Month: July 2022

Judge Hunter Greene, presently a family court judge in 19th JDC and candidate for Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal for the seat being vacated by retiring Judge J. Michael McDondald, addresses the Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

As followers of this blog are aware, we recently filed a pro se lawsuit against Louisiana State Police for what we firmly believe is an abuse of Louisiana’s public records laws to shield the public from uncovering more problematic activity by LSP troopers.

We said when we filed the suit that we’d live with whatever decision Judge Don Johnson (D-Baton Rouge) made regarding whether we got to see the requested records.  What we meant by that is that we would lodge no appeal of his decision if it was not in our favor.  What we did not commit to was refraining from launching an all-out attack against Johnson if he ruled against us, which he did, as he pursues a promotion to the First Circuit Court of Appeals as he is widely expected to do when qualifying takes place this Wednesday through Friday.

In fact, we said that it’s our belief that EBR voters should,  “file Judge Johnson away (on 19th JDC) “as is,” which correlates PRECISELY with the wording he used regarding our proposed judgment (i.e. “file as is”), which he declined to sign and instead signed LSP’s proposed judgment denying us (and by inference, all of our subscribers and site visitors) access to the requested records.

In the previously-linked article, we listed the five (5) candidates widely expected to qualify for the First Circuit Court of Appeals seat being vacated by the retirement of long-time Judge J. Michael McDonald.  While we declined to formally endorse any of the four (4) Republicans expected to qualify for the race, we stated that any one of the four would be far preferable to promoting Johnson, a Democrat with serious past problematic acts as illustrated on the just-linked feature, to a seat on the First Circuit.

On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, one of the expected four Republican qualifiers, Hunter Greene, was the guest speaker at the Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon here in Baton Rouge.  Let’s take a just a few minutes to view a couple of highlights from his presentation:

Greene responds to question posed by Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns entailing the adequacy of Louisiana’s Public Records Laws and whether Louisiana would be wise to adopt a statute similar to Texas’s Public Records Laws calling for any denied public records request to be automatically reviewed by the Texas Attorney General to assess whether that denial was justified.

Greene commits that, if elected, he will personally read the briefs submitted to the Court entailing cases on which he’s assigned to be a decision maker.

As we’ve previously indicated, we consider this race to be the most important race on the ballot for East Baton Rouge voters.  We believe that not only because of the lack of intrigue in the other races but also because we believe it is absolutely imperative to have a responsible judge to replace McDonald.  Being blunt, given his past antics (not to mention our frustration over his decision on our recent lawsuit), we certainly do not believe that Judge Johnson constitutes a “responsible” judge to replace McDonald.

We commit to provide features on any of the other expected three Republican candidates for the First Circuit Court of Appeal vacancy as they are invited to speak at luncheons and/or participate in debate forums.

Obviously, we’d be very content with a victory by Judge Greene, even if it did take him a couple of tries to pass the CPA exam (that’s meant as humor).  Burns, who was also a student of Dr. Dan Kyle just like Greene, passed the exam on his first attempt.  Nevertheless, Burns would quickly concede in no time flat that he lacks the patience to deal with law school or serving in the Louisiana Legislature.  Greene is obviously far more disciplined than Burns in that regard.  At any rate, we obviously like his standing as a CPA in addition to being a lawyer and judge.

There was one other noteworthy presentation at the meeting, and that was Coleman Brown’s frustrations entailing what he assesses as a high-priced ($1 billion +) Interstate 10 expansion and replacement just off the Mississippi River Bridge East bound.  We covered details of Brown’s proposal 2 1/2 years ago, and here’s video of him (and others) voicing frustration at DOTD’s current plans for the work:

Brown (and others) voice frustration at the current DOTD proposal for expanding and replacing a section of I-10 Eastbound off the Mississippi River Bridge.

CLICK HERE for the luncheon in its entirety.

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 Col. Lamar Davis, just after being pulled over by an LSP Trooper for allegedly going 91 MPH in a specifically-designated dangerous section of I-10 along the Atchafalaya Basin, thus justifying the 60 MPH speed limit for personal vehicles and 55 MPH for 18-wheelers.

We made it clear earlier this week entailing our thoughts on LSP Col. Lamar Davis being quoted as stating that LSP Troopers can, “use their discretion to turn off body cameras when they assess the situation as non-confrontational.”  From that feature:

 For the record, we EMPHATICALLY DISAGREE with LSP Col. Lamar Davis when he says, “a trooper has discretion to turn off his body camera when he assesses that the situation won’t be combative.”

That statement is perhaps the most bone-headed, idiotic, asinine statement we’ve ever heard ANY public official make; furthermore, given the circumstances under which Davis made that statement, the public has every right to be outraged (and they clearly are) by Davis’ recent irresponsible conduct.

In our opinion, what needs to happen is that “LA-ONE” (i.e. Gov. John Bel Edwards) needs to mandate Davis be assessed with the first $350 fine which technically don’t take effect until August against Davis to set an example.  Furthermore, Edwards (as “LA-ONE”)  should mandate a 24-hour suspension of Davis to demonstrate that LSP Troopers are NOT going to be permitted to be “above the law.” Davis can, of course, appeal that suspension to the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) if he so chooses, and we’d love to film that!

At the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) meeting of Thursday, July 14, 2022, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns took it a step further and stated that, if Davis is unwilling to publicly retract his statement regarding the body cameras, he “needs to be removed as LSP Colonel.”  Here’s Burns making that statement to the LSPC:

7/14/22 LSPC Meeting:  Burns calls upon LSP Col. Davis to make a public retraction of his statement entailing discretion to turn off body camera in non-confrontational situations or else be removed from his position as LSP Colonel.

The feature in London publication which Burns references covering Davis’ outlandish and flagrant flaunting of his apparent perceived lack of need to adhere to public safety measures is available for viewing here.  At the time of publication of this feature, it had a whopping 681 comments!

With all of the problems LSP has experienced in body cameras being turned off, it is completely inexcusable for the Colonel of LSP to give a public green light to even more such deactivations, and that’s particularly the case given that his guidance in that regard is a flat-out violation of LSP’s body-worn camera policy!

Anybody is prone to place his foot in his mouth on occasion as Davis clearly did in this instance.  It’s certainly understandable.  What is not acceptable, however, is when a person has too much pride and/or arrogance to fix the problem of having placed his foot in his mouth by publicly retracting the erroneous and ill-advised statement.  We’ll see if Davis fits the category of having too much pride and/or arrogance and, if so, we firmly believe he needs to be removed from his position as LSP Colonel.

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.

Louisiana State Police Trooper Scott Lopez and his son, Benjamin Cole, show a video to St. Martin Parish Sheriff Deputy Baily Romero on April 25, 2022 upon which Lopez insisted charges be filed against farmer Billy Broussard.  Hours after Broussard contacted District Attorney Bo Duhe’s Office on Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at around 3:00 p.m. and enlightened them on the nature of the charges, Duhe’s Office sent Broussard notice the next day, Thursday, July 7, 2022 that they would be “declining to prosecute” the charges lodged by Trooper Lopez and his son.

Following up on our extensive feature yesterday entailing LSP Trooper Scott Lopez and son filing of “simple assault” and “obstruction of roadway” charges against Billy Broussard, St. Martin Parish District Attorney Bo Duhe’ obviously saw the attempted prosecution by Lopez (with assists from the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office) for what it was.

Accordingly, mere hours after Broussard contacted Duhe’s office to inquire for the first time about the “case,” Duhe’s Office mailed Broussard this letter notifying him that the DA’s Office is declining prosecution of the matter.  Here’s the letter on display:

Broussard visited with us today (July 12, 2022) to address our subscribers and casual site visitors with this latest development in his ongoing battle with Lopez.  Here’s how that went:

7/12/22: Broussard provides a succinct take on District Attorney Bo Duhe’ declining prosecution on Lopez and his son’s allegations against him.

Also, as we indicated near the end of yesterday’s feature, Lt. Douglas in LSP Internal Affairs indicated that LSP could not pursue a retaliation allegation against Lopez while the criminal matter remained active.

Accordingly, Broussard stopped by Lt. Douglas’ office within 30 minutes of making the statements he makes on camera above and left Lt. Douglas with  this very short and succinct letter (along with a copy of the above letter) in which he re-urged his call for an investigation into his retaliation claim against Lopez now that the criminal matter is no longer active.

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.