022 LSPC meeting and the leaving of four (4) potential recording devices (two iPads and two iPhones) during the Executive Session of that meeting during which attorney Jill Craft’s contempt allegations against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP itself were being discussed.  Here’s that video:

5/12/22:  Burns makes public comment about three (3) Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) associates [Interim President Hackley Willis (iPad), Executive Director (and former President) Jay O’Quinn (iPad), and former Executive Director Mark Oxley (iPhone] left recording devices during the LSPC’s 4/14/22 Executive Session.  We have also confirmed that LSP Chief Legal Counsel Gail Holland also left an iPhone in the room during Executive Session.

For about the fifth time soon after LSPC meetings, Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns was asked to serve as a 90-minute guest, along with Louisiana United International founder Belinda Parker-Brown, on WBOK (1230 AM) Gerod Stevens’ “The Reality Check” show.

Stevens gave the radio-equivalent of “bringing the house down,” when, upon hearing about the phones and iPads being left in Executive Session, he said, “I’ll tell you how you handle that!  You go up to all these guys and say, ‘You know what?  We know you guys are into sanitizing phones.  We hope you don’t have anything important on these phones because we’re going to take them for the next few hours and give them a good sanitizing.  We’ll get them back to you in a few hours.'”

Burns replied to Stevens:  “I like your style, Gerod!”  Parker-Brown then emphasized that, from what she has observed, such acts demonstrate the utter arrogance of LSP and its repetitive thumbing of its nose at the taxpayers of Louisiana.

After Burns’ public comment came consideration of another one of those, what Belinda Parker-Brown likes to call, “taxpayer-funded vacations.”  This one is for alleged domestic abuser Garrett Yetman.  Let’s take a look:

5/12/22:  Yetman seeks 900-hour exhausting of annual leave, K-time, and 1.5K-time before being placed on LWOP (leave without pay).

It should also be noted that Yetman was President of his Cadet class at LSP and, further that, upon graduation, LSP Chief of Staff Doug “Let’s Sanitize My Phone” Cain, praised Yetman and said how so very thankful he is to God for, “introducing Garrett Yetman into my life.”

Yetman has also been identified as one of the chief culprits of the massive LSP Academy cheating scandal that blogger Tom Aswell of Louisiana Voice exposed on Friday, May 13, 2022.  From that Louisiana Voice feature:

“She (Small) said she got the test from another cadet (Christopher Sink),” Richards said, adding that both were immediately fired. Another source, also a retired trooper, said Sink was rehired.

The same unidentified source, who leaked nearly 350 pages of interagency communications regarding the cheating investigation, said eight other cadets who resigned or were fired were also rehired but Richards said the number was actually four who resigned and were rehired.

In a memorandum from Richards to Lt. David Ryerson, Richards said an inspection of the mobile data terminal (MDT) of cadet Michael Starling contained an online chat with his wife (all outside communications are also prohibited during the time cadets attend the academy) that said, “Just took the test…it was the same one I got from (Garrett) Yetman.”

Now, a little more than two years after the cheating was revealed, the intern who sources say stole test and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) material, Tia Laverdain, is now a state trooper assigned to Internal Affairs (IA) and working under the supervision of her mother, Treone Laverdain. Their uncle is State Rep. Ed Laverdain (D-Alexandria).

Treone Laverdain was named, along with then-IA Commander Capt. Chavez Cammon and Master Trooper Kevin Ducote, as having conspired to cover up the Ronald Greene death at the hands of Troop F troopers. Treone Laverdain has since been promoted to the rank of major.

“I advocated terminating the entire class,” said Richards. “But I met opposition from LSP command and from legal. LSP’s executive legal counsel at the time, Faye Morrison even said of the cheating, ‘That’s how I got through law school.’ I was incredulous that she would say such a thing.”

As indicated in the comments to that feature by Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns, Retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet put in an enormous amount of effort trying to substantiate much of the material above over a year ago (and more – and there are links to Millet’s extensive efforts in the comments).  We salute whomever provided Aswell, Greene Committee Chairman Tanner McGee, and Greene Committee Member Debbie Villio with the damning documents which Millet couldn’t obtain despite his extensive efforts through public records requests last year to do so.

We’ll hope something significant comes of it, and it would be our recommendation to establish yet another oversight committee dedicated to getting to the bottom of the extent of the massive cheating scandal and implementing whatever action may be available to take against those responsible for it or who actively participated in it.

Aswell posted yet another feature today (Sunday, May 15, 2022) indicating that LSP is actively pursuing the leaker of the material upon which he based his first feature.

Next up at that May 12 LSPC meeting was consideration of the appeal of Albert Paxton’s letter of reprimand entailing his having allegedly transmitted documentation of his investigation of the Ronald Greene matter to his wife, who is an attorney, to proofread.  Here’s that video:

5/12/22:  Former LSP Sgt. Paxton’s appeal of his letter of reprimand is deliberated.

As the mainstream media has extensive reported upon, Carl Cavalier (whistelblower in the Ronald Greene matter)’s attorney, Jill Craft, scored a trifecta entailing her contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP iteself.  Hence, we are merely going to present the following four (4) vidoes for folk to watch as little or as much as desired entailing those matters:

5/12/22:  Discussion of contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves.

 5/12/22:  Discussion of contempt charges against former LSP Major Jason Turner.

 5/12/22:  Discussion of contempt charges against LSP.

 5/12/22:  Rulings of the LSPC entailing contempt charges.

• Last, but certainly not least (well, maybe so given that everyone but Burns and one other person fled the room) was the report by Executive Director Jason Hannaman.  We’ll point out the fact that, upon the retirement of Active Trooper LSPC member Robert Mire, only one LSP Trooper in the entire state was even willing to place his name in the hat to replace Mire on the LSPC.  That was LSTA Troop B President Monty Montelongo.  Let’s hope he hasn’t already undergone training for leaving potential recording devices in the LSPC’s meeting room during its executive sessions (i. e. training to covertly record the sessions even as he attends them).   Here’s video of that Director Report:

5/12/22:  LSPC Executive Director Jason Hannaman presents his Director’s Report.

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Former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Member Calvin Braxton testifies before the House Special Committee Investigating the In-Custody Death of Ronald Greene on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.

As we indicated on Monday, we expected some fireworks from hearings this week entailing holding former Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Kevin Reeves in Contempt of the Special Committee investigating Ronald Greene’s in-custody death.  That already transpired earlier today.

Meanwhile, former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) member Calvin Braxton gave damning testimony before the Greene Committee.  In his testimony, Braxton flatly refutes that Gov. Edwards was not told of the nature of Greene’s death until he saw it published on our breakout feature on Greene’s death, which transpired on September 10, 2020.

We knew at the time that Edwards was being less than candid (a phrase we’ve observed Federal Judges like to use rather than lying) at the time.  Nevertheless, our hands were essentially tied about calling him out on the matter because it would have entailed outing one of our most key sources for being able to report upon Greene.  With Braxton having gone public today for all the world to see, those handcuffs are no longer around our wrists.

As a result, we can now state that Calvin Braxton (operating through retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet) told us about the Ronald Greene incident in early June of 2020.  At the point we were informed, we were also told that Braxton had told Gov. Edwards’ office about the matter.  We feel compelled to add that it was Braxton, through Millet, who specifically provided the very specific  detail to us that LSP Trooper Chris Hollingsworth had turned off his body camera during that arrest of Ronald Greene.

At the time, we were very naïve in believing that no trooper would escape discipline for intentionally turning off his or her body camera.  Obviously, we’ve learned a TON since then and are still learning.

Hence, we made public records request for Hollingsworth’s disciplinary file.  When LSP responded and the file contained no discipline for Hollingsworth’s then-alleged act, we did begin to have some doubt because it was simply mindboggling to us that a trooper could knowingly and intentionally deactivate his body camera and face no discipline.

Nevertheless, we had other sources whom we contacted and who were very emphatic that the Hollingsworth accusation entailing the deactivating of the body camera was in fact true.  Further, they indicated to us that we should not be startled in the least that Hollingsworth’s file would contain zilch in the form of discipline for him having done so.  That still blows us away to this day!

Accordingly, we proceeded with the feature linked above, and the rest is history!

The bottom line is that we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Braxton and Millet not only for the firm initial details of the Ronald Greene matter, but it was also Braxton (Millet) who tipped us off about trooper Michael Satcher II.

We have protected Braxton as a key source, but we can now vouch for everything he said in his testimony today as being consistent with what was indicated to Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns way back then.

In fact, after his testimony, Braxton told Burns, who attended the Greene Committee hearing today, “If I’d been asked who was the media outlet that was preparing to run a story on Greene, I was going to tell them ‘you.'”  That too would have been the absolute truth!

Here’s Braxton’s testimony in its entirety.  We think everyone will be impressed with whom Braxton initially chose to vet what he was told, but we’re requiring the viewing of the video below to find that out:

May 11, 2022:  Calvin Braxton testifies before the Greene Oversight Committee.

We feel compelled to make one final observation.  Given the now-seemingly-undisputed fact that Edwards was told in “April or early May of 2020” of the nature of Greene’s death, doesn’t it make the following statement by him regarding Reeves days before he retired all the more shocking?:

Gov. Edwards expresses the “utmost of confidence in Kevin Reeves as LSP Colonel” mere days before Reeves opts to retire and long after Braxton indicates that Reeves was summoned to Gov. Edwards’ office on the Ronald Greene death.

We hope former LSP Col. Reeves doesn’t take much of a breather because, as we reported Monday, he faces a second Contempt charge (this one of the LSPC) tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.

Somehow, we think attorney Jill Craft will be in rare form (and that’s saying plenty) tomorrow morning for that hearing!

We do like the fact that Craft is hammering home the inadequacy of LSP fulfilling her subpoena because, as everyone knows by now, we have a May 23, 2022 court hearing of our own entailing what we believe was excessive redacting on LSP records.

We figure, given the attorney we have for that one (Burns – who’s not actually an attorney and is suing pro se), we can’t lose on that hearing!  Yes, that’s an obvious joke, but Burns does plan to give it his very best shot before Judge Don Johnson in 12 days!

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