On Monday, May 22, 2023, our prediction that deGravelles would simply adopt Bourgeois’ Report and Recommendation in full came to fruition when deGravelles issuing this order doing just that.
The Order speaks for itself, but here’s what it says:
After independently reviewing the entire record in this case and for the reasons set forth in the Magistrate Judge’s Report dated February 24, 2023 (Doc. 83), to which an objection and an opposition to Plaintiff’s Objection were filed and considered (Docs. 84 and 85);
IT IS ORDERED that the Defendants’ Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement (Doc. 56) is GRANTED, and the parties are ORDERED to comply with the terms of their settlement agreement.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Intervenor’s Motion to Deem Privilege Waived (Doc. 77) and Intervenor’s Consent Motion for Leave to Review Exhibits in Camera (Doc. 78) are DENIED AS MOOT.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this matter is referred back to the Magistrate Judge for a scheduling conference to address any remaining issues.
Signed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on May 22, 2023.
Now, just as an FYI for our subscribers and casual site visitors, don’t be alarmed that this feature is the last post to be published for a while. Founder Robert Burns is boarding a plane for Dallas in about two hours, and he won’t return for 2 1/2 weeks (on or around June 10, 2023).
Since the Cavalier matter is obviously major, we wanted to make a quick publication of it prior to Burns’ departure.
We hope everyone has an enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend!
Carla JeanBatiste, Chairperson of the St. Martin Parish Council, who now appears to have been far more active in the Billy Broussard affairs and the Facebook group of Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard than Broussard knew to be the case in late November of 2022 when he filed a Motion to Compel the Facebook posts pertaining to his property on Duchamp Road in Broussard, Louisiana.
It was only a few days ago that we published this feature as a preview of today (Tuesday, May 23, 2023)’s court hearing wherein Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard and Melissa Dubroc sought to recover their attorney fees incurred in defense of a defamation suit filed by Billy Broussard.
We made the football analogy of Broussard, in his extensive Opposition Memorandum, literally sending an all-out blitz to sack the quarterback who, in the football analogy, would be their defense attorney, Eric Timothy Haik. Haik was sacked today in court, and the ball was turned over on downs to Broussard!
Judge Vincent Borne, as is stated on the following video, was incredibly respectful and courteous to both sides at today’s hearing; furthermore, he did an excellent job of summing up where everything stood going into the hearing. He likely wanted to minimize time spent because his court has a major trial ongoing entailing the St. Martin Parish School Board v. Shell Oil. Consequently, there was a large audience of attorneys watching this proceeding as they took a pause for this matter before resuming their obviously far more serious matter pending before the court.
In the following video, Broussard covers many of the benefits he obtained from filing the litigation to particularly include the extensive material gathered which he believes will be useful whenever he chooses to convene his own court hearing for a Permanent Injunction regarding the 33-acre farm he purchased which formed the basis for all of the litigation filed in the last 21 months (both where he’s had the roles of plaintiff and defendant):
On November 21, 2022, when Broussard filed his Motion to Compel Discovery entailing the “Mob Boss” Facebook group posts, he went out of his way on the video to indicate that he felt there was “no way” Batiste was actively involved in the despicable acts of “Mob Boss” and her associates.
We at Sound Off Louisiana, however, were a little more dubious about JeanBatiste. Accordingly, we telephoned JeanBatiste on November 28, 2022 and invited her to appear on camera and place distance between herself and the vicious material “Mob Boss” was publishing. When JeanBatiste declined to even return our call, our suspicion level only increased. Given what all Broussard learned from his newly-obtained Facebook posts by “Mob Boss,” we can now much more readily see why she didn’t return our call.
We at Sound Off Louisiana are going to take it a step further. JeanBatiste’s husband is Harold JeanBatiste, who is St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux’s Chief Deputy. We now believe the evidence is becoming overwhelming that what transpired was a husband and wife team wherein Carla JeanBatiste worked with “Mob Boss” to assist with the dissemination of falsehoods about Broussard on that Facebook group while her husband, Harold, worked with others to effectuate a completely baseless arrest of Broussard on May 10, 2022. That’s our theory after an extensive and in-depth delving into just what all transpired between December of 2021 and May of 2022 entailing what is one more sordid scandal as evidenced by all of those Facebook posts!
We have repeatedly offered St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux the opportunity to appear on camera to speak on the Broussard arrest, and he has declined every invitation. The only quote we have from him is second-hand from someone who told us that Breaux said, “I’m not happy that my office was dragged into all of this!” Well, if his office was “dragged” into the whole Broussard matter (and it must have been given that it’s his office that made the arrest of Broussard on May 10, 2022), it would seem to us that it was Breaux’s Chief Deputy, Harold JeanBatiste, who is the obvious culprit for having engaged in such “dragging.”
Getting back to Broussard and his resounding courtroom win today, here are educational lessons we believe were obtained from it and this whole litigation:
#1) Haik learned about LA CCP Article 971 (Special Motion to Strike) and how much more effective it may be in defending a lawsuit of the nature Broussard filed against “Mob Boss” and Scott Lopez (Haik was defense attorney for that suit too, and Lopez also failed to recover attorney fees). We think it was nice of “Mob Boss” and Dubroc to remit $6,000 ($3,000 each) to Haik for him to gain a better appreciation of a Special Motion to Strike. Of course, that’s assuming that he had any appreciation of it whatsoever at the outset of the litigation because, if he did, it sure begs the question of why he failed to file it.
#2) Ali LeBlanc and Eric Haik both gained a better appreciation of Louisiana Local Rule 9.5 and its five-business-day period for an opposing attorney (or pro se litigant) to object to the wording of a proposed judgment. We’re not about to assert that either Haik or LeBlanc didn’t already know that because even a law school graduate with a week of experience knows it! Perhaps they learned that it may be best not to play fast and loose with it under the mistaken belief that a pro se litigant won’t know its terms or have the ability to look it up.
#3) Facebook posts can end up being costly.
As Broussard said in the video above, it is election season, and we think it’s going to be an interesting one, and it just may be far more challenging for an incumbent St. Martin Parish Council Chairwoman than she may have previously thought given some rumblings we’re hearing in the St. Martin Parish community of voters!
The mother of a man who claimed her son was beaten to death by Baton Rouge Police Officers on Flag Street in Baton Rouge holds up a picture of her son as she makes inquires of United States Department of Justice officials at a Baton Rouge town hall held on the campus of Southern University on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
At a town hall meeting of the United State Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted on the campus of Southern University on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, one of the biggest concerns expressed by attendees was the lack of subpoena power of those conducting a “pattern and practices” investigation of Louisiana State Police (LSP).
Let’s watch some highlights from the town hall meeting:
Sound Off Louisiana’s founder, Robert Burns, inquires how the public can be dissuaded from perceiving DOJ as a “toothless tiger” given that those conducting the investigation lack subpoena power.
As Burns mentioned in the video above, he actually showed up and set up his unipod only to discover he’d left his camera at home. That prompted a mad dash back to Burns’ home, retrieving the camera, and a mad dash back. Luckily, community activist Belinda Parker-Brown, founder of Louisiana United International, used her cell phone to record the period during which Burns was absent. As a result, we want to present prominent civil rights attorney Jill Craft having posed her questions of DOJ officials (to include whether they have subpoena power) so their original responses can be available:
After DOJ officials provide a brief overview of their roles in investigating LSP, Craft asks about limitations they may be under.
Here are other video highlights:
Burns inquires if DOJ will delve into the massive LSP cheating scandal as well as the horrendously bad promotional practices deployed by LSP over the last few years.
Belinda Parker-Brown inquires whether DOJ’s investigation will include, “the corruption on the Louisiana State Police Commission?”
Parker-Brown inquires about indictments being handed down for the Ronald Greene cover-up, “from the Governor’s Office on down.”
Sister Khadijah Rashad inquires about DOJ investigating circumstances surrounding alleged suicides at law-enforcement agencies such as that of her grandson days before he was scheduled to be released.
“Brother Jay,” who, along with community activist “Sister Khadijah Rashad,” host a weekly public broadcast on Wednesdays in Lafayette, Louisiana, inquires about having a public database to keep bad police officers from being transferred from one law-enforcement agency to another.
The mother of a man who claims her son was beaten to death on Flag Street in Baton Rouge by Baton Rouge Police Officers voices concerns about law enforcement officials as she holds up a picture of her son.
