Providing Louisiana citizens, from VIPs to the "little guy," a chance to sound off regarding Louisiana government issues of concern to them.
Stanford Ponzi scheme victims’ attorney Phil Preis (photo courtesy of WBRZ, Channel 2 in Baton Rouge).
In what is now our 12th feature on the Stanford victims litigation with the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions (OFI), we cover Stanford victims’ attorney Phil Preis following through on filing this Motion for a New Trail. The Motion was filed on Tuesday, August 27, 2024. Here’s our feature on it:
8/29/24: Overview of Preis’ Motion for a New Trial on the Stanford / OFI litigation.
The recent feature we published included reference to an encounter with Ms. Alexander outside of 19th JDC in the aftermath of the jury verdict.
However, Ms. Alexander reached out to us and stated that was not her, nor was she in Baton Rouge for the trial. She also stated that she disbanded the Stanford Victims Coalition years ago and wanted to stress that she is not a party to the OFI litigation.
The article has been edited accordingly, and we regret the error.
Newest member of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), Michael DuBos, who was appointed by Gov. Jeff Landry on August 2, 2024.
Long-time followers of this blog may have noted that we have not provided coverage of any meetings of the LSPC for quite some time. The reason for that is simple: there have been none. The meetings for June, July, and August have all been cancelled.
A key reason for that is two former Commissioners, both of whom have been personally sued alleging an Open Meetings Violation, Oliver Jenkins and Tony Pierite, were never formally confirmed by the Louisiana Senate and their terms therefore expired as of the last day of this past Legislative Session (June 3, 2024).
Former Gov. John Bel Edwards appointed Jenkins and Pierite to the LSPC; however, Gov. Landry opted not to seek their confirmations before the Louisiana Senate, instead choosing to appoint his own Members to the Commission.
One such appointment is a very familar face to those who closely follow this blog: Monroe Attorney Michael DuBos.
It was DuBos who was successful in obtaining the acquittal of Jacob Brown in Federal Court in Monroe last August. Additionally, it was DuBos who, in March of 2021, successfully obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against LSP and, more specifically, then-Col. Lamar Davis which stopped the administrative investigations of three of his former trooper clients (Dakota DeMoss, Randal Dickerson, and George Harper) dead in its tracks. LSP did subsequently succeed in getting the TRO dissolved.
DuBos also isn’t hesitant to call LSP on the carpet when he believes the agency is, “not following the law.” From the just-linked feature:
Three hours before the hearing in Judge Johnson’s courtroom, DuBos lit into LSP attorney Faye Morrison, accusing her of, “not correctly stating the law.” He interrupted her statements to the LSPC, which prompted Chairman Eulis Simien, Jr. to tell him not to interrupt and to, “show a little politeness here!” Let’s take a look, shall we?:
3/11/21: DuBos, after describing himself as, “a little old country lawyer in Monroe,” indicates that LSP has to follow the law just like anyone else and later states that LSP’s then-Legal Counsel Faye Morrison is, “not correctly stating the law.”
DuBos felt strongly enough that then-Col. Lamar Davis was abusing his authority regarding conducting investigations on his then-clients that he sought for the LSPC to conduct an investigation into Davis’ actions. Here is the LSPC’s vote on his request:
3/11/21 vote on DuBos’ call for an investigation into then-Col. Lamar Davis.
Gov. Landry’s other appointment to the LSPC is John E. Atkins, whom anyone is welcome to read about at the preceding link.
It will be interesting to see just what all is discussed both by Members of the Commission and public members at the September 2024 meeting, which will be the first such meeting since May.
