As Louisiana dentists testify to the rank corruption of the Louisiana Dentistry Board, Inspector General Street’s investigation is revealed to be so easily dismissive that a former Dental Board executive had to be reminded that he even conducted an investigation at all.

Louisiana Insector General Stephen Street

UPDATE (5/16/18):

At the request of many dentists adversely impacted by past experiences with the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry, we are supplying this full transcript of the testimony of Diana Chenevert, who served as the Board’s records retention manager in her last three years with the Board.

We also provide a  list of Edward L. “Don” Donaldson, Jr. political contributions which total just over $122,000 as of May 17, 2018.  Donaldson has been characterisized as “the most powerful dentist in the State of Louisiana.”

On Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee, several dentists and a former Louisiana Dentistry Board (LDB) executive, Diana Chenevert, testified to the rank corruption which has plagued the LDB for years.  They were testifying in favor of SB-260 by Sen. John Milkovich (D-Shreveport).  The bill would allow a person who has a disciplinary action brought against him by a professional licensing board or commission to elect to have the matter moved to the Louisiana Division of Administrative Law for a disciplinary adjudication by an administrative law judge.  Highlights of testimony are provided in the following video:

Highlights of testimony at Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee meting on SB-260.

Especially noteworthy entailing the preceding video is Senate Chairman Martiny asking Ms. Chenevert whether she reported the contents of her testimony to law enforcement (see from 19:27 – 19:59 mark of the video).  Ms. Chenevert first indicated, “no,” (i.e. that she had not reported the alleged criminal activity to any law enforcement agency); however, upon Dr. Ryan Haygood stepping out of his seat on the first row and whispering in her ear, she corrected her testimony to indicate that she had in fact reported the alleged criminal activity to Louisiana Inspector General Stephen Street.

Long-time subscribers to Sound Off Louisiana are well aware of our extensive efforts to demonstrate Street’s extensive historical financial difficulties (Federal tax liens and occupational license tax liens) which demonstrate that he is in no way financially independent as he portrays.  Street has also been quite sensitive to our questioning of him regarding his independence of the Governor of Louisiana.  Most recently, we revealed former Alcohol and Tobacco Commissioner Murphy Painter’s efforts to strip Street’s Inspector General Office of its law-enforcement status.

Over two years ago, we at Sound Off Louisiana were told by several dentists that they had met with Street and that his office had “assured without any doubt that arrests and prosecutions are going to arise from all that has transpired at the Dentistry Board.”  Well, despite all of the alleged criminal acts depicted in the video above, the following letter from Inspector General Street to Sen. Barrow Peacock dated January 25, 2018 demonstrates that, even with all of that alleged criminal activity, Street managed to find a way to “close our file.”:

Finally, Stephen Street is required by statute to report instances of potential criminal activity to the appropriate Federal, State, or local law-enforcement agencies.  That fact is evidenced in the following highlighted statute:

We’d love to see evidence of Street having done so regarding the activity described in the above video, but as he will quickly tell you, all of the Inspector General’s records and work papers are privileged.  Our money is on him never having done so, and it provides yet one more reason why his office needs to be abolished just as Corey delaHoussaye called for over two years ago.

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