Segment of court transcript in which 14th JDC Judge David Ritchie expresses his opinion of Gov. Landry’s legal skills in admonishing Billy Broussard to, “choose your lawyer carefully” in the future.
************** Editor’s Note: In the original publication of this feature, we inadvertently failed to provide the documented proof that former GOHSEP Director Kevin Davis had been “briefed” on the Indian Bayou / Billy Broussard matter on Monday, June 29, 2015 at 11:02 a.m., a mere 2-1/2 hours prior to a meeting scheduled to be held at 1:30 p.m. that same day at then-Sen. Fred Mills’ office. We have updated the feature to include that documented proof of the “briefing” from Mark DeBosier to Davis as placed on prominent display within this updated feature. **************
Today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature entails what we believe to be the best and most succinct arguments posed by Billy Broussard regarding the $1 million plus that he has alleged that he was cheated out of due to fraud which he alleges was perpetrated by several governmental officials associated with the now-non-existent Gravity Drainage District 8 of Ward 1 of Calcasieu Parish:
7/10/25: Broussard makes formal apology to Gov. Landry and makes a direct correlation (which we assert is spot-on accurate) that he was the equivalent of Dr. William Blalock in the Shiva Akula Federal Medicare Fraud Case.
Here are links and support documents Broussard references in the video:
— Article entailing President Trump’s fight against massive Medicare fraud. From that article:
The Trump Administration’s continuing fight against fraud, waste and abuse
The beginning of the second Trump administration brought the inception of DOGE and its tech-savvy staff tasked with finding fraud, waste, and abuse in government, including Medicare and Social Security.
HHS and CMS appear to be continuing DOGE’s mission with the introduction of an agreement among private insurance companies to “pledge to streamline and improve the prior authorization processes for Medicare Advantage, Medicaid Managed Care, Health Insurance Marketplace and commercial plans covering nearly eight out of 10 Americans.” Humana recently announced a plan to reduce prior authorizations by one-third and reduce wait times for others.
The introduction of the short list of Medicare services for prior authorization will test how well technologies such as machine learning and AI can streamline the prior authorization process. “CMS is committed to crushing fraud, waste, and abuse, and the WISeR Model will help root out waste in Original Medicare,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
As part of the goal of rooting out waste and fraud, the Justice Department conducted a 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown. Results were released on June 30, 2025, and included charges against more than 300 defendants who were accused of a range of health care fraud schemes.
One particular indictment can provide some insight as to how or why some of the procedures/services were selected for the list. In one particular case, three defendants in Arizona allegedly conspired to give elderly Medicare recipients unnecessary skin grafts, known as “amniotic wound allografts.” The defendants allegedly pocketed millions of dollars and billed for “more than over $1 billion in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and other health benefit providers for these medically unnecessary allografts.” To make matters worse, according to the indictment, the defendants are alleged to have targeted Medicare beneficiaries, many of whom were terminally ill in hospice care.
The WISeR Model and how the program will work
The WISeR Model (Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction) is meant to test the use of enhanced technologies, such as AI and machine learning, to decrease “certain wasteful or low-value services shown to have little to no clinical, evidence-based benefit.” CMS chooses services that “have been identified as particularly vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse, or inappropriate use.”
— Our coverage of Dr. Blalock’s testimony at Dr. Akula’s trial. We firmly believe that Broussard’s direct comparison of himself to Dr. Blalock is spot-on accurate!
— Here’s a copy of the business card which Kirk Harmon supplied to Billy Broussard, and it was Harmon who marked and directed all of the debris which Broussard removed from Indian Bayou:
Kirk Harmon’s business card, who represented himself as a GOHSEP monitor and who marked and ordered Broussard to remove all of the debris he removed in the Indian Bayou Project.
In our opinion, very, very importantly, as evidenced by the 1:19 – 1:31 mark of this video, Mr. Michael Duane Higdon, who was a self-proclaimed monitor on the Indian Bayou project, states: “I was a monitor, and actually what they hired me for was to shuttle Kirk Harmon, the State Inspector, back and forth by boat.” We don’t see how there can be any greater proof that, not only did Broussard rely upon the orders of Harmon in removing the debris he was ordered and directed to remove, but so did Higdon, who readily admitted that he was hired for the sole purpose of “shuttlling Harmon (who he himself identified as a “state monitor“) back and forth by boat!”
— Additional context of 14th JDC Judge David Ritchie’s thoughts on Gov. Landry’s legal skills.
— The 2006 flooding Broussard references in the video above. Broussard strongly contends that flooding was falsely attributed to Hurricane Rita debris when, in reality, the flooding resulted from neglect to maintain the waterways which allowed sinker cypress trees to accumulate in significant quantities that impeded the flow of water and which he subsequently cleared at the direct order of Kirk Harmon.
— Details of the obvious gift-card money laundering operation being conducted by then-Calcasieu Parish DA John DeRosier simultaneous to the timeframe in which he was charged with investigating the matter entailing Billy Broussard (which Broussard maintains he had an obvious conflict in that he represented the now-non-existent Drainage District).
— The email to Kirk Harmon which demonstrates clearly that another Project Worksheet Version would be required for all of the additional debris being uncovered and the need for obtaining the new version so as to, “keep the contractor (Broussard) from having to stop and wait on orders.” We would note that Broussard did in fact have to cease all work for about approximately three (3) weeks before being instructed to resume debris removal operations:
Email from Harmon to Crabb wherein he openly states, “With the job about 10% complete, and 200 CY (cubic yards) total, I believe the estimate on the FEMA assessment of 850 CY (cubic yards) is going to come in very low. When they reach a blockage or a tree in the canal to be cleared, they are finding two to three additional trees below the water line.”
The above email from Mark DeBosier to Kevin Davis (which contained only the attachment which is displayed next) demonstrates Broussard’s point that Davis was “briefed” on the Indian Bayou matter literally hours before the meeting between Broussard, then-Sen. Fred Mills, and Davis. Further, in the attachment which follows, DeBosier clearly identifies an additional $453,000 in additional eligible debris which Broussard removed from the Bayou, yet he was never paid for doing so.
Then Sen. Fred Mills setting up the meeting between Davis, Mills, and Broussard (note that Davis responded with, “need Mark Riley to get info,” when what he meant was, “need Mark DeBosier to get info,” which is what caused the “briefing document” to be created as illustrated above.
Then Sen. Fred Mills’ office confirming the meeting to transpire on Monday, June 29, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. Unbeknownst to Broussard on the day of the meeting, Davis had been “briefed” on the matter 2-1/2 hours before as evidenced by the email from DeBosier to Davis sent at 11:02 a.m. that same day.
The above video was taped on July 10, 2025. Near the end of the video, Burns and Broussard allude to the vacancy on the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) as a result of Jared Caruso-Riecke’s May 23, 2015 resignation from the LSPC.
Broussard openly states that he has seen the three (3) nominations made by Dillard University President Monique Guillory which she submitted on June 20, 2025. Broussard even stated his glee that Clyde Construction’s CEO Jonathan Kernion would be the one Gov. Landry tapped to fill the Riecke vacancy. Operating under the belief that Gov. Landry still had ten (10) days left to make his selection, however, Burns cautioned him not to get out in front of Gov. Landry.
What Burns did not know at the time of that filming is that Gov. Landry had already made his selection of Kernion on June 21, 2025, one day after Guillory submitted his name for consideration.
Kernion should be sworn in on Thursday, August 14, 2025; however, Burns will not be present for the swearing in because he has an ophthalmology appointment in Houston that morning.
Regarding the LSPC, however, a significant number of both troopers and retired troopers have stated to us that LSPC Chairman Monty Montelongo needs to “resign immediately” as a result of his role in the Major Donavan Archote meal gate scandal. It was Montelongo who approved all of the meal purchases, and sources guided us to Page 23 of the Louisiana Division of Administration travel policy regarding “special meals.”
Anyone is welcome to click on the link and view the requirements for such “special meals,” but it only takes a minute to see that LSP was in very obvious violation of many of the provisions of that section of the policy, not the least of which is that they should have gotten Division of Administration prior approval for the purchase of the meals.
One source had this to say: “DPS does not have the authority to approve a purchase of this type with state issued funds so that memo is useless.”
The source was referencing the approval memos signed off by LTC Hasselback contained within the above-linked “meal gate scandal” feature.
For what it’s worth, we agree with the troopers’ calls for Montelongo’s immediate resignation, and we’ll see if Col. Hodges opts to call for his LSPC resignation similarly to the way former Col. Reeves called upon former LSPC Chairman T. J. Doss to resign immediately after the little “afternoon delight” rendezvous between then-Chairman Doss and then-Vice Chairman Monica Manzella.
Should Hodges fail to do so, to us, it can only mean one of two things: #1) he has no real desire to insist upon integrity of those under him, particularly to be the Chairman of the very Commission which passes judgment upon other troopers, or #2) Hodges’ own hands are tied because he is an integral part of the lack of integrity within LSP. That’s our assessment for what it’s worth.
