As LSP Col. Hodges’ “deal cutting” unfolds, “Edmonson 2.0 (Besson) Party Down” drunken antics revived as Lt. Bellue retires upon DWI arrest after first night of LSTA Convention.

Former LSP Lt. Prentiss “Trey” Bellue, who abruptly retired effective today,  July 22, 2024, after his arrest for DWI in the aftermath of the first night’s meeting of the 2024 Louisiana State Trooper’s Association Convention on Thursday, July 18, 2024 at approximately 11:30 p.m.

When we published this June 17, 2024 feature entailing the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) failing in its efforts to toss an Open Meetings lawsuit filed by eight (8) St. Tammany Parish residents, one of the Plaintiffs, Rita McDonald, threw founder Robert Burns a curveball when she became the interviewer and asked Burns for his thoughts on LSP Col. Robert Hodges.

Burns responded, as evidenced by this video from the 20:26 mark to the 22:45 mark, that, “as evidenced by past features on this blog, I am not a big fan of Col. Hodges.”  Burns went on to say, on the 22:00 – 22:45 mark of that video, that he was “troubled” by troopers expressing displeasure entailing “deals being cut” by Col. Hodges entailing legacy Davis discipline issues.  Burns indicated that he’d have to seek public records to obtain the specifics of these “deals.”

The most noteworthy “deal” entailed the controversial reinstatement of Justin “Stalekracker” Chaisson, who had been terminated by former Col. Lamar Davis.  That “deal” is said to have transpired as a result of Chaisson threatening litigation since the LSPC chose to reinstate Sheldon Perkins entailing similar circumstances (Chaisson is white and Perkins is black).

At this time, let’s present a table, complete with links for the settlement agreements, of five (5) other alterations that Hodges has made to legacy discipline issues he inherited from Davis:

In order to provide as much information to site visitors as possible, we are now going to present the ratification of these settlement agreements by the LSPC:

 2/8/24:  LSPC ratifies Master Trooper Keith Bergeron’s settlement agreement.

 3/14/24:  LSPC ratifies Russell Brue’s settlement agreement.

 2/8/24:  LSPC ratifies Sgt. Daniel Cedars’ settlement agreement.

 3/14/24:  LSPC ratifies Master Trooper Mathew Clair’s settlement agreement.

5/9/24:  LSPC ratifies polygrapher Kevin Ducote’s settlement agreement.

We are going to refrain from making commentary on the above videos and let the public at large and current and former LSP troopers make their own observations.

After permitting Gov. Landry a few days to celebrate his victory, we openly questioned if he would extend LSP’s downward spiral by appointing Frank Besson (a/k/a Edmonson 2.0) as LSP Colonel.  We stressed Edmonson’s “party down” tendencies, and that Besson was similarly inclined.  We also divulged the fact that numerous sources told us Besson, upon going through a bitter divorce, chose to reside at LSTA headquarters and that, one evening, he returned to that “temporary residence” and crashed his vehicle into the building causing extensive damage.

LSTA events are notorious for heavy drinking, and we’ve already covered the alleged domestic abuse Cynthia Chapman endured at the hands of former trooper and pilot Michael Satcher at the July, 2018 LSTA convention (a cruise no less).

Well, as the old saying goes, “history repeats itself.”  On Thursday, July 18, 2024, former LSP Lt. Prentiss “Trey” Bellue was arrested by BRPD officers for alleged DWI.  Bellue had only traveled a very short distance from the first night’s meeting of the annual LSTA Convention held at a swank Baton Rouge hotel.  From the preceding incident report:

On listed date and time, while working the quick reaction force extra duty for crashes, I heard a crash go out on the radio in the area of W 110 near Perkins. I proceeded to the area in order to work the crash.

Prior to my arrival, several uniform patrol units had arrived on scene. I arrived on scene and contacted Ofc. Herbert Allen, who stated that he had initially contacted the driver of Veh 1 and he believed that the driver was intoxicated. Ofc. Allen had called for a DWI unit to respond. Driver of Veh 1 was already detained and in the back seat of a patrol unit. Due to this being a criminal investigation I did not question driver of Veh 1.

Veh 1 was incapacitated with heavy front end damage.
Roadrunner arrived and towed Veh 1. As soon as the roadway was cleared we moved to Dalrymple Dr to await the DWI officers arrival.

Sgt Scott Johnson arrived on scene and conducted his DWI investigation ( see his report under this file).

The following officers were also on scene:

Sidney Williams
Damien Collins
James Thomas
LT Troy McCreary

Nothing Follows
——————————————————————————————————————————– ——————————————————————————————————————————–
Disclaimer: All information below this line is auto-generated from report data. ——————————————————————————————————————————– ——————————————————————————————————————————–
Vehicle 1 Driver Distraction Action: DROPPED CELL PHONE

Here is the crash diagram from that incident report:

It sure looks to us like everyday citizens are extremely lucky they weren’t near Bellue less their lives may have been lost.  We’ll also point out that Bellue had been with LSP for 26 years, but his promotion to Lieutenant had transpired only weeks ago under Col. Robert Hodges.

LSP confirmed that Bellue retired today, and its Public Affairs Division issued the following statement:

Lt. Bellue submitted his letter of intent to retire to the department this morning with an effective date of July 22, 2024.

The Baton Rouge Police Department is handling the criminal investigation, and no further information can be provided regarding the ongoing investigation or legal proceedings.

In an email to DPS employees on the day of the arrest, Colonel Hodges stated, “Professionalism and accountability are paramount within our agency and the entire public safety profession.  When those expectations are not met, we owe it to ourselves and the public we serve to ensure transparency and personal accountability for our actions.  As you have my steadfast support and commitment to serve with professionalism and personal accountability, I expect the same from each of you.”

We made public records request of BRPD for the body cam and/or dash cam video pertaining to this arrest. We received the incident report and have provided it to our site visitors via the link above; however, regarding the body cam and/or dash cam video, BRPD issued the following statement:

Good afternoon,

This case is still pending prosecution, therefore all records except the initial report are not subject to release under LSA-R.S. 44:3 at this time. 

Sincerely,

Deelee Morris

Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns’ cell phone began receiving numerous texts at around 9:30 a.m. on Friday, July 19, 2024.  According to those texts, all of the BRPD officers who arrived on the scene are black and, we’ll just say that, according to those reports, some very interesting and intriguing dialogue transpired as they attempted to effectuate Bellue’s arrest.

Obviously, we expect the video to be made public once the “investigation” is complete, and one former trooper, who was incredulous at BRPD’s response, said, “There is no criminal investigation.  He blew and got processed.  Cut and dry.  No other charges to investigate.”

Whenever any body cam videos are deemed available to the public, we have to believe they may be very revealing.  So, just as we predicted when we broke the Ronald Greene matter on September 10, 2020, we have a feeling the mainstream media will soon be forced to report more than just the bland press releases which LSP has issued on this matter (with no TV station that we’ve seen doing anything more than placing it on their websites), and publications like The Advocate doing little more than regurgitating LSP’s press release on the matter.