LSP Lt. Col. Jay Oliphant, whom former LSPC Member Calvin Braxton has alleged in litigation filed on February 19, 2020 falsely accused Braxton of murder.
On July 13, 2017, Calvin Braxton, a then-member of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) was ambushed by Fox8’s Lee Zurik, who was obviously working solely with the Louisiana State Trooper’s Association (LSTA) upper brass who made no secret of their desire for Braxton to be removed from the LSPC. Zurik confronted Braxton with cameras rolling with allegations that he tried to use his influence as an LSPC member to take retribution against an LSP Trooper who had arrested Braxton’s daughter in late 2015 for DWI.
On May 10, 2018, Braxton sued the LSTA and the author of an incident report, Jay Oliphant, indicating that the LSTA had fabricated virtually all of the incident report and, in so doing, falsely accused him of exerting such influence which, in turn, severely impacted his reputation thus buttressing his claim for defamation.
On April 22, 2019, we provided our subscribers with an update on five LSP-related civil lawsuits. That feature devoted about three minutes to recapping the then-current state of affairs entailing the Braxton litigation. We now present a re-broadcast of just that short segment of the video of 4/22/19:
Burns updates subscribers on the status of Braxton’s civil lawsuit against the LSTA on 4/22/19.
Burns openly states on the video above that he would “gladly purchase tickets” to the depositions being conducted during the then-ongoing discovery proceedings entailing Braxton’s litigation. Burns’ zeal was justified based upon an amendment to Braxton’s litigation in which LSP is being added as a defendant to Braxton’s suit.
What’s the basis of LSP being added as a defendant? Well, that would be one of those discovery depositions Burns desperately wished he could sit in on that transpired on June 26, 2019 (only a mere 65 days after Burns expressed a yearning to attend the depositions) in which Lt. Col. Jay Oliphant admitted under oath that he “authored a publication on March 2, 2018” which Braxton asserts through pleadings “falsely accusing Petitioner of murder.”
The link above contains the full amendment to the petition; however, let’s make it simple for readers by placing below only the applicable sections of the litigation constituting the meat of the amendments (click on images below to enlarge):
The incident references Braxton’s girlfriend from, as the petition points out, “decades earlier.” The incident was officially classified as a suicide.
Truth is an absolute defense to a defamation claim, so the burden now falls upon LSP to demonstrate that Braxton in fact committed murder since the agency has allegedly spread material indicating that he did. That begs the question of whether Oliphant made any effort to strong-arm an LSP investigation into what he apparently deems to be a homicide (which appears to us to be based solely upon his own irrational insecurities and concerns).
Did Oliphant insist upon an investigation of a case closed decades ago as part of his mission? Sound Off Louisiana has spoken with sources with integral knowledge of the situation and whom we deem to have a very high level of credibility regarding internal LSP matters. Those sources have indicated that Oliphant made requests of LSP based apparently upon his own well-documented and widely publicized (click on the update link for Oliphant’s inappropriate Facebook posts) fears and insecurities in that regard. We were able to substantiate those sources’ information upon receiving Oliphant’s actual March 2, 2018 incident report. [Editor’s Note: We have redacted the name of the young lady.]
As we pointed out in our feature regarding LSP Troopers’ concerns entailing what they consider rank nepotism regarding Col. Reeves’ son, Kaleb, obtaining a detective position far sooner than should ordinarily be the case, Reeves granted Oliphant not one, but two, promotions to now hold a highly-prestigious position of Lt. Colonel (second in command behind the Colonel himself).
What has become increasingly obvious to us is that, in order to qualify to be admitted into the upper brass of LSP, and that includes the Colonel on down, one must demonstrate a very high level of incompetence and renegade behavior. That was certainly the case with former Col. Mike Edmonson and his chief lieutenant (whom many troopers tell us was the one actually running the whole show), Charlie Dupuy.
As for Col. Reeves:
1. He was Oliphant’s supervisor at the time Oliphant drafted the original incident report regarding Braxton’s alleged intimidation,
2. It’s now a near certainty that Gov. Edwards (much to the frustration of the LSTA which prompted them to get Zurik involved) sat on Oliphant’s incident report for over a year because he knew (just as Reeves obviously knew since he had to approve it) that it was a fabrication,
3. The recent training academy fiasco,
4. The haphazard implementation of pay raises that Trooper Coates has now established has transpired agency-wide,
When combined with many other recent LSP black eyes and the fact that Reeves obviously merely elevated his chief lieutenants to sky-high salaries (and we’ve heard reports they may have just gotten big pay boosts as Reeves may have as well, but we’ll have to pursue public records requests to substantiate that fact), so that they could retire with fat pensions (just as Reeves will), we firmly believe it’s time for Reeves to resign in disgrace! His tenure as LSP Colonel can now officially be declared an absolutely unmitigated disaster!
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