Former Dillard University President Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough.
Our December 22, 2024, feature on the filling of the expired term of Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) Member Jared Riecke’s seat is surpassing even our wildest expectations of hits.
Obviously, because of extensive controversies surrounding Riecke, a ton of folk, particularly from St. Tammany Parish, have keen interest in just how the whole scenario plays out.
As we have previously pointed out, the first step is for Dillard University President, Dr. Monique Guillory, to submit up to three (3) names to fulfill Riecke’s term, which expired on December 5, 2024. The deadline for her to do so is Saturday, January 4, 2025.
We decided it would be interesting to view the prior correspondence from Dillard entailing Riecke’s appointment to his first full term, which became effective on December 5, 2018.
That correspondence, which was provided to us by the LSPC on Friday, December 27, 2024, is comprised of a January 2, 2019, letter to then-Gov. John Bel Edwards and extensive email correspondence between Kimbrough and LSPC Executive Director Jason Hannaman.
In the correspondence, then-Dillard University President Dr. Walter Kimbrough, who is now serving as Interim President of Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama (and has served in that capacity since June 24, 2024), expresses extreme frustration to both Edwards and Hannaman at the very notion that Dillard should even be responsible for submitting nominees.
From Kimbrough’s letter to Edwards and/or email correspondence to Hannaman:
2 January 2019
Dear Governor Edwards:
On behalf of Dillard University… I submit the following nominee to fill the expiring term on the State Police Commission representing the First Congressional District:
Mr. Jared J. “Jay” Caruso-Riecke
17940 Painters Row
Covington, LA 70435
(985) 892-1545With Dillard being in the 2nd District, the task was very difficult to get qualified nominees. In fact, it created an undue burden to try to locate and vet nominees for a position which is outside of our scope of expertise and normal operations. We enlisted the assistance of LAICU with no luck. In addition, Mr. Caruso-Riecke is currently completing an expiring term and based on the recommendations, he should be offered the opportunity to continue to serve.
From: Walter Kimbrough <wkimbrough@dillard.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2019 3:52 PM
To: Jason Hannaman <Jason.Hannaman@LA.GOV>
Subject: RE: State Police Commission – upcoming vacancy/appointment – request for nominees
Here is our nominee. We really would like to find a way to get out of this business. We spent a number of hours over the past month trying to find qualified nominees. It was an exercise in futility, with no way to find quality candidates. In addition, I don’t have the manpower to spend trying to find nominees for these kinds of entities. It creates a hardship for us. I know my colleagues have the same concerns as we have discussed. So what can we do to change this process?
Call us cynical, but we find it more than a stretch to concur with Kimbrough’s sentiments!
Furthermore, folk whom we contacted and read the contents of the letter and email correspondence prior to publishing this feature were nothing short of outraged that Dillard’s then-President, “took the attitude he took on such an important task.”
One individual even stated, “with this level of indifference, it begs the question of how so many in the black community can be stunned when a Ronald Greene type incident transpires.” We would note that Ronald Greene’s LSP in-custody death transpired a mere 128 days after Kimbrough stated that Dillard needed to find a way to, “get out of this business!” All we can say is, “Wow!”
At any rate, since Kimbrough stated that, even the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities yielded, “no luck,” we decided to see if any other university Presidents shared Kimbrough’s sentiments in any correspondence they sent entailing their appointments.
Accordingly, mere minutes prior to publishing this feature, we sent Hannaman this public records request for correspondence received on all appointments or reappointments which have transpired since January 1, 2016 through today’s date of Sunday, December 30, 2024.
Sources tell us that many years ago, conformity of the LSPC with Louisiana’s Constitution regarding making appointments to the LSPC was essentially “completely lacking” and that no letters would even go out to university Presidents but, instead, the Governor would simply appoint whomever he wanted to fill vacancies.
That environment allegedly existed prior to former LSPC Executive Director Cathy Derbonne complaining to Gov. Edwards’ Office that, “the composition of the Commission is not in conformity with the Constitution.”
In Derbonne’s litigation, she indicated that Gov. Edwards’ then-Head of Gaming, Ronnie Jones, stated point-blank that, “the Governor’s Office had told her to shut the f@&@ up!”
It was Derbonne who prompted former LSPC Member Franklin Kyle’s resignation due to impermissible campaign contributions. Kyle is close friends with Riecke, with both of them serving on American Bank in Covington’s Board of Directors. Interestingly enough, former Gov. Edwards’ brother and former Sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish, Daniel Edwards, also served on that same Board of Directors. When Riecke took over Kyle’s LSPC position, then-Colleague Lloyd Grafton alleged (as evidenced by the video in our last feature), that Riecke came on the LSPC with an, “agenda to get rid of Cathy Derbonne.”
Perhaps here’s another irony. After all of that “undue burden” and “exercise in futility” Kimbrough complained of in recommending Riecke merely be reappointed, a mere eight (8) days after Kimbrough’s letter and barely even getting his seat warm from his reappointment, on January 10, 2019, Riecke found himself having to fend off retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet’s calls for his “immediate resignation.”
As we indicated in our prior feature, a key benefit of videos is that they are forever, so let’s take a quick view of Millet calling for Riecke’s “immediate resignation.”:
Millet lodges his complaint and Riecke provides his initial verbal response at the 1/10/19 LSPC meeting, which was a mere eight (8) days after Dillard University President Dr. Walter Kimbrough recommended his reappointment.
Upon what did Millet base his calls for that resignation? Why, as he stated on the above video, alleged impermissible political contributions (just like the allegation against Kyle), of course!
For the record, at the next LSPC meeting of February 14, 2019, Riecke dressed Millet down for calling for his “immediate resignation.”
The next 12 days should be very interesting because there’s one thing we can assure everyone: this whole process was sought to be a very quiet and unceremonious (likely) reappointment of Riecke, as we believe he has the strong backing of the Louisiana State Trooper’s Association (LSTA) as a result of his extensive past history of seeking pay raises for Troopers.
A fly is now officially in the ointment, however, on any such quiet and unceremonious filling of Riecke’s position. We’ll see how it all plays out, but we know one thing: There are an awful lot of folk who do not want to see a repeat of 2019 wherein Dillard uses a “cop out” (another characterization we’ve heard about Kimbrough’s correspondence) that there simply are no other qualified nominees! Really? In an entire Congressional District!
So, if anyone knows of anyone who resides in the First Congressional District and whom they believe would make a high-integrity LSPC Commissioner, we’d highly recommend having that individual send an email to Dillard’s new permanent President, Dr. Monique Guillory, at [email protected] or [email protected] and copying Gov. Landry’s Head of Boards and Commissions, Ryan Roberts, at [email protected] and letting them both know that, by golly, there are some qualified prospective Commissioners residing in the First Congressional District after all! Just be quick about it because the deadline for submissions by Guillory is Saturday, January 4, 2025!