Category: Uncategorized

LSP Col. Lamar Davis (left), LSP attorney Tunde Animashaun (middle), and LSP attorney Gail Holland (right) appear at the Louisiana State Police Commission meeting of April 14, 2022 to try and sort out how they plan to handle the impending appeal of fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier.

Well, the soap opera that now is the handling of fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier regarding his Federal litigation and his potential appeal before the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) to attempt to reclaim his job took several twists and turns last week.

Let’s provide a brief history for those who may be unfamiliar with all that has gone on regarding Cavalier:

1.  On September 30, 2021, Cavalier filed this pro-se lawsuit against LSP after LSP Col. Lamar Davis terminated him over his authorship of a book (the link to purchase the book is no longer active) and conducting interviews with the media to provide his take on the Ronald Greene arrest which transpired on or around May 9, 2019.

2.  On November 10, 2021, LSP filed this notice of removal to have Cavalier’s lawsuit transferred from 19th JDC (State Court) to Federal Court (Middle District of Louisiana).

3.  On December 9, 2021, attorney Jill Craft filed this Motion to Enroll as Cavalier’s legal counsel.

4.  On December 30, 2021, LSP filed this Motion to Dismiss Cavalier’s lawsuit.

5.  The litigation dragged on during 2022 while Cavalier simultaneously sought a hearing before the LSPC to get his job back.  Craft fought vigorously for Cavalier to have his day before the LSPC.  To demonstrate just how vigorously she fought, let’s review a brief three-minute video clip of the April 14, 2022 and May 14, 2022 LSPC meetings during which Craft chastises LSP officials for stalling Cavalier on having that hearing and, in the process, costing him a ton of money:

4/14/22 & 5/14/22 LSPC Meetings during which Craft laments LSP officials’ stall tactics costing Cavalier a ton of money both in expense and foregone opportunities to engage in his long-haul trucking position.

6.  On July 12, 2022, LSP filed this Motion to Stay Discovery pending its 12/30/21 Motion to Dismiss the litigation.

7.  On August 17, 2022, Magistrate Judge Richard Bourgeois issued this Order Granting LSP’s Motion to Stay Discovery.

8.  On October 13, 2022 (the day of an LSPC meeting), Sound Off Louisiana provides WBRZ’s Chris Nakamoto with the following Federal Court documents via email:  parameters of a Settlement Conference having taken place on October 6, 2022; a Federal Court Order indicating the matter is settled as of October 6, 2022 pursuant to that Settlement Conference; and this October 7, 2022 General Order applicable to documents for all cases similar to Cavalier’s.

9.  Nakamoto wastes no time whatsoever in producing, later that same day, October 13, 2022, this bombshell feature wherein Nakamoto uncovered that LSP offered Cavalier $200,000 in the settlement.  Nakamoto also provided Cavalier’s typed quotation which he’d also provided to us indicating that he was not interested in settling and wanted his hearing to commence before the LSPC.

10.  Following up on Nakamoto’s feature, Sound Off Louisiana published this feature indicating that, as a result of “irreconcilable conflict,” attorney Jill Craft was filing this Motion to Withdraw as Cavalier’s attorney effective October 13, 2022.  We feel it noteworthy to point out that LSP Defense Counsel opposes Craft’s withdrawal on the basis that Craft’s continued involvement is necessary to fully consummate the settlement referenced above.  At the date of this publication (Sunday, October 23, 2022), the Motion remains pending before the Court.

Okay.  That brings everyone quickly up to speed.  Now let’s focus on what transpired last week (i.e. from October 17, 2022 through October 21, 2022):

A.  The week started with Craft filing, on Monday, October 17, 2022,  this Motion to Withdraw as Cavalier’s counsel with the LSPC.

B.  Craft’s action prompted LSP to file this Motion to Continue (Postpone) Cavalier’s Hearing and Voicing Objection to Craft’s Motion to Withdraw on October 19, 2022.  We note the fact that Cavalier strongly objected to LSP’s Motion for Continuance indicating that he’s been seeking his hearing for a protracted period (see video above) and that he had instructed the LSPC to, “leave that hearing up because I will represent myself if I have to.”  Nevertheless, the LSPC  removed the docketed hearing from its website.

C.  The LSPC, acting through Referee Lenore Feeney on October 20, 2022, Granted LSP’s Motion to Continue (postpone) Cavalier’s Hearing Without Date, which means Cavalier’s long-awaited hearing is delayed yet again without even a future date scheduled for it to be heard.  We note that Feeney struck through LSP’s Order for Craft’s Withdrawal Motion to be Denied and indicated to, “See order granting withdrawal.”

D.  Feeney also, on October 20, 2022, formally granted Craft’s Motion to Withdraw as Cavalier’s Counsel for the LSPC, leaving him unrepresented by legal counsel for LSPC-related matters.

Here is our take on the matter.  If Cavalier reached a settlement under the mistaken belief that settling the Federal litigation had no impact upon his ability to obtain his job back (i.e. agree never to work for LSP again), and we don’t know whether that’s the case or not and are not about to ask Cavalier if that is the case, then, in our minds, there never was a required “meeting of the minds” at the Settlement Conference for which the $200,000 can literally be crammed down his throat and him be told, “That’s it for you ever working for LSP again.”

As part of the Cathy Derbonne (former LSPC Executive Director) settlement, she had to execute a document which specified that she would never seek employment with the LSPC again.  If Cavalier reached agreement on the $200,000 settlement but didn’t understand that it also meant he could not continue to pursue employment with LSP, then our own opinion, for what that’s worth, is that he is on sound ground for the settlement to be rejected based on a lack of full and complete “meeting of the minds.”

That may explain why Craft is apparently so unhappy about recent developments and the state of the current matter.  After all, we have no doubt that she tapped upon and spent a ton of her sizeable political capital to get the $200,000 offer on the table.

According to paragraph four (4) of LSP’s Motion on Item-B above, a Federal Court hearing will transpire on Thursday, October 27, 2022, to iron out Craft’s Motion to Withdraw and the status of the whole settlement.  We feel certain that Court Hearing will be closed to the public; however, once we know more about its outcome, we commit to communicate that knowledge to our subscribers and casual site visitors.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis, whose alleged recent statements (together with one captured on video) about focusing his efforts on promoting African Americans and females over white males has, according to numerous sources who’ve communicated both verbally and via emails to Sound Off Louisiana, resulted in a “mass exodus” of male white troopers over the last 18 months, with many allegedly falling into the 3-15 year experience range which is allegedly historically “unprecedented.”

Editor’s Note:  We want to stress that NONE of the material we present on this feature or on subsequent follow-up features was derived from any white male trooper who may be disgruntled by any promotional or hiring decision of Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Lamar Davis.  ALL of the material and statements have been derived from sources we deem EXTREMELY reliable but who have no active direct involvement with LSP either now or at the time the disclosures were made to us.

On March 22, 2022, we received a very unnerving email regarding concerns about Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Lamar Davis placing a very heavy focus on promoting and hiring African American individuals and females to the detriment (and alleged near-non-consideration) of white males.  The individual sending the email purported to represent “many troopers,” and stated that Col. Davis made a disturbing statement to the Senate Committee on Oversight of Louisiana State Police being chaired by State Sen. Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge).

We responded that we recalled hearing Davis make the statement but that it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack for us to try and isolate it.  It turned out we didn’t have to worry about doing the heavy lifting in that regard.  In a very, very rare move, this individual sent us a video file of Davis making his statement that allegedly provoked the ire of plenty of white male troopers across Louisiana.  Let’s take a look at that seven-second video clip at this time:

LSP Col. Lamar Davis testifies before the Louisiana Senate Committee on LSP Oversight that the agency has been historically comprised of “white males, ” and further states that the agency has, “got to make change.”

We sincerely hoped that Col. Davis would realize the error of blatantly isolating any race and/or gender for discrimination as a result of his perceived need to, “make change.”

Our hopes were soon dashed, however, as what began as a trickle of outrage expressed to us by a few LSP Trooper representatives quickly started rising to a flood of correspondence to us voicing extreme disdain for Col. Davis’ statement above, along with alleged subsequent highly-inflammatory statements he made at the Shreveport LSP Convention in early June of 2022 and subsequent “toned down” commentary he made to Troop A (Baton Rouge).

While we are refraining from publishing Davis’ alleged statements at Troop A, we will state that, if he in fact made them (and, as will be demonstrated on the next video, if we had an audio file of them, we would most certainly publish it), they are inexcusable!

At any rate, outrage over Davis’ alleged statements has now reached such a fever pitch that we feel that, similarly to the LSP Training Academy cheating scandal, we could no longer sit by while trooper outrage continued to fester over Davis’ recent actions and words.

Accordingly, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns opted to prepare the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) on Thursday, October 13, 2022 that, just as he’d prepped them for impending Sound Off Louisiana features on that cheating scandal, he was likewise prepping them for Sound Off Louisiana features on many white male troopers’ concerns entailing the fixation of Col. Davis on hiring and promoting African American and female individuals to the detriment of white males.  Here’s Burns’ commentary to the Commission in that regard:

Burns addresses white male troopers’ concerns entailing Col. Davis’ fixation on African Americans and females for promotions and hiring to the perceived detriment of such white males.  [NOTE:  Burns referenced in the video above comments Col. Davis allegedly made at “Troop F,” however, he misspoke and the correct event and location of the statements was the LSP Convention in early June in Shreveport, Louisiana.]

While Burns was focused on videotaping the meeting, he received reports that Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon was texting to someone as Burns made his commentary and that Cammon soon left the room, presumably to place a phone call with speculation that any such call was to Davis and entailed Burns’ commentary.

The only thing we can state is that, upon the first break for Executive Session, Cammon immediately approached Burns and expressed his displeasure with the fact that we intend to publish Burns’ commentary without providing Col. Davis the chance to provide, “his side.”  We responded to Lt. Col. Cammon that, “just tell us when and where you want our camera, and we’ll provide Col. Davis with the opportunity to fully state ‘his side’ of this matter and provide the assurance that not one second of his statements will be edited out.”  Cammon responded, “I’m going to take you up on that, and I’m about to reach out to Capt. (Nick) Manale now.”

At a subsequent break, Cammon, perhaps finding out that Davis is not receptive to such an interview, stated, “It’s still my desire that Col. Davis provide his side, but it’s ultimately up to the Colonel.  I’ve let Captain Manale know my position, and I’ve let you know my position.”

Burns acknowledged Cammon’s statement of his position and that the offer for Davis to appear on camera will continue to stand.  We also emphasized the fact that, though we feel we likely won’t obtain the documents due to an invoking of “right to privacy” once again, we are seeking the Exit Interviews of every single trooper having resigned or retired since Col. Davis took over as Colonel.

Cammon responded that, as a non-lawyer, he would be unable to state whether we’ll get the documents or not but stressed that, “I’ve looked over many of those exit interviews, and if you think you’re going to find one wherein a resigning trooper says, ‘Well, I got pissed off with the Colonel today, so I’m resigning,’ you’re just not going to find that.”

We then asked Cammon if he was willing to concede the fact that there has been a “mass exodus” of Troopers leaving LSP over the last 18 months, and he did in fact acknowledge that fact but quickly added, “You have to realize people resign for any number of reasons and sometimes the reason they’re saying to you that they’re resigning is not the real reason they’re leaving.”

We feel it’s important to document the fact that Davis has been afforded that interview opportunity, so we sent Captain Manale this email (copied to Lt. Col. Cammon) making it crystal clear that we’d be more than happy to accommodate Col. Davis regarding stating “his side” if he is so inclined.  The email speaks for itself, and we also made the request for the Exit Interviews.  Mere hours before we published this feature, Capt. Manale responded, and here’s his response:

—–Original Message—–
From: Nick Manale <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2022 3:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Karen Roberts <[email protected]>; Denae Bering <[email protected]>; Melissa Matey <[email protected]>; Chavez Cammon <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Public Records Requests: Exit Interviews Upon Resignations/Retirements During the Davis Regime……Opportunity for Camera Time Should Col. Davis So Desire

 

Received,

We will begin working with our Human Resources staff to determine how many files are responsive during that time period and the necessary redactions of personal information.

 

Thanks

We’ll only draw attention to the fact that there is no response whatsoever to our continued invitation to Davis to be interviewed on the subject matter Burns addressed.

Now, regarding the tables Burns references that will be created in the above video, we’ve gone ahead and created the tables (one for promotions and one for retirements/resignations) so that everyone can see what the tables will look like once we’ve entered all of the material.  Admittedly, that is going to take some time to accomplish, particularly for the resignations/retirements, and the reason for that is that there has in fact been an absolute mass exodus of troopers from LSP within the last 18 months.  Here are the tables with one initial entry in each (the promotion entails Trooper Julia Amanda Willis for a Sergeant position in Troop D):

If Col. Davis will grant the interview, we’ve committed that we won’t edit out one second of what he has to say, but we can also forewarn him that we have some very, very harsh commentary which has been supplied to us, and we most definitely will ask him for his thoughts on that commentary.

Just hang on folks because we’ll again quote Retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet in saying, “Things are likely to get very interesting!”  That’s especially the case given that one of our most reliable sources on LSP matters (who is not Leon “Bucky” Millet) has told us that Davis is, “offended and furious at the disrespect for what he is doing.”

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Whistleblower Carl Cavalier was informed by his attorney, Jill Craft, that she has withdrawn as his attorney effective Thursday, October 13, 2022.

Plenty of action took place behind the scenes yesterday at Sound Off Louisiana entailing former LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier, whom LSP Col. Lamar Davis fired over Cavalier’s various interviews with media outlets as part of the fallout from the Ronald Greene arrest and Cavalier’s authoring of a book entailing law enforcement and racial tensions thereof.

For now, however, we’ll just say that we obtained several court documents early yesterday morning pertaining to a Cavalier settlement once we knew such a settlement must have been reached since Cavalier did not appear on yesterday’s LSPC agenda.

We knew the most expedient way to get that matter out to the public was to merely provide those court documents to WBRZ (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge)’s Chris Nakamoto, who expressed sincere thanks and wasted no time whatsoever in quickly producing arguably one of his biggest bombshell features yet on Cavalier.

In fact, Nakamoto was able to ascertain the fact that LSP had offered Cavalier $200,000 to essentially just go away and shut up.  We were aware that Nakamoto would also be breaking the fact that Cavalier had formally rejected the offer and is insisting that he, “wants his day before the Louisiana State Police Commission….”

We have contended all along that his hearing will be the, “Super Bowl of LSP appeal hearings.”  Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns spoke with Cavalier at length yesterday leading up to Nakamoto breaking his feature, and Cavalier stated flatly:  “Mr. Burns, put that Super Bowl hearing back on your football schedule!”

Cavalier then indicated that he’d already notified the LSPC that he wanted his hearing set for November, and sure enough, they have done exactly as he instructed them to do as it’s scheduled for November 10, 2022.

Meanwhile, his attorney, Jill Craft, was not exactly real thrilled with Cavalier’s flat-out rejection of LSP’s settlement offer.  Accordingly, earlier today (Friday, October 14, 2022), she filed this Motion in Federal Court seeking to formally withdraw as Cavalier’s counsel.  Let’s take a look at some quick highlights from Craft’s motion:

Counsel communicated to plaintiff their desire to withdraw as Trial Attorney and counsel of record for the Plaintiffs in this matter as of October 13, 2022, based upon an irreconcilable conflict between counsel and the plaintiff.

Counsel contacted counsel for the defense who has objection to the request to withdraw asserting she believes the presence of counsel may be necessary in order to conclude this matter in accordance with the parties’ settlement.

No party will be prejudiced. This matter was conditionally dismissed pursuant to an Order of Conditional Dismissal entered October 7, 2022, following a Settlement Conference with the Magistrate-Judge. Plaintiff has been advised regarding obtaining replacement counsel.

There’s clearly  no need to state the obvious, but we’ll remain vigilant in staying abreast of this matter, and, as LSP Retired Lieutenant Leon “Bucky” Millet is fond of saying, “It should get very interesting.”

ADDENDUM (7:15 p.m.):  No sooner had we hit the “publish” button on this feature but did Nakamoto provide us with this damning feature on LSP Trooper Robert Burns (NO RELATION to Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns).

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.