Louisiana Gov. Elect Jeff Landry, who has openly stated that his first priority is a Special Session of the Louisiana Legislature to address Louisiana’s violent crime problem.
Gov. Elect Jeff Landry has indicated to the world that his #1 focus, as evidenced by his intention to convene a special session of the Legislature devoted exclusively to crime prevention, is indeed enacting legislation designed to deter the commission of violent crimes against the people of Louisiana.
While that’s a noble cause, we openly question whether Landry’s commitment will extend to members of the law enforcement community. Why do we openly question Landry’s commitment to be “tough on crime” when it comes to the committing of such crimes by law enforcement officials? Well, we’re more than happy to explain precisely why!
Though anybody has been hard-pressed to read a word about it in the mainstream media, we at Sound Off Louisiana have extensively reported upon the alleged domestic abuse committed by former LSP Trooper Michael Lynn Satcher. Here are the links for our past features on him:
1. November 4, 2020: Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office provides assurance that LSP Trooper Satcher’s alleged domestic abuse and related charges to be prosecuted as felonies.
2. November 19, 2020: LSP Chief of Staff Cain admits no administrative investigation commenced for alleged domestic abuser Satcher until soon after Col. Kevin Reeves’ departure.
3. December 27, 2020: Amid widening allegations of improprieties at LSP’s Air Support Unit, Trooper Satcher resigns ahead of trial for pending felony domestic abuse charges.
4. February 23, 2021: As former LSP Trooper Satcher files Brady Motion, former domestic dating partner expressed fear for her life; didn’t report alleged abuses due to retaliation fears.
After delaying the trial more times than we could count, finally (and perhaps not coincidentally as the October 14, 2023 election date neared), Landry, on September 11, 2023 (a mere 33 days before the election), permitted Satcher to plead no contest and enter into this soft and cushy plea deal. The plea deal speaks for itself (and particularly so as it pertains to being “tough on crime” regarding allegations of domestic abuse), so we’re not even going to dignify it but instead let subscribers and casual visitors to this site view it for themselves!
The bottom line is that the only “assurance” Landry kept was that Satcher’s charge would not be reduced to a misdemeanor, but even that was what originally got filed into the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court but was subsequently “corrected.”
We’ll point out that the DA in Rapides Parish had to recuse himself from prosecution because of his, “close friendship with Satcher” to include being his hunting buddy. We’ll also point out that our most reliable LSP sources told us that the reason no internal administrative investigation was even launched into Satcher until after we exposed the matter (see November 19, 2020 feature above) is because he was “tight” with then-Colonel Reeves.
Interestingly enough, as we’ve previously pointed out, Reeves also deferred taking any internal action against former LSP Trooper Chris Hollingsworth until days after we exposed the Ronald Greene matter on September 10, 2020.
We had reliable sources who periodically kept us advised on the Satcher matter, and they indicated that Landry’s office came under “intense pressure” to go easy on Satcher from some “highly powerful people.” Apparently, Landry ultimately caved to that pressure and, as we’re about to present, it has already blown up in his face.
Our admonition to Gov. Elect Landry and to soon-to-be LSP Colonel Robert Hodges and Chief of Staff Frank Besson then is that we’d advise #1) running a tight ship and #2) being proactive in handling internal problems (because trust us, we have no doubt whatsoever that plenty of them are going to arise under Landry’s watch). Otherwise, the same embarrassment and shame as Gov. Edwards and his LSP upper brass have endured over the last eight years will surely crash down upon their heads as well.
Now, one of the conditions of Satcher’s plea agreement was that sentence would be deferred and that he would be on two years of active supervised probation. Well, he didn’t quite make it through his probationary period. In fact, only 89 days into it, yesterday, December 9, 2023, Satcher was arrested again and placed in the Rapides Parish Detention Center for essentially the same identical charges (with kidnapping added). Let’s take a look at what’s posted so far (it’s too fresh to be available on the Rapides Parish Clerk of Court’s Office):
Inmate Detail – Satcher, Michael Lynn II
Demographic Information
- Satcher, Michael Lynn II
- 149953
- 37
- Male
- White
- 126 ROBINSON RDAlexandria, LOUISIANA 71303
Booking History
2023-00006478
- 12/9/2023 10:21 PM
- Pre-Trial – PT
- Rapides Parish Detention Center 1
- $0.00
| Bond Number | Bond Amount |
|---|---|
| No data | |
| Number | Charge Description | Offense Date | Attempt/Commit | Bond |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | PROBATION VIOLATION | 12/9/2023 7:48 PM | Committed | |
| 3 | KIDNAPPING:2ND DEGREE KIDNAPING | 12/9/2023 7:48 PM | Committed | |
| 2 | AGG STRANGLE- DOMESTIC ABUSE BATTERY STRANGULATION (F) | 12/9/2023 7:48 PM | Committed | |
| 1 | HOME INVASION (AGG ASSAULT) | 12/9/2023 7:48 PM | Committed |
We always like to try to include a video in any feature we do. For this feature, we’re going to provide a very short one (16 seconds), and it entails Gov. John Bel Edwards describing his exact feeling upon being re-elected on October 12, 2019. Here’s the video:
October 12, 2019 (ironically, the VERY DAY Satcher allegedly committed his prior act of domestic violence): Gov. Edwards describes his sentiments on winning re-election.
We’ll merely say this to Gov. Elect Landry: His three consecutive predecessors (Edwards, Jindal, and Blanco) didn’t exactly end their terms on high notes (and that’s being extremely kind with Blanco opting not even trying for re-election). The popularity of each at the conclusion of their respective terms was nothing short of abysmal!
In fact, we’d openly challenge if Gov. Edwards really found this second term to be all that (as referenced in the above video), “sweet.” After all, he endorsed a black candidate for Governor, yet black voter turnout was an abysmal 26 percent and an estimated 11 percent of that black vote actually pulled Landry’s lever! Sound like a Governor who’s leaving office with much popularity at all (especially among his core constituency of black voters)?
When we gave our back-handed endorsement of Landry on September 20, 2023, we made it abundantly clear that we were, “merely facing the reality that he is going to be Governor no matter what,” and that we felt it best that he just barely get over 50 percent in the primary rather than obtaining north of 65 percent in a runoff with Wilson.
Our logic was simple: We wanted to be able to say, “Governor, half the voters of this state didn’t even want you,” anytime Landry seemingly fumbles the football. While we hope this won’t be the case, based on his LSP selections, we can anticipate he’ll indeed fumble the football more than we would hope, but maybe we’ll be wrong in that assessment.
He has not even been sworn into office yet, and nevertheless his selections to head LSP have already caused some supporters (see the comments on one of our prior features) to no longer have any faith or confidence whatsoever in Landry.
When overall turnout is 37 percent (and black voter turnout is 26 percent), and a candidate wins with 51.6 percent of the vote (just barely over 50 percent just as we hoped for), and much of that support is extremely (and we do mean EXTREMELY) “soft” (as was ours and several folk we know of who openly told us that they followed our logic and voted for Landry), it doesn’t take much to easily sink below 50 percent and open the pathway for someone who may be waiting in the wings to pounce on an abysmal first four years and challenge Landry in 2027.
That’s just a word to the wise to Gov. Elect Landry from us for what it may be worth to him. Certainly the manner in which he handled the Satcher matter as Attorney General leaves plenty to be desired in our humble opinion, and the proof is in the pudding in what allegedly transpired at 7:48 p.m. last night, Saturday, December 9, 2023!
I had a meeting with soon-to-be LSP Colonel Robert Hodges not long ago, and I believe he’s smart enough to see and likely would acknowledge that one of our big problems with State Police is the personal relationships with Troopers and District Attorneys. Also, let me not forget to mention the political motivation these troopers sometimes have. These guys have big dreams to include possibly becoming Sheriffs or pursuing jobs with District Attorneys, etc. We saw that with Michael Hebert at Troop D!!! I look forward to testify before committees in the near future, I can’t wait to help!!!
ONE TEAM