Even as President Biden prepares to place spotlight on LSP and Ronald Greene’s death in State of Union Address, LSP Col. Lamar Davis punishes Master Trooper Daniel Fontenot for turning ON his body camera!

On October 22, 2022, attorney Michael Antoon, representing Troop D Master Trooper Daniel Fontenot, prepared to voice his objection to members of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) for their failure to summarily dismiss LSP Col. Lamar Davis’ discipline of Fontenot for turning ON his body camera.

By now, anyone not living in a cave with no modern communications is aware that Ronald Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, is an invited guest for President Biden’s State of the Union Address tomorrow (Tuesday, February 7, 2023) evening, and she will be recognized during his address.

Obviously, the spotlight will be placed on Louisiana and the fact that Louisiana State Police (LSP) Troopers acted in a totally irresponsible manner entailing Greene’s death.

What many Louisiana residents and others across the nation may not be aware of, however, is that, even as President Biden places the national spotlight upon Louisiana entailing Greene’s death, LSP Col. Lamar Davis has punished a 20+ year veteran trooper, Daniel Fontenot, for turning ON his body camera!

What we printed above is not a misprint on our part!  So, here we have a disgraced LSP Colonel (Lamar Davis), who shows absolute reckless disregard for public safety in going 92 MPH over a dangerous portion of Louisiana’s Interstate system for which the speed limit is 60 MPH and is notorious for deaths resulting from motorists speeding and, upon him being caught, made matters much, much worse by stating, “Once a trooper has assessed a situation as non-combative, he has the prerogative to turn his body camera off.”

That too is NOT a misprint and, as is obvious by the previous link, it absolutely infuriated us when Davis made that quote!  Any decent Governor should have demanded that Davis make an immediate apology AND, more importantly, retraction for uttering such an absolutely asinine statement!

One former LSP Trooper stated point-blank to us regarding Davis’ quote entailing the body cameras:  “What he was really saying is that, ‘when it’s me, it’s fine to turn your body camera off.'”  The problem in Davis making such an utterly asinine statement is that he has provided a green light for any trooper under his command to blatantly violate LSP’s body-cam policy and merely state, “Col. Davis said that I could!”

We also want to reiterate that we firmly believe that AP reports that Davis went to DA Belton’s Office and lobbied Belton NOT to pursue criminal charges against any LSP Troopers involved in Greene’s death are 100 percent, T-totally accurate!  One person knows for sure, however, and that would be DA Belton.  If Davis engaged in that act (and we believe that he most certainly did), Belton can certainly provide that information to the Feds, no?  It should get interesting to see if Belton does in fact reveal to the Feds any initiative Davis made in that regard because, as we just stated, we firmly believe that he did!  Furthermore, wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony that Belton ignored Davis’ pleas and proceeded forward with criminal charges anyway?

We cannot overemphasize the fact that we have FULL faith and confidence in the Associated Press article contained in the just linked-feature above and its emphatic declaration that Davis did engage in that action of lobbying Belton against filing criminal charges notwithstanding Davis’ public denial of same on camera when Sound Off Louisiana‘s Burns asked Davis point-blank if he had done so, and he indicated, as clearly shown on the video of the above link, that the AP reports are “inaccurate.”

As if all of this isn’t bad enough, we now have the fact that Davis, whom we believe just may be the most incompetent LSP Colonel to ever hold that position, has now disciplined Troop D Master Trooper Daniel Fontenot for turning his body camera ON!!!!  That action by Davis just may constitute one of the most outrageous acts of which we are aware (with the notable exception of former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves’ obvious cover-up actions regarding Ronald Greene’s death, but Davis appears determined to continue Reeves’ initial cover-up actions with as much, if not more, vigor than Reeves did) being done by any LSP Colonel since body cameras came into existence.  From the above-linked documentation:

Please allow this letter to serve as a notice of appeal on behalf of MT Daniel Fontenot as provided for in Commission Rule 13 2. MT Fontenot appeals and complains of the decision of the Department which was made on December 28, 2021 to impose discipline, to-wit:  a twenty-four (24) hour suspension, in the above captioned IA case number.   The subject of the investigation and basis for the decision to discipline MT Fontenot arose from him recoding a conversation that he had with TPR Summer Robertson using his body worn camera (BWC).

MT Fontenot found out that other troopers felt that Tpr. Robertson was ducking crashes, a perception that is corroborated by SIT Anthony Efthemes. Even though MT Fontenot had authority under the LSP Commission Code as a Master Trooper to exercise functional supervision over Tpr. Robertson and to address the issues with her, MT Fontenot took care to ask his supervisor, Sgt. Willis, to intervene.  MT Fontenot recalls that Sgt. Willis communicated that he was not allowed to address the issue with Tpr. Robertson.

The Department incorrectly found that MT Fontenot violated PO 901, Section 4 – Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer. As explained above, Lt. Odom did give an “order” to Sgt. Willis, a supervisor, to not intervene and MT Fontenot was reasonable and correct to interpret it as an order.  Even if he did misinterpret the context, this is not conduct unbecoming. Further,  MT Fontenot was concerned that Tpr. Robertson would have her pride hurt when he counseled her and that she might retaliate by levying false allegations against him. He took prudent steps to document the conversation to protect himself and the department. He correctly determined that policy allowed him to utilize his BWC under these circumstances. She ultimately proved his concerns to be legitimate when she later filed EEOC complaints to retaliate against fellow troopers for holding her accountable for deficient performance on other matters. Regardless, conscientiously evaluating policy and developing a reasonable interpretation that his actions were allowed and appropriate under the circumstances is not conduct unbecoming of an officer but rather the prudent actions of a conscientious officer.

On October 22, 2022, Master Trooper Fontenot, acting through his Lake Charles attorney, Michael Antoon, filed a Motion for the LSPC to summarily dismiss the entire matter.  To us, that would seem nothing more than common sense given the absolute absurdity of this discipline being handed down by what has now become apparent as a full-blown incompetent LSP Colonel in Lamar Davis!  Here is the full video of Antoon making Fontenot’s request of the LSPC on October 22, 2022:

October 22, 2022:  Antoon pleads his case with the LSPC for the matter of LSP v. Daniel Fontenot to be summarily dismissed with a finding in favor of Fontenot without the need for a formal hearing.

One of the reasons this blog is video in nature is because we have extreme difficulty believing people would believe some of the absolute absurdities of some of the LSP matters upon which we report were it not for the fact we supply the proof through public records requests (which are becoming more and more difficult to obtain under this administration), or videos.  The above video is a perfect example of what we mean.  The LSPC meeting was about to move on to the next item on the agenda, but Antoon sought an opportunity to make one final concluding remark about the LSPC’s decision.  Let’s take a look:

October 22, 2022:  Antoon makes formal objection to the ruling by the LSPC entailing Master Trooper Daniel Fontenot.

Now, on October 24, 2022, we made formal public records request for the actual body camera of Fontenot.  One-hundred (100) days later, we received this response from LSP Attorney Gail Holland dated February 1, 2023.  Our request is “denied,” which is understandable given that Fontenot is appealing Col. Davis’ decision.  What’s baffling, however, is that, given that the appeal has been outstanding for well over a year now, why did it take LSP 100 days to issue a simple denial letter?

Now, there is far, far more to this story than what meets the eye!  What do we mean?  Well, as everyone should recall, we published this feature on October 27, 2022 expressing concerns of white male LSP Troopers that Davis is essentially prioritizing race and gender in making promotional decisions to the near-exclusion of white males.  We began a table which we’ve been gradually working on concerning all of the promotions under Davis’ watch, and we’ll produce that table at this time to show its current progress:

Of the promotions listed above (and we still have many more to place in the table as this is a gradual and painstaking process), by FAR, and we do mean BY FAR, the one that garnered the most criticism of Davis was newly-appointed Sergeant Julia Amanda Willis.  We were told of past arrest(s) of Willis and even told what some of those arrests entailed and the fact that LSP top brass knew full well about those prior arrest(s) and promoted her anyway!

Because Sgt. Willis has resided in multiple locations throughout the state, our task to try and substantiate what we were being told was made more difficult.  Nevertheless, we contacted the Grant Parish Clerk of Court (they have no online capability!), and officials there confirmed an arrest but provided few other details aside from the fact the District Attorney permitted her to enroll in the Pre-trial diversion program.  So, we followed the instruction’s on the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office’s website wherein the webpage says “click here for public records requests.”  That link, in turn, USED to take one to a page which has now been removed and instead (test it for yourself!) takes one back to the Sheriff’s homepage.  They’ve got some real computer gurus working at the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office, no?

Trust us, the Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office, in sharp contrast to the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office (we’ve repeatedly praised their efforts in bending over backwards to accommodate public records requests), clearly DOES NOT want the public making public records request.  The page for doing so (which now appears to be gone), instructed us that it was mandatory that we had to mail in the request and provided far more specificity to make life difficult.  Nevertheless, we complied with their absurd criteria for making the request.  What did we get back?  We got back this tersely-worded three-page letter from the Metairie law firm of Blue Williams dated October 27, 2022 letting us, in essence, know that they would fight tooth and nail the release of any such records!

So, that’s where we are in terms of LSP and the level of recklessness which is now so pandemic under the “leadership” of Col. Lamar Davis.

Regarding the subject matter of body cameras and law enforcement, the experts with whom we have consulted have stated:  “That body camera should remain active anytime the trooper is interacting with the public to commence upon him (her) exiting the unit until the point at which he (she) has returned to the unit and is leaving the scene.”  Doesn’t that about expressly sum it up?  Too bad we have an LSP Colonel who would give instructions to the contrary and that we’re also stuck with both an LSPC and Governor unwilling to call Davis on the carpet for making such an asinine proclamation and demand a retraction!

Obviously, the public has a healthy distrust of law enforcement, and the body camera is designed both to allay public concerns about police engaging in inappropriate conduct AND to serve to protect the trooper.  Not only is it appropriate for the public to have a healthy distrust of law enforcement, but we believe it is also fully appropriate for a law enforcement official who is also distrustful of his or her work environment to safeguard himself (herself) and LSP (and by virtue thereof, Louisiana taxpayers), and it is truly unfortunate to have an LSP Colonel who is so incompetent that he fails to recognize what, to us at least, ought to be common sense, and further, that we have a useless LSPC comprised of political hacks who equally cannot see the logic why this matter should have been summarily dismissed as being absurd on its face!

Interestingly enough, the next matter on the agenda was the complaint lodged with the LSPC by former prominent attorney Ashton O’Dwyer, which had been heard on June 9, 2022.  Let’s take a look at just how easy it was for the LSPC to summarily dismiss that sucker, shall we?

October 22, 2022:  LSPC has little difficulty summarily dismissing charges lodged by Ashton O’Dwyer which focus on alleged perjury committed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as LSP investigated allegations made by O’Dwyer that he was brutally beaten by LSP Troopers from Troop F soon after the storm devastated New Orleans residents where O’Dwyer resided at the time (he now resides in Houston).

So, let’s sit back and see just what all President Biden has to say tomorrow night about Louisiana LSP operations, Ronald Greene’s death, and Police Reform in general, which is supposed to the focus of Federal Legislation filed to assist in preventing some of the travesties we’ve seen aired as being so widespread when we turn on our nightly news broadcasts.

We could provide plenty of material for Biden to incorporate into his speech where it concerns LSP, but that would likely cause his speech to extend into the wee hours of the following day!

We also commit to cover Fontenot’s appeal before the LSPC, at which time we expect the body cam footage to be played before the members of the Commission, and we’ll capture that footage with our own camera as part of our follow-up to this feature.

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