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Kendra Bazile, along with family friend “Junior,” engage in the first of a four-part series entailing the single-car crash that claimed the life of her son, Jordan Whitley, on January 26, 2024 and the potential for shortcomings on the parts of first responders who responded to and/or investigated the response since the time of the crash.

Editor’s Note:  Shortly after we published this feature, Ms. Bazile contacted us and asked if we would mind posting the following excerpt to provide better clarity regarding the speed of her son’s vehicle just before the crash, and we told her we’d be more than happy to.  Here it is:

As everyone is aware, EBRP EMS has been a hot topic on this blog for several months now.

Let us begin this feature by saying that we know that first responders (EMS, law enforcement, and firefighters) face a difficult and challenging situation every time they respond to an incident.  Our purpose in publishing a four-part, in-depth deep dive about the single-car accident claiming the life of Jordan Whitley on January 26, 2024 is not to denigrate the hard work these first responders provide to all of us every day as they put on their uniforms, risk their lives, and go to work making our lives safer.

In fact, Whitley’s mother, Kendra Bazile, who was prominently featured on this absolutely superb investigative feature by WBRZ (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge)’s Bess Casserleign on September 3, 2024, fully acknowledges that her son was driving at a very high rate of speed (reported to be 113 MPH two seconds before impact with a tree, and 87 MPH upon impact with that tree, but we refer readers to the incident report excerpt above for more details on the vehicle’s speed) on Nicholson Drive and the fact that his blood alcohol content (BAC) was above (though just barely at 0.089 BAC) Louisiana’s BHC cutoff for drunk driving, which is 0.08 BAC.

The circumstances preceding Whitley’s crash notwithstanding, Bazile has been on a mission to ascertain what the responses were on the parts of EBRP’s EMS folk, the BR Fire Department, the EBRP Sheriff’s Office, and Louisiana State Police (LSP).

With this four-part, in-depth series with Bazile and family friend, “Junior,” we hope to place a spotlight on many of the findings of Bazile’s extensive research, her frustrations thereof, and us having a goal of ensuring that, if in fact shortcomings did transpire entailing the response surrounding Whitley’s death, that valuable lessons are learned from the episode in order that any such potential shortcomings aren’t repeated for anyone else in the future irrespective of what prompted the need for first responders to be called out to handle a similar wreck.

Before we present Segment One of this fascinating four-part series, let us include a quote that Bazile informed us that she wants included in this first feature that she inadvertently forgot to mention.  Here’s her quote:

In 2024, I reached out to the Mayor’s office several times asking for help in finding answers to my questions/concerns, with no success. I also reached out to the members of the Metropolitan Council, with little to no response from the majority of them. I’ve contacted other local representatives as well with no success.

So, let us now present Installment One of this Four-Part Series which briefly introduces Bazile and Junior to our viewing audience and fully integrates Casserleigh’s phenomenal investigative report into the feature:

10/17/25:  Bazile and Junior introduce themselves briefly and Bazile states her goals in continuing to pursue answers entailing the accident that claimed her son’s life on January 26, 2024.

Stay tuned, folks!  There are three (3) more episodes to come, and we know you’ll be fascinated by many revelations that Bazile and Junior make in those features.

EBRP EMS Association President Janice Willard (right) and Vice President Allison Sharp (left).

Our site visitors will recall our August 7, 2025 feature entailing EMS Reform’s Walter Beach and his opposition to EBRP Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ proposal to merge EBRP EMS with the BR Fire Department.  Beach also appeared on September 20, 2025 for a follow-up feature.

Next up, on October 3, 2025 was Baton Rouge Firefighter Union (Local 557) President Jacob Morgan, who rebuffed many of the key points made by Beach.

Yesterday (Wednesday, October 15, 2025) we were delighted to host EBR EMS Association President Janice Willard and Vice President Allison Sharp, with both of them, in the first segment of a minimum three-segment series, expressing the viewpoints of the “majority” of EMS staffers about the proposed merger and also countering points made by both Beach and Morgan:

10/15/25:  Willard & Sharp provide their takes on Mayor-President Sid Edwards’ proposal for the Baton Rouge Fire Department to “take over” EBRP EMS and rebuff points made by BR Firefighter Union President Jacob “Jake” Morgan and by EMS Reform’s Walter Beach.

We did take a few moments today to glance over the 19th JDC litigation filed by the EMS Association seeking a Declaratory Judgment and an Injunction blocking the combining of the two agencies.   For anyone else who may wish to do so, the Suit # is:  767140.

What has essentially transpired so far is the granting of a Temporary Restraining Order blocking the combination, followed by a Court Order dissolving the Temporary Restraining Order.  If there is no delay, the matter is presently slated to be litigated on March 25, 2026 and March 26, 2026 in the courtroom of 19th JDC Judge Ron Johnson (not to be confused on that date with his twin brother, Don Johnson).

We want to thank both Ms. Willard and Ms. Sharp for their willingness to appear on Sound Off Louisiana for this first installment, and we know all of our site visitors will have keen interest in the second installment of these two young ladies expressing their sentiments, which we’ll be airing in the next few days!

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (photo courtesy of The Advocate).

Today (Tuesday, October 14, 2025) was the monthly gathering of the Ronald Regan Newsmaker Luncheon, and we opted to attend because the scheduled speakers included attorney Paul Hurd, who will argue before the U. S. Supreme Court tomorrow entailing Louisiana’s redrawn Congressional District.

Plaintiffs, led by Phillip Callais, contend the map that Gov. Landry strong-armed through the Louisiana Legislature which placed Congressman Cleo Fields in office, is racially gerrymandered.  Most pollical pundits (and that certainly includes us) contend that Landry agreed to cram that map through in exchange for Fields’ agreement to help ensure black voter turnout in the 2023 gubernatorial election was muted and that, behind the scenes, Fields even quietly backed Landry’s election as Governor.

Beyond Hurd, another speaker was former Grant Parish DA Ed Tarpley, whom host and coordinator (and former Louisiana State Rep.) Woody Jenkins informed the audience of 30 or so attendees represented “media interests” in Washington.  Tarpley didn’t mince his words one iota concerning his thoughts about Gov. Landry and AG Liz Murrill and their “disgraceful” acts (and seeming flip flop) on the whole Fields map issue:

Tarpley references the “disgraceful” acts of Gov. Landry and AG Liz Murrill entailing the enactment and subsequent failure to challenge the map which culminated in the election of U. S. Congressman Cleo Fields.

Now, we have a strong suspicion that Gov. Landry, who is, like the two above-referenced attorneys, in Washington gearing up for the Supreme Court oral arguments scheduled for tomorrow, had one of his on-staff attorneys, Brett Robinson, lingering around just in case things got a tad too much to the displeasure of his boss (Landry).  Bear in mind that the sponsor of the luncheons, Jenkins, live streams all luncheons.  Thus, both Gov. Landry and Robinson would be able to easily monitor events with Robinson perhaps being in close proximity to jump into action if needed.

Whatever the case, Robinson entered the room at 12:37 p.m. (36 minutes after the event kicked off) and alerted Jenkins that Gov. Landry wanted to be heard.  Let us present the entirety of Gov. Landry and the bantering that took place between him, Jenkins, and the attorneys:

Gov. Landry defends the attacks against him and states that the people of Louisiana need to respect, “the hard work Liz Murrill and I have been doing while I was the Attorney General.”

Undeterred by Landry’s defense of his actions, Tarpley followed up after Landry stated that he had to go, and he characterized Landry as “disingenuous” for trying to now line up with the Plaintiffs in the litigation after all of Landry’s past actions, which Tarpley described as “ridiculous.”:

Tarpley rebuffs Landry’s efforts to try to “claim credit” if the Plaintiffs prevail in the case pending before the U. S. Supreme Court

Notice on the video above that Tarpley indicates that Legislators were under “enormous pressure” to vote in favor of Landry’s map.  Obviously, one such Legislator would be State Sen. Blake Miguez, whom we have already endorsed for U. S. Senate in 2026.

Perhaps as a result of our public endorsement of Miguez, on August 29 at 4:29 p.m. Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns received a text paid for by Shane Tubre with listed address of 21828 Turkey Creek Drive, Baton Rouge LA  70817.  The text lambasted Miguez on several fronts, but most notably for purposes of this feature was his support of Gov. Landry’s efforts entailing Fields:

We may be wrong, but it sure looks like Congressman Fields and Gov. Landry will be the subject of a bunch of campaigns in the near future and, among Republicans, it sure looks to us like Landry’s antics have rapidly caught up with him.

That concludes the “core” portion of our feature; however, here are other clips from today’s luncheon:

Lead Plaintiff Phillip Callais thanks attorney Paul Hurd for filing the litigation after he indicates that State Rep. C. Denise Marcell told Callais, ‘We want to elect people who look like us.”

St. George Councilman Richie Edmonds asks what happens if the Plaintiffs prevail in the litigation.

Susie Labry asks how many seats across the US this case may impact.

Near the outset of the meeting, host Woody Jenkins does a superb job of succinctly outlining the briefs filed in the case.

Hurd provides his initial presentation and fields a question from Jenkins entailing the case.

CLICK HERE for the presentation in its entirety.

We’ll see how all this plays out, but there is obviously enormous interest in tomorrow’s U. S. Supreme Court hearing on this case.