Photo of a “purple truck” which Louisiana State Police (LSP) Trooper Scott Lopez represented to the St. Martin Parish Council’s Planning and Zoning Commissioners on January 6, 2022 had been observed dumping vegetative materials on farmer Billy Broussard’s 33-acre property located on Duchamp Road in Broussard, Louisiana.
We’ve already indicated that LSP Trooper Scott Lopez gave quite the performance before the St. Martin Parish Planning and Zoning Commission on January 6, 2022. One aspect of Lopez’s presentation drew particular attention on the part of SMPG’s legal counsel, Allan “Sprinky” Durand. That aspect that drew laser-like focus from Durand was Lopez representing that Broussard had been, “permitting other companies and people to dump on his property illegally.”
Let’s take (literally) just one minute to watch Lopez make those statements, for Durand to ask him to back them up, and Lopez doing so via a picture of a “purple truck.”
1/6/22: LSP Trooper Scott Lopez makes his statements about Broussard, Durand asks Lopez to back up his claim, and Lopez does so by referencing a picture of a “purple truck” dumping on Broussard’s property.
Beyond that, SMPG appears to have relied exclusively upon the representations of Lopez to substantiate its allegations that Broussard is bailing hay for sale and doing the same with cattle. Here’s a nine-second video clip of Lopez making that accusation of Broussard, which Broussard claims is flatly false:
1/6/22: Nine-second video clip wherein Lopez makes the claim that Broussard is bailing hay for sale and raising cattle for “sale and/or slaughter.”
Regarding the hauling of the vegetative materials, Broussard has contended all along that the only person besides himself who has ever been permitted to dump on his property is 16th JDC Judge Anthony Thibodeaux. Broussard’s attorney, Heather Duhon-Moore, called Thibodeaux as her first witness (he was taken out of order to facilitate him returning to his own courtroom) at the Preliminary Injunction hearing on Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
Thibodeaux testified that he was “desperate” to find a place to offload his own vegetative materials for his company, Anthony’s Tree Service and Stump Removal. He further testified that he began by merely hauling “just mulch” to Broussard’s property but added that he later delivered tree limbs and the like similarly to what Broussard himself was hauling to the property.
Thibodeaux testified that he had hauled vegetative materials to Broussard’s property “approximately 30 times” beginning about “a year and a half ago” and that he stopped “about a year ago” only because he was hearing that St. Martin Parish may have issues with Broussard’s site.
Thibodeaux also testified that Broussard’s willingness to allow him to haul vegetative materials from his tree service company to the 33-acre site was immensely helpful for him and that he hoped one day that availability may be restored. He testified that Broussard had never received “any compensation whatsoever” for permitting him to haul his vegetative materials to Broussard’s property. When asked why Broussard would permit such activity by Thibodeaux for no compensation whatsoever, Thibodeaux responded (to the laughter of much of the courtroom), “Well, I guess it’s because he just likes me.”
When asked what Thibodeaux did once he opted to no longer access Broussard’s property, he indicated that he began taking the vegetative materials to Possum’s Tree Service’s site to dispose of his vegetative materials. We should point out now that it is Possum’s Tree Service (though declining to name either the company or the owner) that SMPG Parish President Chester Cedars said has been “all for this ordinance, by the way.” Let’s take a look:
8/3/21 SMPG Meeting: Chester Cedars openly touts an unnamed tree service company (Possum’s) is “all for this ordinance, by the way.”
Starting to look just a tad suspicious (or maybe even devious)? Well, to use some bad grammar, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”
When SMPG made its bold claims in the C & D letter issued on June 20, 2021 and up to the point of suing Broussard for alleged charging for others to dump (apparently based solely and exclusively on representations made by Lopez), they had no clue that the individual hauling in vegetative materials was Judge Thibodeaux, much less that Thibodeaux was not paying a dime to do so.
When Cedars found out that it was Thibodeaux, he contacted Broussard enraged and scolded him for not having the “common courtesy” to let Cedars know it was Thibodeaux. Broussard indicates that he responded, “I want to make sure I’ve got this straight. You issue me a C & D letter. Then you file a restraining order shutting down all of my farming activities, and you somehow believe that I owe some ‘common courtesy’ to you?”
It was at that point that SMPG, Lopez, and Dubroc became utterly desperate to come up with somebody (ANYBODY) whom they could assert had hauled in vegetative materials and who paid Broussard. After all, as Duhon-Moore pointed out upon SMPG attorney Lee Durio objecting to Moore even asking if Thibodeaux paid to haul in his vegetative materials, “Your honor. They make the claim in their filings that my client charged people to haul in vegetative materials.” Judge deMahy overruled the objection.
It was the fact that SMPG had been so emphatic in its pleadings regarding Broussard that he had engaged in commercial activity by charging people to haul in vegetative debris that caused Cedars, Lopez, and Dubroc to desperately need to come up with something to substantiate that allegation, and that’s how the infamous “purple truck” came into play.
We want to emphasize that, contrary to our prior assumptions that Cedars never told Lopez about the agreement of September 14, 2021 enabling Broussard to continue operations, Cedars’ testimony made it crystal clear that he and Lopez were quite literally joined at the hips in going after Broussard.
In referencing the purple truck at that January 6, 2022 meeting (one which Cedars missed and testified at the May 3, 2022 Preliminary Injunction hearing that he was undergoing and recovering from hip surgery at the time), Lopez, Cedars, and Dubroc (the neighbor owning the used car lot and who is responsible for supplying photos to Lopez, who, in turn, supplied them to SMPG) all collectively gambled that Broussard would never be able to uncover the owner of that purple truck.
Their gamble came up snake eyes as Broussard has an associate who tracked down the owner of the purple truck. His name is Arthur Trahan and, in the following recorded phone call between Broussard and Trahan of Monday, May 2, 2022 (the evening before the Preliminary Injunction hearing), everyone can hear Trahan reveal several facts, to wit:
1) He’s never gone on Billy Broussard’s property,
2) He almost never hauls vegetative materials but mainly hauls materials for construction,
3) That he has made deliveries to Billy’s Laotian neighbors,
4) That he knows LSP Trooper Scott Lopez “real well,”
5) That he also is related to Lopez’s one-time (perhaps still current?) supervisor, John Trahan,
6) That Lopez’s neighbors have blocked off Duchamp Road and told him, “Cuz, you can’t pass,”
7) That he responded to Duchamp Road being blocked off with, “You better unblock this road. They got people on this road trying to haul materials.”
Here’s that recorded phone call for everyone’s listening pleasure!
5/2/22 recorded phone call between Broussard and the owner of the infamous “purple truck,” Arthur Trahan.
Regarding the reference to the Laotian neighbors of Broussard above, we’re not surprised that their surrounding neighbors apparently didn’t want them receiving their materials. After all, as we’ve already pointed out, Dubroc’s family (who are direct neighbors to the Laotians) don’t even want the Laotians themselves being able to get to their property. We’ll repeat video evidence of that once again at this time:
Video file of a threatening action allegedly sent by a relative of Dubroc to one of the Laotian neighbors soon after they legally drove down a servitude to go to property they own.
There was yet another text allegedly sent soon thereafter. On it, a very young man is heard bragging about having, “chased after them with a hammer.” Let’s take a look at the video from that text, shall we?:
Another video file sent to the Laotian neighbors wherein one young man brags of having, “chased after them with a hammer in my hand.”
We believe that the conspiracy of just what all has transpired to target Broussard with false allegations is becoming increasingly clear, but we certainly have far more material to present in our next Broussard/Lopez update.
For now, however, we have to get geared up for our May 23, 2022 court hearing on our Writ of Mandamus entailing LSP Trooper Lopez. We welcome all of our subscribers and casual visitors (particularly the attorneys) to view the Opposition Memorandum to our Writ if anyone is so inclined.
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