As LSP Col. Hodges is alleged to be in running for U. S. Marshal, will WAFB’s lawsuit over his failure to tender LSP Trooper Clair video of alleged excessive force impede his chances?

Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Robert Hodges.

Our website visitors will recall our July 22, 2024 feature entailing LSP Col. Robert Hodges’ “deal cutting.”  Basically, Hodges felt a need to clear the deck of legacy matters pertaining to his predecessor, Col. Lamar Davis.  More details are available at the preceding link, but we merely stress that one of those “deals” entails LSP Master Trooper Mathew Clair.

The Clair matter has taken on more significance even as numerous sources have contacted us indicating that Hodges is under serious consideration to become the next U. S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The present U. S. Marshal is Biden appointee Enix Smith III.  Smith was appointed by Biden, confirmed by the U. S. Senate, and his four-year term began on July 26, 2022.  U. S. Marshals serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States, and obviously it is a given that Smith will not be reappointed to another four-year term by President Trump.  Our sources tell us that Hodges and one other gentleman, with whom we are very familiar but are opting not to divulge the name of for purposes of this feature, are considered the lead candidates for the position.

Over the course of the last three or four weeks, we have been provided with an absolute plethora of alleged seriously problematic acts transpiring under Hodges’ watch which may be intentionally being kept out of public view.  It’s our intent to gradually reveal those alleged problematic acts over the next 3-5 weeks.

Today’s feature, however, focuses on Hodges’ “deal cutting” as referenced in the first paragraph above and specifically the Clair “deal.”  Let’s begin by repeating the details of one row of a table incorporated into the “deals” feature as well as video from the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) meeting at which Hodges convinced the LSPC to go along with a “deal” he’d worked out which effectively wiped out totally the discipline handed down to Clair by former LSP Col. Lamar Davis.  Hodges cut that “deal” notwithstanding the nature of Clair’s act entailing alleged excessive force:

3/14/24:  LSPC ratifies Master Trooper Mathew Clair’s settlement agreement proposed by LSP Col. Robert Hodges.

The Clair matter has taken on far more significance since WAFB announced its lawsuit against Hodges for withholding the video.

The lawsuit was filed at 8:24 a.m. yesterday (Monday, December 15, 2025), and within a couple of hours thereafter we were at the EBRP Clerk of Court’s Office to obtain our own copy of the lawsuit for publication to our site visitors.

When we produced the feature entailing retired LSP Capt. Heath Guillotte flat-out denouncing Hodges’ “hypocritical leadership,” stating into our camera that Hodges considers Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns, WAFB’s Chris Nakamoto, and Fox8’s Lee Zurik to be on par with “P Diddy” and are “not to be spoken to under any circumstances,” we now know that’s what he meant.

Why?  Because Nakamoto, acting through WAFB Investigative Producer Kevin Foster, got the same type of runaround (arguably even worse) than has Burns in his recent public records requests.  We encourage anyone to simply look at pages 8 – 20 of the lawsuit (the exhibits) to see the incredible depths LSP would stoop to in order to ultimately deny the public records request for the video.  It’s un-freaking-believable!

Let us focus in on a few highlights from the core pleadings of the lawsuit, which is in the form of a Writ of Mandamus, which is a filing to attempt to force a public agency to fulfill its obligation to conform to a duty over which the agency has no discretion (i.e. a “ministerial act”).  From the litigation:

Since early 2025, journalists at WAFB have sought public records concerning alleged excessive force by Louisiana State Police Trooper Matthew (Mathew) Clair against an inmate in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, an incident that led to discipline and a March 14, 2024 settlement before the Louisiana State Police Commission in the case bearing Docket No. 23-267-S.

On April 10, 2025, WAFB Investigative Producer Kevin Foster submitted Public Records Request No. R014465-041025 through the Louisiana Public Safety Department’s Public Records Center (the “Records Center”). He requested “any and all body camera footage, and written or typed reports tied to incident 23-267-S as part of the State Police Commission’s appeal process for Trooper Matthew Clair,” and requested a fee waiver. See Exhibit “A.”

The Records Center then repeatedly demanded additional “clarification,” including an 8-digit LASP report number and further details about the incident, even after Mr. Foster supplied an internal affairs number, the State Police Commission docket number, and other information. Id.

On May 5, 2025-nearly a month after the original request-the Records Center advised that there were “no responsive records” to Request No. R014465-041025.

The Records Center suggested Mr. Foster submit a new request. See Exhibit “B.”

In response, the Records Center again requested “clarification,” asserted that the request was “too vague,” and demanded further particulars, despite already having the trooper’s name, time period, and discipline as search parameters. Mr. Foster then narrowed and amended the request to seek Trooper Clair’s internal affairs and discipline history (his “disciplinary jacket”) from 2020 forward. The Records Center thereafter estimated that up to forty-five (45) days would be required for review and redaction but produced no records. See Exhibit “B.”

On July 30, 2025, WAFB News Director Robb Hays submitted another public records request, No. R017642-073025.

On or about August 6, 2025, Captain Graham, on behalf of Defendant and the Records Center, denied Mr. Hays’s July 30 request. Graham asserted that any video responsive to the request was part of an internal affairs investigation that ultimately concluded with non-disciplinary action. Further, Graham stated the video sought was associated with a letter of counseling rather
than discipline, and, pursuant to Louisiana State Police Rule 12.9, was not considered a public record. The response did not invoke any specific statutory exemption or any other provision of the Public Records Law and did not address the request for documentation regarding its destruction.

On August 8, 2025, counsel for WAFB sent Captain Graham a detailed letter explaining why the requested video is a public record, why no statutory exemption applies, and why neither LASP Rule 12.9 nor generalized “privacy” assertions justify withholding the video. Counsel requested reconsideration and warned that litigation would be required otherwise.

Petitioner sought these records in order to report on matters of significant public concern, including alleged excessive force by a state trooper and the discipline that followed.

The Petitioner avers that the reporting on this matter is of the utmost public interest in the operation of law enforcement in the state of Louisiana, and the United States. Petitioner respectfully requests this Honorable Court review the unredacted records in camera in accordance with the law and determine whether the Defendant’s blanket claim of exemption is proper.

As stated in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 44:31(B)(3), the “burden of proving that a public record is not subject to inspection, copying, or reproduction shall rest with the custodian.” Indeed, “the custodian must defend his action in a contradictory hearing.

The Louisiana Supreme Court has held that the Public Records Law should be “construed liberally in favor of free and unrestricted access to the records, and that access can be denied only when a law, specifically and unequivocally, provides otherwise…. Whenever there is doubt as to whether the public has the right of access to certain records, the doubt must be resolved in favor of the public’s right to see.” Title Research Corp. v. Rausch, 450 So.2d 933, 936 (La. 1984).

Petitioner furthermore avers he should be awarded reasonable attorneys’ fees and other costs of litigation available pursuant to La. Rev. Stat. § 44:35(D).

We do have a suggestion as a cost saving measure for LSP.  Just have AI respond to these public records requests with the same automated mode of “act stupid and downright ignorant, pose ridiculous queries for ‘clarification,’ indicate the need to make a brand new request, deny request based on privacy issues.”  There simply is no need for humans to be involved in this process!  AI can handle that function far better, and at least it won’t be as mind-numbingly arrogant and condescending as it is with humans sending this garbage out!

We feel compelled to state that well-placed sources told us that LSP had “sealed” the internal affairs records of Guillotte, but perhaps Hodges didn’t count on Guillotte’s willingness to call him on the carpet about allegedly supplying a false address to even qualify for the Major position, to be willing to conduct a very high-profile on camera interview with us about the internal affairs investigation and, most significantly, to supply video footage of the internal affairs interviews.

Obviously, Guillotte’s willingness to provide such incredible details on Hodges’ managerial style largely negated the need for an internal affairs file.  Nevertheless, for the record, even though we were informed the Guillotte matter was “sealed,” (as if LSP is some sort of Court of Law), we made a request for the entirety of Guillotte’s file and got pure runaround just like WAFB did.

Further, we asked for the written denial of Guillotte’s application to purchase his weapons, and we could produce the utterly idiotic, bone-headed, inexcusable runaround we got for that, but suffice to say we supplied Guillotte’s application with all of his information redacted out, only to then be told by LSP that, “no records responsive to your request exist.”

When we then asked if Hodges’ denial of Guillotte’s application to purchase his weapons was merely verbal, we predictably got no response whatsoever from Hodges and Company over at LSP!

As our site visitors may recall, the last time Hodges was sued for failing to produce an obvious public record, the LENS NOLA pretty much handed Hodges’ head to him on a platter.  Ironically, Capt. Russell Graham is the lead photo on the just linked feature (who is now LSP’s Public Affairs Command Officer), and it is none other than he who is the subject of the Rule to Show Cause to provide arguments as to why the records should not be handed over to WAFB.  Of course, he’ll do so using attorneys, and that just drastically increases the costs to taxpayers, particularly if WAFB prevails (and we certainly hope that they do) and us taxpayers are then held liable for their attorney fees, court costs, and any penalty (up to $100 a day is what the Statute calls for).

The case has been assigned to 19th JDC Judge William Jorden, and we commit to attend the contradictory hearing for the matter and report upon the outcome.

We further commit to report upon a number of other alleged wrongdoings on the parts of LSP Troopers which are somehow failing to make it into public airwaves.  One can only ponder if there’s a concerted effort to keep all the acts on the QT so as not to interfere with Col. Hodges’ ability to obtain that U. S. Marshal’s  position (assuming the numerous reports that he is in the running are accurate).

If it were left up to us, Hodges’ application would be dead on arrival; however, we readily admit that the Trump Administration may view these matters very differently than we at Sound Off Louisiana do.  We guess we’ll know by July 26, 2026 who that next U. S. Marshal is going to be whether it be Hodges or otherwise.