Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier
Updated at 6:54 p.m. (see bottom of post).
On June 19, 2018, The Advocate’s Jim Mustian published an article entailing a complaint filed with the Louisiana State Board of Ethics against four Louisiana District Attorneys that alleges a “practice of shifting thousands of traffic tickets into lucrative pre-trial diversion programs.” The complaint further alleges that prosecuting district attorneys leverage their authority “into a money-making enterprise” for their offices.
Long-time Sound Off Louisiana subscribers may recall a January 22, 2017 feature we published demonstrating extensive abuses of the pre-trial diversion program entailing just one individual: Cody Matthew Bowlin. That feature, which focused on corruption by Livingston Parish DA Scott Perrilloux and St. Landry Parish DA Earl Taylor, demonstrates how, for someone with political connections, the diversion program permits a young man with extensive drug arrests and a very dangerous driving record (including multiple “first offense” DWIs) to simply repeat the “diversion program” over and over again (at least in theory, the St. Landry DA’s Office could provide no credible evidence whatsoever that Bowlin attended even one second of a “diversion program” for Bowlin’s incident in that parish) with all the repeated drug offenses either being dismissed via Louisiana CCP 691 or repeated sham deployments of the “diversion program,” which is intended only for first-time offenders who are below the age of 25.
For those subscribers who are curious, the newest charge against Bowlin outlined on the previous feature, which involved multiple citizens reporting Bowlin for allegedly smashing into interstate walls while driving erratically, resulted, as fully expected and predicted, in all charges being dismissed by the Baton Rouge City Attorney. Furthermore, we recently researched the Livingston Parish Clerk of Court to see if any other infractions took place since that episode, and we discovered yet another arrest on November 15, 2017 for alleged domestic abuse battery, child endangerment, and simple battery. As is obvious from the preceding document, Bowlin’s wife alleges that Bowlin “grabbed her right wrist and pulled her, causing a visible, red-in-color mark.” The affidavit of probable cause continues in stating, “the victim advised that the battery occurred in the presence of their two-year-old child. A separate victim advised that she too was grabbed by Bowlin and pulled out of the bathroom inside of the residence.”
Entailing the above incident, Bowlin appeared in court on March 6, 2018, at which time he was arraigned on yet another “misdemeanor, first-offense,” for which he retained counsel and pled “not guilty.” The case was then scheduled for another hearing on May 1, 2018, and we’ll check to see what may have transpired but, if history is any guide (see aforementioned January 22, 2017 feature), Perrilloux will once again deploy Louisiana CCP 691 and dismiss all charges if he has not already done so.
Fortunately, Perrilloux is not seeking re-election (nor would we advise any potential successor to seek his endorsement), so hopefully this massive enterprise of rank corruption by the Livingston Parish DAs Office may soon begin to dissipate because, from our vantage point, it can hardly get much worse than it has been under Perrilloux.
In a continued demonstration of the absolute joke that the National Auctioneer’s Association is, Bowlin’s membership remains in good standing.
While DAs like Perrilloux and Taylor have been hard at work dreaming up creative ways to permit political favoritism and associated revenue collection thereof by abusing their authority entailing the “DA Diversion Program” as demonstrated by the Bowlin case above, former LSP Trooper Jimmy Rogers, in a Facebook post on Friday (7/6) shortly after 11 am (which has been shared 1,528 times as of Sunday at 6:15 p.m. since he posted it) claims that those same DAs have been even more resolute to generate massive revenues in partnership with LSP via LACE and other programs. In today’s Sound Off Louisiana post, founder Robert Burns outlines Rogers’ recent post, which is on full display beneath the video:
Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns outlines Rogers’ post.
CLICK HERE for the WBRZ (Baton Rouge, Channel 2) feature entailing EBRP DA Hillar Moore indicating that layoffs are likely forthcoming and why.
We reached out to Rogers to see if he would be willing to appear on camera for an interview, and his response follows:
If nothing else, Rogers’ post sure does seem to buttress Trooper Daryl Thomas’ June 14, 2018 statements before the Louisiana State Police Commission during which he pleaded with the Commission not to place him on leave without pay. Thomas stated that, “many other Troopers have done far worse” entailing alleged LACE abuses, for which Thomas claims, in sharp contrast to his own actions, those troopers, “didn’t even work LACE details at all.” Thomas further stated that those troopers, whom he supplied the names of to Advocate reporter Mustian, simply claimed they worked LACE details when, in reality, they did not. He further stated that such past infractions were dealt with on a “strictly administrative basis, and the troopers were simply allowed to pay the money back.” Thomas alleges that he is being made an example of as a direct result of his transgressions, which entailed Fox8’s investigative reporter Lee Zurik airing video evidence that times Thomas placed on many tickets he issued coincided with times Zurik’s camera showed his unit being parked at his home, being the subject of that high-profile Zurik investigation.
Some people have asked Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns how he could have been so presumptuous as to establish a JBEfraud website a full month before Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards was even inaugurated into office. In fact, the very first entry on that website was the then-impending re-appointment of LSP Colonel Mike Edmonson.
In response, Burns has emphasized that the first entry on the website reveals the answer to how he could be so presumptuous! Edwards had to literally sell his soul to the corrupt elements of Louisiana law enforcement (Sheriff’s Association and its insistence of LSP’s Edmonson being retained, the retention of DPS’s Jimmy LeBlanc, etc.) that ensured that future posts to the website entailing corruption, nepotism, cronyism, etc. were going to be inevitable, and they have in fact been plentiful in materializing.
In short, for someone who so heavily criticized the Jindal Administration for running a sleazy, corrupt government entailing crucial law enforcement departments (criticism which we believe was absolutely justified), Edwards sure became awfully comfortable retaining that same sleaze and corrupt element in his own administration, “Honor Code” notwithstanding! The reason he did so is obvious: he had committed to doing so to obtain the much-needed support of the sleaze element of Jindal’s administration to enable him to win the election.
Just as Jindal would have surely paid the price had he been eligible for re-election in 2015 for his sleazy, corrupt appointments, we firmly believe that Edwards is going to be absolutely slaughtered in 2019 as a result of his decisions in being resolute in retaining that sleaze factor.
Updated at 6:54 p.m.
Within three minutes of our post above being released, a long-time Sound Off Louisiana subscriber contacted us and stated that we should include a subsequent Facebook statement by Rogers made at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 8, 2018. That post follows:
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