Mendy Girouard’s body-cam video strongly implicates SMPG President Chester Cedars as mastermind behind vilification of Billy Broussard.

Mendy Girouard, appearing at the March 2, 2022 St. Martin Parish Council meeting with her custom-made T-shirt with “Mob Boss” on the right shoulder as she proudly presents a “petition” dated December 9, 2021 to the Council on which an official complaint with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office was filed on August 15, 2022 alleging violations of Louisiana’s notary laws on the part of Melisa B. Dubroc.

We are about to present arguably our most intriguing feature of the entire Billy Broussard saga entailing his ongoing battles with St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars and Cedars’ “crusade” to “harass” Broussard (attorney Michael Adley’s words, not ours) about his hauling of vegetative materials onto his 32-acre property on Duchamp Road.

We want to once again issue our highest level of praise to St. Martin Parish Sheriff officials Karen Berthelot and Eve Laperouse for their dedication in fulfilling our public records requests; furthermore, we want to also praise St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux for his obvious commitment to having his deputies keep their body-cameras on when engaging in encounters with the public and acting in an official capacity.

In fact, given the absolutely shoddy past history of Louisiana State Police regarding the convenience of deactivating body-cameras at a Trooper’s whim, we’d suggest LSP have Breaux or one of his top lieutenants conduct several seminars to LSP Troopers on the importance of keeping those cameras on.

Subscribers and casual site visitors may recall Billy Broussard having stated near the end of the Trevis Helaire video located on this feature (see the 6:23 mark of this video to be precise) that he looked, “forward to you obtaining these videos” of folk making outlandish (and blatantly false and defamatory) claims about Broussard.

We are now prepared to present one such video of which Broussard referenced, and it entailed this St. Martin Parish Sheriff Incident Report entailing Mendy Girouard against Billy Broussard of May 5, 2022.   One knows it’s bad when the Sheriff Corporal, Mathiew Alexander, has no choice but to classify Broussard as “other/unknown” (rather than “witness, suspect, complainant,” etc.).  That will give our subscribers and casual site visitors a hint of just how bad the video we’re about to present is in terms of the complainant, Girouard.

So, with that fact divulged, let’s take a look at the video associated with that incident report because, in the video, Girouard makes it abundantly clear that St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars has encouraged the neighborhood to file complaints against Broussard essentially if he so much as sneezes on his property so that Cedars can subsequently, “prove in court that his property is a nuisance.”  Here’s the video, folks (and we warn everyone to add double-portion butter to the popcorn as it is viewed):

May 5, 2022:  St. Martin Parish Sheriff Corporal Mathiew Alexander is called out to investigate and process a “trespassing complaint” lodged by Mendy Girouard against Billy Broussard, who owns the property upon which she accuses him of “trespassing.”

Now, lets’ provide just a bit of prospective on Girouard, all of which is derived from near the end of this feature.

Of course, subscribers will recall that Girouard proudly assisted Cedars in stirring up the “mob” in making Facebook posts such as the following:

 

As Broussard’s former legal counsel, Michael Adley, has pointed out in his pleadings, Girouard was announcing to all the neighbors that Broussard would be seeking “heavy industrial” zoning before Cedars even extended the common courtesy of letting Adley know that’s what Cedars intended to insist upon for Broussard to get approval of his zoning variance.

Of course, that comes as no real surprise considering that both Broussard and Adley have asserted that Cedars has been quietly working behind the scenes from September 14, 2021 (the date he convinced Adley to go along with a postponement of a September Preliminary Injunction court hearing) to sabotage Broussard’s efforts to, “go through the (i.e. Cedars-mandated) process,” which Adley has stated was done merely in a spirit of “compromise” and which is in no way whatsoever required of Broussard.

The video above provides compelling evidence that Cedars has been the mastermind behind forming and stirring up the “mob” to go after Broussard and thereby thwart his efforts to simply continue to do what Broussard had been doing for a full year prior to Cedars focusing his legal rifle at Broussard’s heart.  Girouard merely seeks to proclaim herself as the self-appointed leader of that “mob,” and LSP Trooper Scott Lopez may or may not be willing to cede that title to her.

After all, an “anonymous” comment posted by someone almost assuredly Girouard as the first of a number of comments beneath our feature on Broussard’s second complaint against LSP Trooper Scott Lopez (for Conduct Unbecoming an LSP Trooper at the January 6, 2022 SMPG Planning and Zoning meeting, which was sustained by LSP), would certainly indicate she wished to claim as much of the credit for the systematic campaign against Broussard as possible.  Here’s that comment:

This is so bogus! It’s just a vendetta against a Great Man and state trooper. He has every right to voice his opinion as a concerned citizen for his family and their future. I’m the WITCH that stirred yp (sic) the hornets nest NOT Scott Lopez or the Dubroc’s (sic). But, you FAIL to publicize the crap that Billy Broussard is doing behind the community’s back and now they are woke up (sic) and paying attention. So for now, get all your facts and both sides of the story instead of 1!

We are going to analyze all of the “facts” Girouard got wrong in her 7 1/2 minute encounter with Corporal Alexander on May 5, 2022 above momentarily.  First, however, we want to present Girouard’s presentation of a “petition” to the full SMPG Council at its meeting of March 2, 2022.  Let’s take a look at her 53-second presentation of the “petition:”

March 2, 2022 53-second presentation of a “petition” by Mendy Girouard to the SMPG Council entailing Billy Broussard’s request for a zoning variance.

Broussard has presented the petition to a number of notaries, all of whom have said there are “serious legal issues” with the notarization of that petition.  Among the issues is the notary, Melissa Dubroc, serving as both notary and principal to the document (along with several of her direct family members).  Another major issue is the strikeout on the first page of the document with a handwritten change that drastically changes the wording of the document.  There is no date, time, nor initials indicating who made that change or when it was made.

While we have no idea who may have initiated the strikeout, we do know that Mendy Girouard, as evidenced by the video above, was the last person to have possession of the document prior to tendering it over to the SMPG Council.  For that matter, we are in the dark on who even drafted the “petition.”

As a result of all of the stated legal issues with the notarization of the document, combined with the fact that the document was presented to a governmental body and intended to have a direct impact on that public body’s action, Broussard, on Monday, August 15, 2022, lodged this complaint with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.  That office indicates that the matter has been referred on to St. Martin Parish District Attorney Bo Duhe’s Office.  Furthermore, Broussard has filed a claim against the notary, Melissa Dubroc, with her bonding company, Merchants Bonding Company:

The Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office informed Broussard that Dubroc’s bond coverage is $10,000. Broussard asserts that won’t cover all the damage done, but it will at least be a start as he is clearly determined to pursue, as Chester Cedars would say, “Every firm, individual, or entity who in any way was connected with this surreptitious removal of the spoil banks by Lafayette Parish Consolidated Government systematic, well-orchestrated crusade to harass me spearheaded by St. Martin Parish Government President Chester Cedars.”

Broussard has also been screaming from the mountaintops about Melissa Dubroc’s vested interest in collaborating with Cedars to harass him.  Specifically, the Dubrocs sued the former owners of Broussard’s property, Deep South Forest Products.

Broussard has emphasized that what’s critical from this transcript and judgments against Dubroc from that litigation is contained on pages 52-54 of the transcript, which Broussard contends establishes the fact that Dubroc had a valid claim of erosion but that his (Dubroc’s) problem was that he waited too long to bring action (i.e. 10-year prescription period had passed).

Broussard has indicated immense frustration entailing the fact that his work on the property has been (and continued to be until the Temporary Restraining Oder was signed) aimed at solving the very erosion issue upon which Dubroc sued in the first place.  Broussard said, “So I come along and largely fix the very problem for which he sued, and he and his family actively seek to block those very efforts, including allegedly committing one or more possible illegal acts regarding notarization from what other notaries have told me.”

Now, let’s move on to what we promised above, and that is to dissect just what all Girouard stated on that 7-1/2 minute video above with Corporal Alexander that is demonstratively and blatantly false!:

===> 0:15:  “On Tuesday, we went to Court with Mr. Cedars.”

Who is “we?”  The only known resident who accompanied Girouard in Court on May 2, 2022 is LSP Trooper Scott Lopez!

Girouard had with her several binders of material.  We can only assume that she was under the mistaken impression that Court would operate just like a Council meeting and she could take the witness stand and testify if she so desired.

Once the witnesses were itemized and, unlike Lopez, she didn’t hear her name, why she up and skedaddled and wasn’t present for the remaining 6-1/2 hours of that Court hearing (but we were).

===> 0:19:  “Judge de Mahy has signed a permanent injunction for him not to have the dump truck on the property.  Period.”

Even the “period” is a trademark of SMPG President Chester Cedars as he utters it repeatedly in any statement he makes.  More importantly, however, Judge de Mahy had not signed a blessed thing on May 5, 2022!

Furthermore, Broussard’s attorney and SMPG’s attorney argued back and forth for days regarding the wording of the final judgment, and that Preliminary Injunction (not Permanent Injunction) judgment was ultimately signed by Judge de Mahy on May 24, 2022, a full 19 days after Girouard is seen above falsely representing to Corporal Alexander  not only that the judge has signed the document (on May 5, 2022) but also rambling on and on (falsely) about the nature (permanent vs. preliminary, and there is a huge difference!) of the injunction and its wording (its nonexistence notwithstanding).

Not only were we present for de Mahy stating what Broussard could and could not do on the property, but we reported upon it on May 4, 2022, the very day before Girouard obviously got so emboldened by what she believed (apparently in her mind only) happened at the conclusion of that hearing that she’d just state to Corporal Alexander whatever the heck she wanted to tell him irrespective of reality!

We’ll note that in our headline, one sees “preliminary injunction” as we believe in accurate reporting!  Nevertheless, The Daily Iberian just may wish to give Girouard a call for a reporter’s position as it appears she would fit right in very well.

Contrary to what Girouard stated to Corporal Alexander, what Judge de Mahy said that Broussard could not do is to park his truck, “with vegetative materials in it overnight” because she indicated that would constitute “temporary storage.”  All of that was contained in our report of the matter because we believe it’s important to state what a judge states in open court accurately!  Obviously, Girouard feels it’s just fine to make things up on the fly when she wasn’t even in attendance when Judge de Mahy made her ruling.

===> 0:50.  “I was in the courtroom, and the Judge said the dump truck cannot be on the property whatsoever.”

One-hundred-percent false, and we seriously doubt Judge de Mahy appreciates having been misquoted and made to appear that she would issue a blatantly-illegal directive from the bench!  Of course, if de Mahy sees this feature, she’ll likely easily size up the source and write it off as par for the course coming from that source.

===> 1:10:  “I talked to Mr. Cedars that afternoon (Tuesday, May 2, 2022), and he said, ‘anytime anyone sees the dump truck there, we’re supposed to call and make a complaint.'”

Well, there’s no more compelling evidence than that to establish firmly that Cedars is and has been all along the mastermind behind the vilification of Broussard.

We will point out that we attended both the court hearing and the SMPG Council meeting that evening, and it was a tight squeeze to arrive at the Council meeting on time.

 If Girouard had such a conversation with Cedars, there was only a narrow window of opportunity for it to have transpired.  Nevertheless, given the obvious leading and directing of Cedars in orchestrating and carrying out this systematic “crusade” of “harassment” (again Michal Adley’s words, not ours), we have no reason to doubt Girouard regarding the timing of the conversation.  As far as the content, all we can say is Girouard has blatantly misquoted Judge de Mahy, and we’ll leave it to Cedars to testify as to whether she has also misquoted him.

===> 1:48:  “The truck was empty, full, empty again.”

Broussard has emphatically denied that he has “ever” brought a truck containing anything at all from the date Judge de Mahy made her oral ruling forward, and he has flatly stated to us that what Girouard has stated is, “a lie demonstrating that they were doing everything they could to try to get me arrested.”

===> 2:05:  “Mr. Cedars said he’ll get two copies of the injunction….One for his own ‘nuisance file’ and one for you, that way you guys knew (sic) when you do get complaints.”

We don’t care how many copies of Judge de Mahy’s Judgment Cedars provides to the world (even the President of the United States if he’s so inclined), in order for anything to be done, there must be an actual violation, and Girouard is simply dreaming up “violations” in her own mind without having seen the Judgment (because it did not even exist at the time she rambles on) and does not remotely say what she represents to Corporal Alexander that it says once it did come into existence on May 24, 2022.

===> 4:06 [Thank God Girouard had to take two minutes to go retrieve her driver’s license making it impossible for her to have uttered more falsehoods and nonsense during that two-minute segment].

Corporal Alexander professionally and diplomatically informs Girouard that she is off base in wanting to file criminal charges against Broussard for “trespassing” when he owns the property!  Geez!!

The mind-numbing lunacy of some of the crew with which Cedars has aligned himself to harass Broussard is astounding beyond any words we have the vocabulary to describe.

===> 5:15 “Now I do understand that he is supposed to have a warrant out for him……supposed to be signed this morning…for aggravated assault and obstruction of a roadway.”

Okay.  So here we have clear and compelling  evidence of all of the collusion between LSP Trooper Scott Lopez and Girouard entailing their dogmatic joint determination to have Broussard arrested for, in Girouard’s words, “aggravated assault” (which means assault committed with a weapon).

On July 11, 2022, we published this extensive feature on Broussard’s arrest.  Now, that arrest warrant was not signed until May 9, 2022 at 9:06 p.m.  So, here we have Girouard (falsely) telling Corporal Alexander that the warrant was “signed this morning,” (May 5, 2022) and further that it entails “aggravated assault” committed by Billy Broussard.   The actual warrant was not signed until four days later and was for “obstruction of public passage, a misdemeanor.”

We also published, the very next day, July 12, 2022, that St. Martinville DA Bo Duhe’ immediately dismissed the charges as an obvious sham.

Eight days later, on July 20, 2022, we published this feature containing the crucial 18-seconds of video taken by Benjamin Lopez, LSP Trooper Scott Lopez’s son, upon which the warrant was totally dependent.

That video readily shows the T-total sham nature of any such “assault charges.”

So here’s our question:  Did Judge de Mahy opt to sign the arrest warrant, especially given that Judge Lewis Pittman declined to sign the same arrest warrant application, based on oral statements made to her by St. Martin Parish Deputy Baily Romero?  After all, as stated in Broussard’s litigation against Lopez, “upon information and belief, Romero resides at 1291 Duchamp Road” which would make him a neighbor of Girouard and Lopez.  Broussard made that assertion based on this voter records website.

At any rate, only Romero can explain why he pulled the application from Pittman (the Senior Judge from what we’re told) and thereafter submitted it to de Mahy, but plenty of folk are keenly interested in that development which transpired very late on the evening of May 9, 2022!

===> 5:32:  “He (Broussard) got out in the middle of the street and was threatening to harm somebody….for taking pictures of him <extensive laughter> .”

Oh, really?  We’re anxious to hear Girouard explain both her source and basis for making that bold claim knowing full well Alexander’s body-camera was recording every second of what she said.  We’re also anxious to find what she finds so funny to engage in all the laughter as she utters a blatant lie about Broussard.  Was it that she knew everything she was saying was a fabrication?

We will point out that we made a public records request for any and all documentation in the possession of St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux’s office entailing any investigation of any nature whatsoever into allegations that Broussard had committed “simple assault,” and we were told there were, “no records responsive to your request.”  We’re not going to bother with making another request for “aggravated assault” because we feel there’s no need to even dignify Girouard’s false representation to Corporal Alexander on the video above.

===> 5:50:  “I mean he literally ran my neighbor off the road on his motorcycle last week…..Oh, yeah, it’s getting ugly.”

Again, we’ll be anxious to hear her testify entailing that matter in court as well.

It truly is amazing that Girouard could utter all of those untruths in a mere 5-1/2 minutes (net of the two minutes it took her to go retrieve her driver’s license).

At any rate, we believe Broussard’s attorney is now accumulating a plethora of evidence to present for the Permanent Injunction hearing when it transpires (of course, Girouard is obviously under the mistaken belief that it already has).  Also, if we were inclined to make wagers in this matter and could find someone willing to take the other side, we believe we’d take a little action on Girouard getting a knock on her door to receive a little more paperwork from the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office.  That’s just our take though.

In fact, given the extensive efforts of Broussard’s former attorney, Michael Adley, to demonstrate that Cedars knew the obvious problems he had in pursuing a Temporary Restraining Order against Broussard (sworn testimony of SMPG attorney Allan “Sprinky” Durand of, “no zoning of any kind beyond 500 feet off the road,” zoning maps unenforceable, etc.), we wouldn’t be one bit surprised to see The Daily Iberian name Chester Cedars as a third-party defendant for cramming through his ordinance on August 3, 2021 and then filing a Temporary Restraining Order mere days later.

After all, while The Daily Iberian would seem to have obvious problems in falsely reporting that Broussard was burning, it was Cedars and Cedars alone who knew all the problems (as per Adley’s filing), that he had as outlined above, yet he presented an authoritative case against Broussard in the apparent belief that nobody would uncover those obvious problems.  He certainly felt he had no obligation to point out those problems, and we believe that concealment from everyone, including The Daily Iberian, to falsely report that Broussard was potentially violating zoning ordinances, when Cedars secretly knew that Broussard was doing no such thing just may prompt the newspaper into dragging Cedars into Broussard’s litigation against the newspaper as a third-party defendant.

Again, this feature would not be possible without Sheriff Breaux’s obvious emphasis on keeping body-cameras on irrespective of whether a matter is combative or not, and that fact alone makes him heads-and-shoulders above the lousy excuse for an LSP Colonel who exists at LSP at present!

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