In a move driven by efficiency and improvement, we’re ushering our viewers toward our homepage and jettisoning email alerts for previous subscribers.

Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns explains why the blog is jettisoning its email distribution system and the whole concept of “subscribers.”

In today’s very brief Sound Off Louisiana feature, and in a first-of-its-kind “housekeeping” post, founder Robert Burns outlines precisely why the blog is jettisoning the whole concept of “subscribers” and corresponding email alerts for those subscribers:

1/31/24:  Burns provides rationale for jettisoning email distribution and the whole concept of “subscribers.”

We will continue to provide the direct link for Sound Off Louisiana features for YouTube subscribers (of which there are actually more than blog subscribers) in the description of the video. Anyone is welcome to subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here.  If you don’t have a YouTube account, you can readily create a free one by clicking here.

As Burns states on the video above, we are very excited about this new change as we believe it will make the blog far more efficient and productive!

As stated near the end of the video, we’ll have an LSP post tomorrow (Thursday, February 1, 2024).

While Gov. Landry’s Immigration Executive Order may be a thinly veiled effort to be Trump’s VEEP, former LSPC Member Braxton may thwart his redistricting efforts to ordain Cleo “You have a paper bag?” Fields to obtain Graves’ Congressional seat.

Former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Member Calvin Braxton testifies before the Special Committee on the LSP in-custody death of Ronald Greene on May 11, 2022.  Braxton is strongly mulling a run for the Sixth District Seat in Louisiana for U. S. Congress in the Federal elections later this year now that a map for that District has been finalized.

When we published our September 20, 2023 “back-handed endorsement” of Jeff Landry for Governor, at the 16:48 mark of the video on the feature, Sound Off Louisiana founder, Robert Burns, said, “We have no idea what we’re going to get with Jeff Landry because they have made it clear that, ‘you’re not going to find out our specifics until we’re in office.'”

Well, we’re barely two weeks into a Landry administration, and we’re prepared to declare there were no specifics at all regarding improving Louisiana’s attractiveness to own and operate a small business, reduce occupational licensing burdens, and other matters which were (and are) crucial to cause the very formation of this blog.  That possibility was precisely Burns’ fear of supporting Landry, and it would appear those fears are going to be far more amplified than even he could imagine.

Why do we say that?  Five days before Landry was sworn into office, we saw a feature on ABC’s evening news which flatly said (both orally and on screen) that, “The Governors of Texas and Louisiana have placed immigrants on busses to New York and other cities such as Chicago.”  Well, John Bel Edwards was still Governor at the time, and we can only figure that, with only five (5) days until Landry was sworn in, Edwards felt it was not even worth trying to make the clarification.

We began to openly wonder then if Landry may be putting on the full-court press to try and make himself appear as the most attractive prospect for Trump’s VP on the GOP ticket for November.  With the exception of one individual with whom we shared our thoughts, we were told we are “nuts!”  [Sidebar:  Some of those same folk said we were “crazy” to state Landry would win in the primary with no need for a runoff last October].

We’ve been told by some key associates that Landry would never be so “stupid” as to think he’s a viable choice for Trump’s VP.  While we may agree regarding what level of intellect it would demonstrate on Trump’s part to actually choose Landry (Hint, President Trump:  It would be pretty dumb!), we have no doubt whatsoever that Landry is “stupid” enough to believe he is a viable contender for the position.

One individual whose opinion we value more than just about anyone’s said to Burns, “Look, Jeff Landry is abjectly unqualified to be President should Donald Trump die in office.”  Burns’ response to that individual was, “Jeff Landry is abjectly unqualified to be Governor of Louisiana, but you see where he is!”

Landry has always struck us as someone who relishes the adrenaline rush of the game (i.e. elections) much more so than the relative boredom of actually governing.  It’s why, in our opinion, Liz Murrill is now enjoying her ninth year as Attorney General for Louisiana, eight as de facto and just beginning her first as actual.

We believe our theory on Landry making himself more appealing to Trump for his VP gained even more steam when he signed this Executive Order on January 12, 2024 (four days after being sworn into office) calling for all Louisiana state agencies to tally up the costs of illegal immigration in order that Landry can, “send President Biden and them a bill.”  Days thereafter, Landry took to Fox news to grandstand on what we firmly believe is a concerted (and pretty thinly veiled) appeal to Trump to name him as VP.  We don’t want to deprive Landry of one second of his fame and glory, so let’s provide his Fox News video at this time:

Gov. Jeff Landry explains his rationale for signing an immigration order on Fox News with Neil Cavuto on January 17, 2024.

Now, should Trump pass on Landry as VP (as we believe he likely will), we are still perplexed at how certain publications (most notable The Advocate) openly speculate regarding Landry’s obvious effort to toss U. S. Congressman Garret Graves out on the street in favor of his self-proclaimed favorite Democrat to take over Graves’ seat, Cleo “You have a paper bag?” Fields.  The Advocate has warned that Graves may likely, “challenge Landry in his re-election effort in 2027.”

We don’t see any chance whatsoever that Landry sits still for a full four years even if his dream of being Trump’s VP selection goes down the tubes.  Those who know Landry closely know that he faults his advisors who, upon Landry’s Congressional Seat being eliminated in the aftermath of the 2010 Census, urged him to challenge then-U. S. Congressman Charles Boustany for his seat.  Landry preferred to sit tight and pursue his ultimate dream of being a U. S. Senator by challenging Cassidy in the 2014 U. S. Senate race against then-incumbent Mary Landrieu.  Landry lost badly to Boustany, and he has regretted listening to his then-advisors ever since.

Landry had a huge self-motivation for heavily seeking closed primaries in this most recent Special Session.  We believe there is no question whatsoever that Landry is going to challenge Cassidy in 2026, and without question, closed primaries in Louisiana, which are now the law of the land, will benefit Landry tremendously in knocking out Cassidy with only Republicans eligible to vote.  Landry had no objection to pushing the effective date of closed primaries to 2026 because that still meets his self-motivated goal of having closed primaries in place in the year we believe he is most certainly going to challenge Cassidy.

We should note that, in a compromise suggested by U. S. Senator John Kennedy, Landry agreed to amend the closed primary initiative to permit registered Independents to vote in either primary, Republican or Democrat (but obviously not both).  While we feel certain Landry ideally would like to have left it as Republican-only voters when Cassidy is challenged, it’s hard to rebuff a sitting U. S. Senator, particularly one as powerful and as liked as John Kennedy.  Even with Independents, we still believe Landry is a clear favorite to knock out Cassidy in 2026, and we fully expect him to challenge Cassidy and to become Louisiana’s next U. S. Senator.

Speaking of pushing Graves out onto the street, Graves has made it clear that he intends to run for reelection later this year.  He is staying mum on which District he’ll run in, however (one doesn’t have to reside in the District in which one chooses to run for Congress).  We’ve read publications indicating Graves cannot knock out any of the other Republicans; however, we respectfully disagree.  We believe he can, and in fact we’re willing to predict that he will, knock out U. S. Congresswoman Julia Letlow later this year.

Burns was so frustrated at the map drawn regarding even being able to ascertain which U. S. Congress District in which Burns now resides, that he called his State Senator’s office, Franklin Foil, to try and figure out just where the line splits East Baton Rouge.  There is a small carved-out section of EBR Parish which appears to be in Letlow’s District but it is far from clear.  At any rate, Sen. Foil’s Office was able to ascertain (upon obtaining Burns’ Ward and Precinct which Burns has known by heart for 23 years) that he is in fact in Letlow’s District.  Foil’s office even volunteered, “Your precinct is the dividing point.  You are just barely out of Graves’ redrawn District.”

The “Fields District” (so named because apparently Fields and Landry both assumed prospective challengers to Fields would simply back away and ordain whom Landry sought to obtain the office in proposing the map that he did), from all we’re hearing, may very likely not even go to Fields.  Why?  He’s got too much baggage!!  From the preceding feature:

In 1997, Fields was caught on an FBI surveillance tape stuffing about $20,000 in cash in his pockets after accepting it from then Governor Edwin Edwards. Fields was not charged with a crime.[7][8] It was later revealed that Fields had abused his Congressional franking privileges by sending newsletters to his district, at a cost of about $46,000, paid for by taxpayers, that were used for his gubernatorial bid.

We still recall the near-verbatim exchange between Edwin Edwards and Fields on the wire tap.  Let’s reproduce it at this time:

Fields:  “I visited with (U.S. Sen.) John Breaux last week.”

Edwards:  “You did.  How’d it go?”

Fields:  “I told him I was going to run against him.”

Edwards:  “You did what?!  What did he say?”

Fields:  “M@@!!& F@@($! about s— in his pants!”

Edwards:  “I bet he did!  The Republicans field any type of a decent candidate and you enter the race, he don’t make the runoff!”

Shortly thereafter, Fields politely asked if Edwards had a paper bag so Fields could secure all of the bills Edwards was paying him ($20,000 worth) to make his exit.

We’ll also point out that, when Fields declared his candidacy for the State Senate in 2019 (easier to get back to Washington as an “active player?”), he used his old Hollywood Street address in North Baton Rouge, even though Fields was widely known to reside at a fabulous home located in close proximity to the Country Club of Louisiana (Highland Crossing).

When Advocate reporter Will Sentell openly challenged Fields on that residency issue, Fields got pretty defensive in his response.  We welcome anyone to view that episode by  going to the 10:22 mark here.

Sometimes, we actually think (perhaps because of the nature of the type reporting we do) that our pipeline of knowledge is stronger in the Democratic Party in Louisiana than it is the Republican Party.  Whether that’s the case or not, we sure are hearing strong vibes that former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Member Calvin Braxton is “very seriously” considering challenging Fields.

What kind of problems may that cause for Fields?  Well, for one, Braxton is extremely well heeled and, if he wanted to, could likely self-fund his entire campaign.

Furthermore, though we kept his identity confidential until Braxton himself opted to go public, it was Calvin Braxton who was our key source enabling us to break the Ronald Greene matter on September 10, 2020.  Braxton provided us with incredible specificity to include the fact Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth had turned his body camera off for an extended period during the Greene arrest.  Everything Braxton told us turned out to be spot on, and this blog and its founder will remain forever appreciative to Braxton for enabling us to produce that Ronald Greene feature on September 10, 2020!

One thing we feel certain of is that white Republican businessmen should certainly feel a strong commonality with Braxton even though he is a Democrat because his business success has been remarkable.

So, while we at Sound Off Louisiana won’t be able to actually vote for Braxton (Landry just barely swooped us into Letlow’s District), we will say this to the voters of Burns’ previous District 6:  We believe you can get someone a whole lot worse than Calvin Braxton as your next Congressman, but we have no confidence in being able to make the same statement about Cleo “You got a paper bag?” Fields.

We call upon LSP to “clear the air” on false allegation that Lt. Clary concealed his body camera video during arrest of Greene and the unfounded indictment that ensued for Obstruction of Justice.

 

Louisiana State Police (LSP) Lt. John Clary (right), who was recently reinstated with LSP after a baseless indictment against him for Obstruction of Justice was dismissed, escorts Louisiana Tech’s football coach off the field after a home game (Clary was also relieved of that detail based on the false allegation made against him).

In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns seeks for Louisiana State Police (LSP) and/or the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) to “clear the air” on what all transpired during the months of April and May of 2021 that ultimately led to a bogus indictment of Lt. John Clary for Obstruction of Justice.

That indictment was based on the unquestioned falsity of an allegation that he, “concealed his body-worn camera for almost two years.” The matter entailed the arrest and apprehension of Ronald Greene on May 10, 2019.  Here is video of Burns’ statement before the Commission on Thursday, January 11, 2024:

Burns makes public comment at the LSPC meeting of Thursday, January 11, 2024 regarding the bogus indictment of Lt. John Clary along with inserted video clips of others making statements which validate what Burns indicates to the Commission transpired.

The above video speaks for itself, so the only comment we’ll make is that Burns failed to indicate to the Commission that former lead investigator on the Greene matter, then-Sergeant Albert Paxton, changed his testimony on March 22, 2022 within minutes.

His testimony changed in that he first testified that he first learned of Clary’s body-worn camera on or around October 2, 2020 (see 2:58 mark of above video and Paxton’s video segment shortly thereafter) to April of 2021 (see 5:57 mark of above video).

In the video above, Burns references a hard-copy printout provided to each Commissioner.  Let’s take a moment to present the table at this time:

Date of Clary Body-Cam Video Activity / DiscussionNature of Activity / Discussion
May 10, 2019Clary successfully uploads video at 4:30 a.m. on the very morning of Greene's death. The video then became an official record of LSP.
May 15, 2019Video downloaded by Scott Davis, LSP's then Use of Force Expert.
May 21, 2019Video streamed by Sgt. Kory Borcherding.
July, 2019Then-Sgt. Albert Paxton (now retired from LSP) logs onto AXON system.
August, 2019Paxton provides DA John Belton with "all" of the case file on Greene, but he would later acknowledge that the Clary video was, "not included on the flash drive."
September 2, 2020Video downloaded by Richard Buckland (LSP IA).
September 5, 2020LSP IA Sgt. Mike Talley begins conducting an Internal affairs investigation into Greene's death and interviews Kory York and watches the Clary video as part of his investigation.
September 9, 2020LSP's then-legal counsel, Faye Morrison, tells us that this "initial complaint," which is undated but signed by Paxton is, "the only document entailing Greene that we deem public at this time."
September 10, 2020Video downloaded by Kevin Ducote (LSP IA). Sound Off Louisiana breaks Greene matter.
Early -to-mid September, 2020.Buckland & Ducote meet with Paxton, after which he (Paxton) is incredulous over what he claims was an interrogation of his wife, with whom Paxton admitted providing his case reports for her to review because, "her grammar skills are better than mine."
On or around October 2, 2020According to his testimony before the Greene Committee on March 22, 2022, Paxton testifies that he and Davis met and discussed the Clary video. Paxton claims that's the first time he became aware of the existence of the Clary video.
October 20, 2020Talley completes and dates his report and stresses that his findings are based in part on the Clary video.
April 9, 2021Scott Davis accesses Clary video that he'd previously downloaded on May 15, 2019.
April 9, 2021Although Scott Brown, Paxton's supervisor, testifies on March 22, 2022 that others allegedly did NOT want Paxton's original report to be supplemented, Brown ordered the supplement to transpire. In that supplement, Paxton reveals that he first learned of the Clary video on April 9, 2021, a claim which directly contradicts his testimony on March 22, 2022 (corroborated by Scott Davis) that he discussed the Clary video with Davis on or around October 2, 2020 (see video on entry below).
On or around April 9, 2021With word spreading of "leaded videos" and, apparently fearing a media leak of Clary's video, Paxton telephones Belton and lets him know about the Clary video and that the video will be delivered to him.
May 19, 2021AP releases leaked DeMoss video of the Ronald Greene arrest and in-custody death. That's the short video depicting the brutal acts which transpired prior to Clary's arrival on the scene.
May 24, 2021AP reporter Jim Mustian publishes this article falsely accusing LSP Lt. John Clary of, "concealing his body-cam video for almost two years."
September 10, 2021Apparently based on the "media hype" of the false AP article published on May 24, 2021, Louisiana State Sen. Cleo Fields openly states that, unless someone else is held accountable, Clary should be charged with Obstruction of Justice
March 22, 2022Paxton testifies that his first knowledge of the Clary body-worn camera came on or about October 2, 2020.
March 22, 2022LSP Sgt. Scott Davis corroborates the previous testimony of retired Sgt. Albert Paxton regarding the two of them discussing the Clary body-worn video in October of 2020.
March 22, 2022Paxton's testimony of first becoming aware of the Clary body-worn camera in October of 2020 notwithstanding, he changes his testimony only minutes later to indicate that he did not learn of the Clary body-worn camera until "April" (of 2021).
March 22, 2022Paxton testifies that, upon Belton obtaining the Clary video (and the DeMoss video being released to the public), LSP top brass told District Attorney John Belton that, "they didn't want anything done to John Clary."
March 22, 2022Greene Committee Chairman Tanner Magee directly tells Paxton that people had told him (Magee) that Paxton, "always knew about the Clary body camera video." Paxton became extremely defensive in his commentary after Magee made that statement to him.
April 28, 2022Then-LSP Lt. Col. Kenny Van Buren flatly states that claims that Clary concealed his body-worn camera are, "not remotely accurate."
April 28, 2022State Rep. Debbie Villio becomes condescending, arrogant, and flippant in countering Van Buren's claim. Villio hangs her hat on "emails to the contrary" wherein Paxton is alleged to have asked to view videos. For Villio's claim to have any merit whatsoever, those "emails to the contrary" should be dated BEFORE July of 2019, and CERTAINLY before October 2, 2020. We have examined the infamous "emails to the contrary." While we've made an editorial decision not to publish them, here are the dates on those emails: May 17, 2021; June 14, 2021; July 26, 2021; July 27, 2021; October 7, 2021. So, these "emails to the contrary" were all comprised VERY NEAR OR AFTER the public release of the DeMoss damning Greene video. Furthermore, the emails are regarding general LSP policy on viewing videos and potential changes thereof and most certainly don't appear in any way to be requests to view any Ronald Greene videos. Finally, common sense would dictate that LSP instituted a MAJOR clamp down on anyone's ability to view videos after the leak of that DeMoss video to the public, and Villio's claim appears to us to be bogus and have no merit whatsoever.
October 12, 2022Union Parish DA John Belton announces that he will convene a grand jury to seek indictments for the LSP in-custody death of Ronald Greene. It should be noted that virtually all of the original 17 counts of the indictments against all troopers are derived from the Clary video.
Sometime between October 12, 2022 and December 15, 2022The State of Louisiana contracts with Dr. Seth Stoughton out of South Carolina to draft a use-of-force report. His report, which relied upon Sgt. Talley's IA report (which, in turn, was based on the Clary video) was a key element leading up to the indictments of the troopers (and one sheriff deputy) entailing Greene's arrest
December 15, 2022Notwithstanding ALL of the collective evidence outlined above indicating definitively that Lt. John Clary most certainly DID NOT conceal his body camera footage, and despite the incredibly vague words of Belton's indictment count (which didn't even have the words "body camera" among those words and which would require a subsequent Bill of Particulars to spell out just what Clary allegedly did), Clary is indicted for "Obstruction of Justice" (precisely what Sen. Cleo Fields had called for) for allegedly withholding his body camera video!
June 23, 2023After several court hearings requiring Belton to provide specificity entailing what each trooper is alleged to have done to warrant the indictments, Kory York's attorney, J. Michael Small, files a Kastigar Motion which references the Stoughton report, Talley's IA report, and the fact that the IA report (dated October 20, 2020) relied upon the Clary body worn camera. It was THAT filing that first caused the alarm bell to go off with us that something was sure as hell not adding up because a video which allegedly was "withheld" can hardly be used to compose an IA report!!
November 3, 2023The Lincoln Parish Journal publishes this feature which, although buried at the very end of the article, contained the AXON log for Clary's body worn camera. It was that log which prompted our deep dive into the testimonies outlined on March 22, 2022 and April 28, 2022 that resulted in us releasing........
November 26, 2023this November 26, 2023 feature authoritatively demonstrating just how truly bogus the indictment against Clary was and why Belton had no choice but to drop the charge against Clary or else get his, "head handed to him on a platter in court."
December 18, 2023As reported in this AP feature, Lt. John Clary is reinstated at LSP. The headline of the article is infuriating to us because it STILL tilts toward portraying Clary as guilty. The headline would be fine if the word "FALSELY" was inserted before the word "accused!" We can only assume it's sheer pride that won't allow the mainstream media to do such a Mea culpa. What irks us is that it is typically bloggers who get tagged as being renegades. In this instance, we feel we're having to go behind the mainstream media and clean up the mess they left behind!

One thing that troubles us and which has bothered us since we first broke the Ronald Greene matter is an “initial complaint” filed by Paxton.  Notice that, in the April 28, 2022 Villio entry in the table above, she is totally fixated on when Paxton watched the Clary video.

We would be far more interested in knowing when he watched the DeMoss video.  In his testimony, he admits Clary handed that DeMoss video (the one with the damning material of LSP’s initial encounter with Greene) to him on a flash drive in the wee hours of the morning on the very day of the incident, May 10, 2019.

It is therefore quite perplexing to us how Paxton, in this undated “initial complaint” about the Greene matter, placed the following material in that incident report:

Two troopers were involved in a pursuit with a vehicle being driven by Ronald Greene (B/M DOB:  9/28/1969).  The pursuit ended when Greene crashed his vehicle on Crossroads Loop in Union Parish.  Greene was taken into custody after resisting arrest and a struggle with Troopers.  A short time later Greene became unresponsive and was transported to Glenwood Medical Center by Pafford Medical Services.  Greene died while in route Glenwood Medical Center.

Now, again, bear in mind that Paxton, by his own admission, had the flash drive containing the DeMoss video upon ending his interview with Clary that very morning.  So, did he #1) not watch the DeMoss video prior to drafting the above report, OR #2) watch the DeMoss video and draft what is above anyway.  We would certainly assume the correct response is #1, but it begs the question of why that video (which is not lengthy) was not viewed prior to authoring the above “initial complaint?”

In wrapping this feature up, Billy Broussard opted to address the LSPC for a grand total of three (3) minutes wherein Broussard seeks to “clear my own name, and that of my former attorney, which just so happens to be our now-Governor.”  Let’s take a look:


1/11/24:  Broussard expresses his desire that his own name as well as that of his then-attorney (Gov. Jeff Landry) can be cleared through a supplemental report he requests of LSP.