Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper Garrett Yetman, appearing before the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) on Thursday, May 12, 2022.
Editor’s Note: Regarding our previous feature entailing former LSPC Member Calvin Braxton’s testimony before the Greene Committee, multiple sources have informed us that, notwithstanding Braxton’s testimony to the contrary, Gov. Edwards “stands by” the date he says he first learned of the true nature of Ronald Greene’s death (September 10, 2020).
Since that is the case, we recommend that the Greene Committee subpoena “Val” from Gov. Edwards’ office and have her either corroborate or repudiate Braxton’s testimony.
The meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) of Thursday, May 12, 2022 was likely the most content-packed meeting we’ve ever attended in the 5 1/2 years we’ve been attending and filming the meetings. Let’s break it down:
The meeting began with Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns making public comment (for only about the third time in those 5 1/2 years) entailing the April 14, 2022 LSPC meeting and the leaving of four (4) potential recording devices (two iPads and two iPhones) during the Executive Session of that meeting during which attorney Jill Craft’s contempt allegations against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP itself were being discussed. Here’s that video:
5/12/22: Burns makes public comment about three (3) Louisiana State Troopers Association (LSTA) associates [Interim President Hackley Willis (iPad), Executive Director (and former President) Jay O’Quinn (iPad), and former Executive Director Mark Oxley (iPhone] left recording devices during the LSPC’s 4/14/22 Executive Session. We have also confirmed that LSP Chief Legal Counsel Gail Holland also left an iPhone in the room during Executive Session.
For about the fifth time soon after LSPC meetings, Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns was asked to serve as a 90-minute guest, along with Louisiana United International founder Belinda Parker-Brown, on WBOK (1230 AM) Gerod Stevens’ “The Reality Check” show.
Stevens gave the radio-equivalent of “bringing the house down,” when, upon hearing about the phones and iPads being left in Executive Session, he said, “I’ll tell you how you handle that! You go up to all these guys and say, ‘You know what? We know you guys are into sanitizing phones. We hope you don’t have anything important on these phones because we’re going to take them for the next few hours and give them a good sanitizing. We’ll get them back to you in a few hours.'”
Burns replied to Stevens: “I like your style, Gerod!” Parker-Brown then emphasized that, from what she has observed, such acts demonstrate the utter arrogance of LSP and its repetitive thumbing of its nose at the taxpayers of Louisiana.
After Burns’ public comment came consideration of another one of those, what Belinda Parker-Brown likes to call, “taxpayer-funded vacations.” This one is for alleged domestic abuser Garrett Yetman. Let’s take a look:
5/12/22: Yetman seeks 900-hour exhausting of annual leave, K-time, and 1.5K-time before being placed on LWOP (leave without pay).
It should also be noted that Yetman was President of his Cadet class at LSP and, further that, upon graduation, LSP Chief of Staff Doug “Let’s Sanitize My Phone” Cain, praised Yetman and said how so very thankful he is to God for, “introducing Garrett Yetman into my life.”
Yetman has also been identified as one of the chief culprits of the massive LSP Academy cheating scandal that blogger Tom Aswell of Louisiana Voice exposed on Friday, May 13, 2022. From that Louisiana Voice feature:
“She (Small) said she got the test from another cadet (Christopher Sink),” Richards said, adding that both were immediately fired. Another source, also a retired trooper, said Sink was rehired.
The same unidentified source, who leaked nearly 350 pages of interagency communications regarding the cheating investigation, said eight other cadets who resigned or were fired were also rehired but Richards said the number was actually four who resigned and were rehired.
In a memorandum from Richards to Lt. David Ryerson, Richards said an inspection of the mobile data terminal (MDT) of cadet Michael Starling contained an online chat with his wife (all outside communications are also prohibited during the time cadets attend the academy) that said, “Just took the test…it was the same one I got from (Garrett) Yetman.”
Now, a little more than two years after the cheating was revealed, the intern who sources say stole test and Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) material, Tia Laverdain, is now a state trooper assigned to Internal Affairs (IA) and working under the supervision of her mother, Treone Laverdain. Their uncle is State Rep. Ed Laverdain (D-Alexandria).
Treone Laverdain was named, along with then-IA Commander Capt. Chavez Cammon and Master Trooper Kevin Ducote, as having conspired to cover up the Ronald Greene death at the hands of Troop F troopers. Treone Laverdain has since been promoted to the rank of major.
“I advocated terminating the entire class,” said Richards. “But I met opposition from LSP command and from legal. LSP’s executive legal counsel at the time, Faye Morrison even said of the cheating, ‘That’s how I got through law school.’ I was incredulous that she would say such a thing.”
As indicated in the comments to that feature by Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns, Retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet put in an enormous amount of effort trying to substantiate much of the material above over a year ago (and more – and there are links to Millet’s extensive efforts in the comments). We salute whomever provided Aswell, Greene Committee Chairman Tanner McGee, and Greene Committee Member Debbie Villio with the damning documents which Millet couldn’t obtain despite his extensive efforts through public records requests last year to do so.
We’ll hope something significant comes of it, and it would be our recommendation to establish yet another oversight committee dedicated to getting to the bottom of the extent of the massive cheating scandal and implementing whatever action may be available to take against those responsible for it or who actively participated in it.
Aswell posted yet another feature today (Sunday, May 15, 2022) indicating that LSP is actively pursuing the leaker of the material upon which he based his first feature.
Next up at that May 12 LSPC meeting was consideration of the appeal of Albert Paxton’s letter of reprimand entailing his having allegedly transmitted documentation of his investigation of the Ronald Greene matter to his wife, who is an attorney, to proofread. Here’s that video:
5/12/22: Former LSP Sgt. Paxton’s appeal of his letter of reprimand is deliberated.
As the mainstream media has extensive reported upon, Carl Cavalier (whistelblower in the Ronald Greene matter)’s attorney, Jill Craft, scored a trifecta entailing her contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, former LSP Major Jason Turner, and LSP iteself. Hence, we are merely going to present the following four (4) vidoes for folk to watch as little or as much as desired entailing those matters:
5/12/22: Discussion of contempt charges against former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves.
5/12/22: Discussion of contempt charges against former LSP Major Jason Turner.
5/12/22: Discussion of contempt charges against LSP.
5/12/22: Rulings of the LSPC entailing contempt charges.
- Last, but certainly not least (well, maybe so given that everyone but Burns and one other person fled the room) was the report by Executive Director Jason Hannaman. We’ll point out the fact that, upon the retirement of Active Trooper LSPC member Robert Mire, only one LSP Trooper in the entire state was even willing to place his name in the hat to replace Mire on the LSPC. That was LSTA Troop B President Monty Montelongo. Let’s hope he hasn’t already undergone training for leaving potential recording devices in the LSPC’s meeting room during its executive sessions (i. e. training to covertly record the sessions even as he attends them). Here’s video of that Director Report:
5/12/22: LSPC Executive Director Jason Hannaman presents his Director’s Report.
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