Court filing on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry insisting that fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier be “ordered” to accept $200,000 and dismiss his appeal pending before the Louisiana State Police Commission.
In the final video of our most recent feature, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns emphasized just how adamant Louisiana State Police (LSP) and, more importantly, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, are about cramming a $200,000 settlement right down fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier’s throat. We’ll repeat that video at this time:
After Dinelle Hardin, Ronald Greene’s sister, and Eugene Collins, NAACP Baton Rouge President, call for LSP to reinstate fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier, Cavalier addresses the press. Subsequently, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns inquires of those in attendance at the press conference whether any political pressure can be exerted to cause LSP to change its stand on essentially cramming $200,000 down Carl Cavalier’s throat as a means to keep him from ever wearing an LSP uniform again.
We’ve already reported upon Cavalier’s efforts to reopen the cause, and we also reported upon his recorded phone calls with former attorney Jill Craft which form the basis for Cavalier’s assertions that he was placed “under duress” by Craft to agree to the settlement. We’ve also reported upon LSP filing a Motion to Enforce the oral agreement.
On Tuesday, December 20, 2022, Attorney General Jeff Landry, as evidenced by the lead photo of this feature, filed this Opposition Memorandum to Cavalier’s efforts to reopen his cause and instead have Cavalier ordered by Federal Judge John deGravelles to sign the settlement and deposit the net proceeds (likely around $110,000 or so given Craft’s prior commitment to do everything possible to have this settlement declared a non-taxable event) into his bank account. That signed settlement would also end Cavalier’s rights to ever wear an LSP uniform again in his lifetime.
We have made clear our steadfast resolve that Landry had no business extending the offer in the first place; however, given his quest for Governor next year, he likely wants to avoid the potential for any Ronald Greene facts to be used as weapons against him by his opponents. We firmly believe that both the offer and Landry’s subsequent cram down efforts will most certainly find their ways into campaign ads and debates next year.
Accordingly, we look for Landry to receive, at a maximum, 2.5 percent of the black vote in Louisiana, and that makes for an awfully tough boulder for any candidate to push up a mountain and claim victory. Accordingly, we actually believe Judge deGravelles would do Landry a huge favor if he were to grant Cavalier’s Motion to Reopen the Cause and deny Landry’s Motion to Enforce the Settlement, but we’ll readily admit we doubt Landry possesses sufficient intellect to comprehend that fact.
We also believe Landry has done himself no favors in the cram down efforts he’s deployed in locking up the Louisiana GOP endorsement, which took place in a Zoom meeting entailing seven big-time Republican operatives such as businessmen Eddie Rispone and Lane Grigsby. That action on the Louisiana GOP’s part angered plenty of GOP folk:
On Nov. 5, he won the endorsement of the Louisiana Republican Party on a secret vote by the seven-member executive committee, nearly a year before the primary.
Kennedy privately expressed his concern at the action to Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who had strongly criticized it.
“He said, ‘I can’t believe what the Republican Party did to you,’” Nungesser said. “’You’re the top Republican in the state, and they didn’t have the courtesy to tell you.’”
Landry and party chair Louis Gurvich have defended the decision by saying a majority of the 230 elected members of the state central committee had signed affidavits supporting Landry. But Gurvich canceled a meeting where the full party could have publicly debated and voted on the endorsement, and he has refused to make public the affidavits.
On Nov. 14, six days after winning reelection, Kennedy made the next move, saying he was seriously considering a run for governor and releasing a poll showing he led a hypothetical nine-candidate field with 22%, followed by Shawn Wilson, a Democrat who is the transportation secretary, with 18%, and Landry, with 13%.
Other potential Republican candidates — Nungesser, Treasurer John Schroder, state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, of Slidell, and state Rep. Richard Nelson, of Mandeville — scored lower.
Kennedy returned with another poll on Monday, when he announced in an email to supporters that he’ll decide in January whether he’ll run for governor.
This poll showed Kennedy leading a three-candidate field with 42%, followed by Wilson with 22% and Landry with 14%. Kennedy’s poll also showed him leading Landry in a head-to-head contest by 45% to 20%.
“Kennedy fired a shot at everybody who had taken a position or were thinking of taking a position on Landry’s candidacy,” said Bernie Pinsonat, a veteran Baton Rouge-based political consultant. “Kennedy is saying, ‘I’m thinking about running for governor. Don’t take a step further toward Landry. I will beat him.’ It was aimed at Jeff’s progress and at the people who made Jeff’s progress possible.”
Landry, however, told a reporter that he won’t abandon the governor’s race even if Kennedy runs.
Regarding the final paragraph above, we will only state, “Okay, Jeff. It’s your funeral!”
Let’s cover a little more about how Landry managed to pull off this feat:
On Nov. 30, according to the state party’s latest campaign finance report, Landry moved $90,000 from Cajun PAC II, a super PAC, to the party’s coffers. On that same day, two entities owned by businessman Shane Guidry donated $50,000 each to the party “to help elect conservative Republicans,” Guidry said in an email.
Guidry has been an unpaid special assistant to Landry. Landry, meanwhile, sat on the board of Guidry’s oilfield-services company, which paid him $50,000 a year for legal advice, but left before he announced his campaign for governor in October, according to a Landry spokesperson.
Another big Landry supporter, Steve Orlando, who owned a company in Lafayette that built, installed and removed offshore platforms, gave $25,000 to the party.
“He’s an incredible guy,” Orlando said of Landry. “The fact that the Republican Party gave him the endorsement early on is quite an accomplishment.”
The contributions swelled the coffers of the Louisiana Republican Party, which has often been strapped for cash.
Well, we guess that explains that! It was only seven years ago that a dictatorial Governor exited the Governor’s Mansion. In fact, Landry brought some of Jindal’s key staffers, most notably Liz Murrill, who has essentially served as the de facto Attorney General while Landry has gone all over the state and nation glad handling and grand standing on national issues while essentially ignoring all of the corruption going on in his home state. Seem familiar to that dictatorial Governor of seven years ago? Sure does to us, and he just may end up in the same boat Bobby Jindal finds himself in today!
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