Sound Off Louisiana – Page 123 – Providing Louisiana citizens, from VIPs to the "little guy," a chance to sound off regarding Louisiana government issues of concern to them.

The “other” Jacob Brown, alleged issuer of $180,000 in NSF checks to the State, faces criminal trial on Wednesday. We’ll be there!

Former auctioneer and appointee of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, Jacob Brown, who faces a criminal trial on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 for allegedly issuing $180,000 in worthless checks to the State of Louisiana soon after Gov. Edwards appointed him to the Louisiana Auctioneer’s Licensing Board.

Long-time Sound Off Louisiana subscribers may recall that Jacob Brown (the auctioneer, not the Louisiana State Trooper in the news so much lately) was arrested on July 18, 2018. For a review and for the benefit of new subscribers, here’s WAFB’s coverage of that arrest:

WAFB’s Crime Stoppers Profile Crime Stoppers profile of Brown as well as his arrest.

The above WAFB feature certainly provides the “Joe Friday, just the facts ma’am” story, but we’d like to expand it just a bit with some background.

Gov. Edwards placed Jacob Brown on the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board (LALB) simultaneously with his removal (only 16 days after appointing him) of Louisiana’s then-only African American auctioneer from that Board, Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips. Anyone is welcome to see Rev. Phillips confront Edwards head-on about his decision to remove him from the LALB (again, only 16 days after appointing him) by CLICKING HERE.

So, out with Phillips and in with Brown, who is the son of convicted felon (and Edwin Edwards associate) Cecil Brown, who accompanied former Gov. Edwin Edwards on an extended stay in Federal Prison.

As the old saying goes, “Like father, like son.” No sooner had Brown been appointed to the LALB than did the tag-team of Edwards and his Commissioner of Administration, Jay Dardenne, who is presently a semi-finalist to become LSU’s next President, award Brown with lucrative contracts for the sale of State surplus property. Let’s take a look at just how that worked out for us taxpayers, shall we?

Date	Event or Circumstance
Early 2017	Brown fails to pay numerous private-sector consignors instead diverting their money to fulfill a requirement by the State of Louisiana that $215,000 (the estimated gross sales price per auction) be provided upfront in order to qualify to auction state surplus property.
April 18, 2017	State awards auction contract to Brown.
July 8, 2017	Auction conducted. Balance owed by Brown: $26,920.58
July 18, 2017	Brown issues Whitney Bank check # 2502 dated 7/18/17 for $26,920.58.
August 1, 2017	Brown’s check returned NSF.
September 9, 2017	Brown is permitted to conduct ANOTHER auction for the state! That is NOT a misprint! A FULL 39 days after obtaining knowledge of the above NSF check, Dardenne and Edwards permitted Brown to conduct another auction!
September 9, 2017	Auction conducted. Balance owed by Brown: $148,422.09.
September 21, 2017	Brown issues Whitney Bank check # 2514 dated 9/21/17 for $148,422.09. Why the state would think that check would clear given that the prior one had not been collected can only be described as utterly ~~stupid~~ accommodating on Dardenne and Edwards’ parts!
October 13, 2017	Brown’s check returned NSF (why did it take the state almost a month to deposit the check — were they asked to “hold it” as a favor???).

We doubt anyone questions the entries on the preceding table but, just in case anyone wants direct verification, here is a 7-minute uninterrupted video segment of Brown’s July 9, 2018 LALB hearing (which was uploaded by the LALB on October 8, 2018, a full 91 days after the hearing!!!!) wherein Division of Administration attorney Carlos Romanach provides the material we present above:

Seven-minute segment of 7/9/18 LALB administrative hearing on former LALB member and auctioneer Jacob Brown.

Now, folks, we ask our subscribers, if someone had written a hot check for $26,920.58, would you entrust them 39 days after you learned the check was hot to continue performing services for you? To our subscribers owning small businesses, if that $26,920.58 hot check had been issued to your business, would you continue doing business with the issuer?

Also, Brown allegedly stiffed East Baton Rouge Parish (EBRP) entailing not paying sales taxes on the auctions. Here’s the lawsuit EBRP officials filed in response:

For what it’s worth, the State of Louisiana filed a civil suit against Brown. The private-sector victims of Brown’s actions pretty much just had to take their lumps and settle for a pro-rated share of the lousy $10,000 bond auctioneers are required to carry as a condition of licensure in Louisiana (the state got the lion’s share of that since losses are aggregated and claims paid on a pro-rata basis).

Obviously, Edwards had little choice but to remove Brown from the LALB for stiffing the State and EBRP and his failure to tender marketable title on automobiles which Brown’s company auctioned.

We have followed Brown’s criminal proceedings and, after numerous delays, the trial is now set for this Wednesday (April 28, 2021). We commit to attend the trial and report on its outcome to our subscribers.

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Louisiana NAACP showers praise and adoration on Gov. Edwards, but were some members’ concerns over Louisiana law enforcement actions for black arrestees brushed aside?

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was the special guest speaker at the NAACP Zoom meeting of Monday, April 19, 2021.

Gov. John Bel Edwards was the guest speaker at the Zoom meeting of the Louisiana NAACP on Monday, April 19, 2021.

We want to begin this feature by expressing thanks to Gov. Edwards and to the Louisiana NAACP for permitting us to attend the meeting via Zoom. Sound Off Louisiana was an invited guest for the meeting, and we sincerely appreciate the invitation permitting us to attend the meeting.

Let’s break down the segments of the meeting with a series of video clips for viewers to choose which ones they may have interest in viewing:

The meeting officially kicks off with a musical introduction to welcome Gov. Edwards.

Immediately after the musical introduction came the invocation.

After the invocation, Louisiana NAACP President Michael McClanahan gave a very strong and authoritative introduction of Gov. Edwards in which he (Edwards) was showered with praise and adoration.

Obviously realizing there was an 800-pound gorilla in the room, Gov. Edwards, early on during his prepared remarks, addressed concerns of Louisiana NAACP members entailing law enforcement actions across the U. S. entailing the arrests of African American men.

Further into his prepared remarks, Gov. Edwards stressed current Legislative initiatives such as reducing gender inequality in pay for women, his strong support for an increase in Louisiana’s minimum wage, and a bill he actively supports to alter factors which automobile insurers are permitted to consider when setting automobile insurance rates in Louisiana. [Editor’s Note: Someone chose to exit the meeting, and that caused the windows of attendees to be pushed upward. Unfortunately, we did not catch the fact that had transpired, and so much of the video above is of another attendee who, like us, wasn’t sitting directly in front of the computer monitor. We apologize for this occurrence.]

Gov. Edwards takes one of several pre-submitted questions in addressing NAACP members’ desires for minority judge(s) in Terrebonne Parish.

Gov. Edwards responds to another pre-submitted question regarding a planned upcoming meeting with President Biden to discuss Louisiana’s role during a transition period away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

Gov. Edwards responds to another pre-submitted question entailing redistricting and whether or not he would veto any redistricting bill which does not create a second minority district in the U. S. Congress in Louisiana.

Gov. Edwards responds to a pre-submitted question inquiring about his endorsement process and asking why he failed to endorse the Democratic front runner in the recent special U. S. Congressional District 5 in Louisiana race made necessary by the death of Congressman-elect Luke Letlow from COVID.

Gov. Edwards begins taking live questions, with the first being if he would pardon “wrongfully-convicted inmates” at Louisiana prisons and a follow-up question regarding work programs to ensure released inmates do not cause a homelessness problem in Louisiana.

Gov. Edwards takes the second (and last) live question, which pertained to providing for broadband internet access to rural areas and areas in North Louisiana. Thereafter, McClanahan and Gov. Edwards exchanged pleasantries, and McClanahan invited Gov. Edwards to join the NAACP at its annual convention beginning on September 16, 2021. Gov. Edwards stated that, if he’s invited, he’d be delighted to, “celebrate part of the day of my 55th birthday on September 16 with everyone.” McClanahan indicated the NAACP would ensure cake and ice cream are available for the celebration.

McClanahan began to wrap up the meeting by stressing the desire to stay vigilant in the fight against COVID, by making an open endorsement of Dr. Cassie Williams for this Saturday’s special election to fill a vacancy on the BESE Board, and by encouraging everyone to show up at the polls on Saturday and vote in the special election for U. S. Congress District 2 from Louisiana which became open after former U. S. Congressman Cedric Richmond accepted a position as Senior Advisor to President Biden and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

As we mentioned at the outset of this feature, we were invited guests of the meeting. As such, we therefore believe that our role is appropriately limited to merely providing the contents of the meeting as we’ve done above. We do not believe it would be appropriate for us to make our own commentary because, as we’ve stressed, we were invited guests of Gov. Edwards and the Louisiana NAACP.

Having said that, what we do feel is certainly fair game for us to report upon is that our phone rang the day after the meeting with an NAACP member who was not happy at all with the meeting. What we found out is that we made a serious error when we turned our camera off right where the very last video ends above.

We are told that the meeting erupted into fireworks thereafter with some very sharp criticism of President McClanahan for, in these members’ opinion, being deceptive about the nature of the meeting with Gov. Edwards. Specifically, they contend that communication promoting the meeting indicated there would be opportunities for open questions posed to Gov. Edwards regarding very specific matters entailing Louisiana State Police news reports of excessive force in recent arrests of African American men in Louisiana. There were other questions regarding prison inmates in Louisiana which these members expressed frustration that went unaddressed.

We can only apologize both to our subscribers and to the NAACP members who wished to voice their frustration at the inability to pose what they deem as “hard questions” of Gov. Edwards during the meeting. We have been informed that there likely will be a separate Zoom meeting during which these frustrations are aired. If so, we will be happy to publish the content of that Zoom meeting just as we did the one above. Further, if such a Zoom meeting materializes, we commit to provide Gov. Edwards with unlimited and unedited camera time to respond to any concerns which these NAACP members feel were not addressed during the meeting outlined above.

With the disclosure of the previous paragraph out of the way, if anyone wishes to view the meeting from start to the point we turned the camera off (and we again apologize for doing so about eight minutes too soon from what we’ve been told), we welcome any such person to do so by merely CLICKING HERE.

As Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis imposes maximum 720-hour suspension to his predecessor’s son, public outcry erupts over lack of termination and criminal charges.

WBRZ (Channel 2)’s investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto covers the 720-hour suspension handed down by Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis regarding a fatal crash at which his predecessor’s son, Kaleb Reeves, was deemed at fault.

We have little doubt that Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Lamar Davis has been able to spend precious little time performing the agency’s core functions as a result of the extensive drains on his time to deal with problematic troopers over whom he assumed command in early October of 2020.

After all, since then, alleged domestic abuser Michael Satcher, who has received little public attention outside of Sound Off Louisiana, resigned on December 18, 2020.

Jacob Brown, son of former LSP Chief of Staff Robert Brown, who had a plethora of alleged deployments of excessive force and lying on police reports and whom LSP Academy Records indicated never should have been hired as an LSP Trooper in the first place, resigned in disgrace about six weeks ago.

Days later, Kasha Domingue, who shot an unarmed man in the back, was terminated.

Randall Dickerson, one of three LSP Troopers who successfully obtained a Temporary Restraining Order stopping investigations of his and the other two troopers’ alleged use of excessive force when making arrests (the order was subsequently dissolved), resigned about two weeks ago.

We are aware of other disciplinary matters entailing LSP; however, because of conflicting statements entailing whether at least one such matter entailed the trooper resigning or being terminated, we have pending public records requests with LSP which should resolve that issue, after which we’ll certainly report on it.

We are also awaiting the receipt of pending public records requests prior to publishing our next feature on the Air Support Unit of LSP. Additionally, we are pausing our planned multi-feature coverage of former Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) member Calvin Braxton until we’re able to clarify a few outstanding issues thereof.

With the disclosures from the preceding paragraph out of the way, we believe we have received reliable information indicating that Davis likely yet faces additional disciplinary matters pertaining to Troops L (Mandeville/Covington) and B (New Orleans).

We’ll have more to say on those matters entailing troops L and B in a subsequent feature which, being blunt, is the feature we referenced near the end of our Billy Broussard “sneak a smooch” feature (which has itself exceeded our expectations of the level of viewership of that feature).

We stated at the end of that feature that we expected the aforementioned feature on LSP to be out in “three or four days.” The reality is that obtaining the material we deem necessary to proceed with that feature (which can’t be obtained from LSP but certainly does exist) has proven far more difficult than we anticipated. Nevertheless, everything is now starting to jell for that feature, and we expect it out soon.

Now on to today’s feature, which has already been covered in the usual excellent manner by WBRZ (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge)’s investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto. So, let’s go ahead and present Nakamoto’s excellent coverage below:

WBRZ investigative reporter Chris Nakamoto’s April 16, 2021 feature entailing LSP Col. Lamar Davis imposing the maximum 720-hour suspension on Kaleb Reeves, the son of former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves (CLICK HERE for the documents Nakamoto references entailing Reeves’ past wrecks with LSP).

All anyone has to do is read the public commentary beneath Nakamoto’s feature and listen to what colleague Sylvia Weatherspoon says as she introduces Nakamoto’s feature to know there is most definitely a public outcry concerning the absence of criminal charges against Reeves for his latest wreck and the two young lives lost as a result.

That fact, as Nakamoto makes obvious, is reinforced by the fact that a motorist who caused an accident two months ago entailing similar circumstances IS facing criminal charges. Several LSP sources have also told us in no uncertain terms that Reeves should have been terminated rather than, “merely suspended for 720 hours.”

All we can add to Nakamoto’s feature and the commentary we’ve received entailing a perception of lack of adequacy of consequences for Kaleb Reeves is that, given that the Legislature had to carve out an exception for Reeves to be hired in the first place AND given the fact that his father disregarded his promise and awarded his son Kaleb a prized detective position LONG before other troopers were eligible for such a position, we can only revert back to the words of Col. Davis that “the public is getting the perception that police offices are being treated special.”

To reinforce that notion, just take a few moments to examine the incredible number of promotions then-LSP Col. Kevin Reeves awarded to those whom he would need to sign off approving his son obtaining the detective position. They’re all readily available for anyone’s viewing pleasure at the link we just provided.

Predictably, Doug Cain (then public information officer under Reeves) called Sound Off Louisiana’s Burns to explain that Kaleb Reeves obtaining the detective position was, “not a promotion but a mere lateral move.” Further, the matter was obviously sensitive enough that LSP Legal Counsel Faye Morrison reduced Cain’s words to writing on December 20, 2018. Although that correspondence to Burns included an invitation to feel free to call her if Burns had any questions, the very same day, December 20, 2018, Morrison made it crystal clear via email to Burns that any further inquiries entailing Kaleb Reeves obtaining the detective position should be, “directed to Major Cain or Lieutenant Manale.”

Who knows? Perhaps Reeves was tossed into a detective position in an effort to minimize his time on the road given his utterly horrendous driving record not only with LSP but, as Nakamoto points out, at his prior position with the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office. At any rate, for reasons unknown and subsequent to our feature linked above, Kaleb Reeves was transferred back to patrol.

Of course, this is not the first instance in which having a horrendous driving record failed to inhibit a major promotion (or even “lateral transfer” as Cain insisted was the case with Reeves and the detective position) at LSP. In fact, former Gov. Bobby Jindal opted to name Mike Edmonson as LSP Colonel (at the DIRECT behest of the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association, which has a long history of calling the shots on LSP’s operations), and we’ll just begin to wrap this feature up by providing links for Edmonson’s horrendous driving record prior to being appointed LSP Col. Here they are (we threw in one non-driving episode as lagniappe):

LSP Edmonson disciplinary file links:

1. Reprimand for crashing LSP vehicle and being at fault.

2. 10-Day Suspension for violating payroll protocol.

3. Letter of reprimand for careless operation of vehicle.

4. 40-Hour Suspension for “not being aware of
your condition” behind the wheel and crashing yet another
vehicle (with it being a total loss).

5. 16-Hour suspension for careless operation of vehicle.

Now, lest anyone think that Jindal is the only Governor with an “Edmonson stench” associated with his name, we make the following observation:

When another blogger inquired of then-candidate for Governor, John Bel Edwards, in 2015 regarding whether he intended to reappoint Edmonson if he were elected Governor of Louisiana, Edwards responded in writing that, “I’ve not made a decision.”

Then, at the celebratory party on the night of Edwards’ 2015 victory, at least according to Edmonson, Edwards approached Edmonson and said, “I never even considered appointing anyone as Colonel but you!”

Edwards only made his reappointment of Edmonson far worse in the choice he made in appointing his successor (Kevin Reeves).

Given the massive extent of the cancer that quietly permeated LSP during Reeves’ entire tenure, it’s really ironic that he would characterize the timeframe prior to his appointment as, “the darkest days State Police has had,” (see 16:09 mark of the just-linked video), and yet during his administration, LSP, by any objective assessment, got massively darker than it was when he was appointed.

Furthermore, in sharp contrast to Reeves’ words on that video (trust us, it’s worth it for Louisiana citizens to watch the entire Reeves video linked in the preceding paragraph), regarding his commitment to, “hold LSP accountable,” his administration did anything but, and at no time was that fact made more evident than when Reeves himself wrote a letter to The Advocate imploring the paper to “move forward” entailing its LSP coverage.

That letter was timed to coincide with the departure of then-Advocate reporter (now AP reporter) Jim Mustian, who was doing a superb job of attempting to “hold LSP accountable.” Mustian still is doing a superb job in that regard, and he now has the added advantage of a broader platform to expose LSP’s deficiencies.

It is a very difficult challenge to try to “hold LSP accountable,” but we at Sound Off Louisiana and other media outlets mentioned in this feature are certainly trying to give it our all to do just that!