St. Martin Parish President Cedars caves on Broussard’s farming, begs for court hearing cancellation; was he attempting to shield Parish from liability for questionably-legal restraining order?

St. Martin Parish Government (SMPG) District 6 Councilman Brook Champagne, speaking at the August 3, 2021, SMPG Council meeting, makes the emphatic statement that farmer and constituent Billy Broussard is “violating the zoning ordinance, and there’s no doubt about it!”

We really can’t blame anyone not living in St. Martin Parish or with ties to it for failing to pay much attention to our initial feature of alleged bullying by Louisiana State Police Trooper Scott Lopez wherein he forbid one of farmer Billy Broussard’s drivers to ever drive down “my road” again.

Again, we also can’t blame those without St. Martin Parish ties for not investing much time in our follow-up feature in which we outlined what appears to be a very well-organized conspiracy to shut down the operations of farmer Billy Broussard.

Likewise, we can’t really fault anyone without St. Martin Parish ties for missing out on our third feature in the series exposing Broussard’s attorney’s response to what certainly appears to quite likely be an illegal restraining order issued by the St. Martin Parish Government (SMPG) and, more specifically, Parish President Chester Cedars, which shut down the farming operations of Billy Broussard.

By our own admission, the features were certainly lengthy.  Nevertheless, they are in full conformity with our policy of only publishing material for which we have conducted extensive and in-depth research.  For the benefit of those who chose to skip segments 1-3 linked above on this series, we’re going to make life real simple for you if you’d like to get caught up in no time flat.

How will we do that?  Simple.  What follows is an 8-minute video of highlights of SMPG President Chester Cedars forcefully advocating for an ordinance which he convinced the SMPG Council to pass that would give him (at least he likely mistakenly thought) the legal authority to shut Broussard’s operations down!  Here is that 8-minute highlight video complete with on-screen captions which succinctly state Broussard’s attorney’s contentions as to why Cedars and the SMPG were likely on shaky legal ground in pursuing the actions Cedars pursued:


8-minute video highlights of Cedars, his seemingly very cozy relationship with another tree service company and Broussard competitor, and repeated instances of Cedars convincing the SMPG Council that the body was on solid legal ground when, in fact, that ground ultimately appears to have turned out to be more like quicksand for the reasons presented in the captions on the video.

Now, at the conclusion of the third installment, we stated how anxiously we awaited being able to attend the court hearing scheduled for Tuesday, September 14, 2021 and at which SMPG sought to convert what now appears to be a quite-likely illegal Temporary Restraining Order into a Preliminary Injunction.  We stated that we’d be filming outside the courthouse to let our subscribers and site visitors know just how things turned out.

Well, we were denied that opportunity.  Why?  Because SMPG officials contacted Broussard’s attorney the day before the hearing, Monday, September 13, 2021, and indicated that they were prepared to make major concessions in exchange for the hearing being canceled.  In our firm opinion, this was a straight-up effort to try and shield the SMPG from the obvious liability they face from engaging in Cedars’ renegade actions!  It’s literally that simple!

From what we’re told, SMPG officials met with Broussard and his attorney the next day and indicated that, if he would merely complete an “application” (apparently for zoning variance notwithstanding that Broussard and his legal team dispute the need for any “variance” as they contend no zoning violation has transpired), they are essentially assuring him that the application for the zoning variance will be approved at a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing in November of 2021.

In our opinion, this whole exercise is nothing more than an effort for SMPG officials to be able to state, after approval of the questionably-necessary zoning variance, that, “It’s just like we told Mr. Broussard.  If he’d just followed our ‘process,’ we never would have had to sue him in the first place!”  Broussard has contended all along that going through the “process” is, “complicated since we are not running a business from that address but instead doing private farming and agriculture.”

Our own observations about the motivation for SMPG officials engaging in the action they did in totally caving and calling off their own court-requested hearing notwithstanding, it appears Broussard is willing to extend more courtesy to the SMPG and its “process” than we believe we would be able to muster were we faced with the circumstances to which he has been subjected.

From what we’ve been told, agreement has been reached by both parties, with the essential elements of that agreement itemized as follow:

1) proceeding with any “zoning variance application” is strictly an attempt at compromise;

2) any completion of the application is not an admission of guilt of a zoning violation by Broussard; furthermore, SMPG officials recognize that Broussard flatly denies that he has violated any zoning ordinance of the SMPG;

3) no material contained within the application nor any statements at public hearings entailing the application may be used as evidence for any litigation entailing Broussard (except any appeal by Broussard of any zoning ruling by SMPG);

4) Broussard disputes that the Duchamp Road property is zoned “R2” (mixed residential), and that, by filling in a blank on the zoning variance application regarding existing zoning as “R2,” Broussard does not infer concurrence with that zoning, and filling in that line with “R2” shall not be admissible in any litigation entailing Broussard;

5) Entering the requested zoning “change to” (from “R2”) does not infer that any zoning change is needed for Broussard to conduct his current activities on his property, and filling in the “change to” line on the application shall not be an admission that the property needs to be rezoned nor may the placing of a designation in that blank be admissible in court regarding any Broussard litigation.

We’ll also point out that SMPG officials told Broussard to, “go ahead and resume the activities you were engaging in prior to us issuing the C & D letter and subsequently filing the restraining order.”

We’ll ask our subscribers and site visitors:  Is that pretty much a T-total cave by SMPG officials, or what?

After all, when one issues a questionably-legal C & D letter, subsequently files a quite-likely illegal Restraining Order, requests a cancellation of the Preliminary Injunction court hearing originally sought by that entity, then gives a wink and a nod to the pre-Restraining-Order activities in full, we’ll use some of Cedars’ own words:  “Don’t know what you call that, but we call that a T-total cave!”

This apparently very kind gesture on Broussard’s part notwithstanding, we will continue monitoring this whole sordid scandal until its conclusion to include videotaping any hearing for the questionably-necessary “zoning change,” and the submission of that requested zoning change before the SMPG full Council (assuming it passes the Planning and Zoning Committee).

There is one side benefit for us entailing this delay.  That benefit will be that, by the time of the zoning hearing, we will have either received the body-cam video of LSP Trooper Scott Lopez for the afternoon of Monday, June 14, 2021 when he allegedly stopped one of Broussard’s drivers and stated to him, “You better not drive down MY road again if you know what’s good for you,” or a statement from Louisiana State Police (LSP) that no such video is available.

If it turns out to be the latter (i.e. that no body-cam video exists for that 6/14/21 alleged encounter with Lopez), that will apparently be yet one more instance of an LSP Trooper (Lopez in this case) selectively violating LSP’s own body-worn camera policy on which we requested the latest version.

As indicated on the just-linked document, the latest LSP body-worn camera policy is dated March 1, 2021.  The folk with extensive LSP knowledge whom we’ve asked for guidance on that policy summed their observations up with, “there sure are a ton of ‘shalls’ in that policy!”

Stay tuned for the next episode of farmer Billy Broussard’s encounters with the SMPG and its President, Chester Cedars!

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Even as AP reports May 20 Davis/Belton meeting subject of Federal investigation, Louisiana Gov. Edwards says media reports of State Police cover-up are “overblown or just false.”

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards

Appearing on Wednesday’s (September 15, 2021) “Ask the Governor” Jim Engster show and as reported thereafter by The Louisiana Illuminator the next day (Thursday, September 16, 2021), Gov. Edwards strongly downplayed any cover-up by Louisiana State Police (LSP) regarding the May 10, 2019 in-custody death of Ronald Greene.  Edwards even appeared to spar with Engster over Engster’s statement that the initial cause of death reported by LSP (that it was a vehicle accident) was “a falsehood.”  Rarely will one ever find a host of a broadcast more Edwards-friendly than Engster, so let’s listen in on the segment where they discussed Greene’s death and any potential LSP cover-up with special focus near the end with Edwards saying he doesn’t want to “quibble” with Engster over the cause of Greene’s death:


Engster and Edwards discuss any LSP cover-up entailing Ronald Greene’s death on Wednesday’s (September 15, 2021) “Ask the Governor” Jim Engster show.

Meanwhile, let’s take a look at a few segments of that Louisiana Illuminator feature which augment the above Engster segment:

In an interview with the Illuminator, Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Louisiana police watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission, said the governor is not privy to the details of those inquiries.

“The information that he is getting is probably coming from the State Police, which is the subject of the investigation,” Goyeneche said. “My advice to the public is to take what the governor is saying with a few grains of salt.”

State Rep. Ted James (D-Baton Rouge), who serves as chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus — a close ally of Edwards — said he was disappointed to hear the governor downplayed a cover-up in the case.

“It’s clear everywhere else across the state that the State Police did everything to try to conceal and hide the truth,” James said.

James said the cover-up allegations didn’t just arise when the agency withheld videos from the public. Troopers told Greene’s family that he died on impact in the wreck, concealed body-camera footage and lied to internal affairs investigators, he said.

In an attempt to regain public trust in the agency, State Police Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis held a press conference last week to highlight some police reforms.

But James said he has zero confidence in the agency.

“I’m very disappointed that the governor doesn’t see this as a cover-up,” James said. “Ray Charles could have seen this is a cover-up. It’s glaring.”

Also breaking this week, our subscribers may recall us calling upon LSP Col. Lamar Davis at a September 10, 2021 hastily-arranged press conference to “clear the air” regarding a controversial meeting between him, Union Parish District Attorney John Belton, LSP Lt. Col. Doug Cain, LSP Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon, LSP’s then-chief Legal Counsel Faye Morrison, Belton’s chief assistant, and one other member of Belton’s staff.  Let’s provide video again of Davis’ response to our question:


LSP Col. Davis responds to Burns’ question on the accuracy of the AP report stating that he tried to convince DA John Belton that LSP troopers’ actions in the arrest of Ronald Greene were “justified.”

Last week, the AP doubled-down on its prior report when it published this feature on Davis’ press conference on Friday, September 10, 2021 in stating that the meeting itself “has become the subject of a Federal investigation into possible obstruction of justice.”  From the feature:

Davis also sought to play down a meeting on May 20 — the day after AP published graphic footage of Greene’s death — in which state police brass traveled to Ruston to review the long-concealed body camera video with John Belton, the Union Parish district attorney. Belton became so concerned with the circumstances of Greene’s death two years ago that he referred the case to federal authorities, who began a civil rights investigation.

The command staff made the case during the meeting that the troopers’ actions had been justified during Greene’s arrest, according to several people familiar with the meeting, which itself has become the subject of a federal investigation into possible obstruction of justice. But Davis on Friday insisted he had not asked Belton “or any other official to not pursue charges on any of my employees” in Greene’s death.

“I would never do that,” Davis said. “I have never done that.”

Things appear to be getting interesting for sure.  We’ll wrap this feature up by fulfilling the desires of some of our most dedicated subscribers.  They asked us to first make sure anyone following this blog would be aware why Gov. Edwards is going to back law enforcement no matter what the circumstances.  Here would be the possible reason stated in a mere 11 seconds:


Gov. Edwards touts his family’s strong ties to law enforcement, particularly sheriffs, which have long controlled LSP’s operations through the Louisiana Sheriffs Association.

Finally, those same subscribers asked that we reintroduce a theme song we adopted entailing Edwards not long after he was elected Governor, so here is that theme song now resurrected  almost four years later:

Sound Off Louisiana theme song adopted for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards not long after he was elected Governor of Louisiana in 2015.

During the Engster interview, one caller asked for Edwards to consider running for President of the United States.  Not only did Edwards rule that out (in stating, “I love my wife and want to keep her,” in indicating she would not be on board for a Presidential run), but he also ruled out challenging John Kennedy for U. S. Senate next year.  He indicated that he looks forward to returning to his family home and resuming working in private practice.  Let’s give him credit for one thing:  he knows his political career, just as was the case for his predecessor, Bobby Jindal, is over.

Having said that, if the best the GOP has to offer in 2023 is Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser and Attorney General Jeff Landry, don’t be surprised if a dark horse in the person of Gary Smith (D-Norco) doesn’t become the next one to pull off a feat similar to Edwards’ own incredible feat in 2015.  It is truly a sad state of affairs in Louisiana politics unless there are changes in the offing for the GOP major announced field of contenders for the Governor’s Mansion in 2023!  We sure hope such changes ARE in the offing!

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Even as State Police Col. Davis emphatically denies AP report he tried to influence DA Belton, he’s confronted by alleged victim of excessive force who tells him, “Ya’ll worse criminals than us!”

At a Louisiana State Police press conference of Friday, September 10, 2021, LSP Col. Lamar Davis points to Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns to pose the first question of the Q & A segment of the press conference.

As any follower of our blog knows, we have been T-totally immersed very deeply in the Broussard / St. Martin Parish Government (SMPG) controversy (which itself has extensive involvement by Louisiana State Police – LSP).  Further, we are looking very forward to attending Tuesday’s (September 14, 2021) injunction hearing in 16th JDC on the matter.  We are particularly looking forward to any cross examination of LSP Trooper Scott Lopez at that hearing by Broussard’s attorney entailing a June 14, 2021 traffic stop of one of Broussard’s drivers.

Let us take this opportunity to catch our subscribers and visitors up on some of the core happenings at LSP last week.

First, on Tuesday, September 7, 2021 (a date at which we were at the SMPG Council Meeting), WBRZ’s (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge) Chris Nakamoto, the station’s lead investigative reporter, produced a feature entailing LSP Lt. John Clary, who was the highest-ranking Trooper to be on the scene of Ronald Greene’s death on May 10, 2019, being assigned as the body guard for Louisiana Tech’s football coach for its home games.

Numerous sources contacted a source common to both Sound Off Louisiana and WBRZ, and we were happy to know Nakamoto had keen interest in the matter and would run with it because we were (and are) deeply entrenched in Broussard/SMPG.  That source, in turn, encouraged Nakamoto to watch video of Louisiana Tech’s home game played on Saturday, September 4, 2021, and that he (Nakamoto) would notice Clary escorting Louisiana Tech’s football coach off the field.  The broadcast was on national television, and these folk felt it was an outrage to have the highest-ranking LSP Trooper on the scene at Greene’s death (and who is alleged to have lied about the existence of his own body-cam footage on the scene that morning), be awarded such a prestigious assignment.

Accordingly, Nakamoto ran with a feature on Tuesday night (September 7, 2021), and that feature was followed by yet another feature airing on the evening of Thursday, September 9, 2021.  Let’s take a look at Nakamoto’s feature of that evening at this time:


WBRZ’s Clary follow-up feature airing at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 9, 2021.

Meanwhile, only one day before the preceding feature (Wednesday, September 8, 2021), AP reporters Jim Mustian (a former Advocate reporter) and Jake Bleiberg published this feature which contains an absolute plethora of photos and videos of alleged uses of excessive force by LSP Troopers.  While some of the videos on the preceding feature had already been released to the public via the AP, the feature contains a ton of brand new releases of damning material.

After the one-two-three punch of Nakamoto-Mustian/Bleiberg-Nakamoto, LSP felt the agency simply had to convene a press conference to try and make at least a half-hearted effort at damage control as things seemed to have begun to spin completely out of control.  LSP has tried for weeks to put on the full-court press to uncover the “source” of the media leaks (such that reports are that a massive level of LSP manpower and effort has been devoted solely to uncovering the leaks).

Since those efforts are obviously proving fruitless, the agency opted to try to mitigate the extensive damage to its public image via a hastily-called news conference.  That news conference took place at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, September 10, 2021, which marked the one-year anniversary of Sound Off Louisiana being the first media outlet to expose the Ronald Greene matter.  Sound Off Louisiana’s founder, Robert Burns, attended the press conference, and LSP Col. Lamar Davis was kind enough to call upon Burns for the very first question of the Q & A segment.

Burns sought clarity entailing material in this August 4, 2021 AP feature also by Mustian & Bleiberg.  Specifically, Burns sought for Davis to “clear the air” on this segment of the feature:

Davis and Cain traveled to District Attorney John Belton’s office in Ruston — more than 200 miles north of Baton Rouge — on May 20 to review the video frame by frame and make the case that the troopers’ actions were justified.

Let’s take a look at Davis’ adamant statement that the segment of the AP feature quoted above is “not true.”:


LSP Col. Davis responds to Burns’ question on the accuracy of the AP report stating that he tried to convince DA John Belton that LSP troopers’ actions in the arrest of Ronald Greene were “justified.”

Now, Col. Davis was kind enough to call upon us (even doing so first), so we certainly wanted to be very respectful of the other journalists in attendance and make sure all of them had an opportunity to pose their questions before we took a “second bite at the apple” so to speak.  We were very hopeful that someone in the media would follow-up on our question and seek the composition of folk from LSP attending that Ruston meeting.  Fortunately, one member did, and that alleviated the need for us to even take that second bite.  Let’s focus in on Davis’ response to the inquiry regarding who all at LSP (and otherwise) attended the meeting:


Davis provides the names of LSP personnel (and others) attending the meeting at DA John Belton’s Office on May 20, 2021.

Now, we are about to make some observations that we want to make it crystal clear that we’re speaking for Sound Off Louisiana only and our own practices in our commentary which follows:

As founder Robert Burns stated to the SMPG Council last week (watch video on the feature), we take great pride in extensively striving to make sure what we report is “accurate.”  Burns made that comment before the SMPG expressing extreme frustration at what he’s referred to as “piss poor” journalism on the part of The Daily Iberian.

Burns’ criticism of the feature linked above entailed four (4) separate references to farmer Billy Broussard engaging in “burning” activities of vegetative debris he hauls onto his 33-acre farm.  All four of those statements in that one feature are absolutely false!

Furthermore, it was not as simple as a mistake on the journalist’s part!  Had that journalist merely taken even a few minutes to call Broussard using the business card Broussard provided at the conclusion of the August 3, 2021 SMPG meeting, those falsehoods would not have been reported.  Why?  Because Broussard would have emphatically denied any burning on his part!

Ironically, Broussard made such a denial at the August 3, 2021 SMPG meeting (from which the author drafted his article).  Hence, we’re not sure what the author must have been doing as he sat in the same meeting and presumably heard Broussard emphatically deny that he is “burning.”  Whatever he was doing, he sure as heck wasn’t paying attention, and that’s being very kind to the author.  The alternative is obviously far worse!  Nevertheless, that “journalist” published a feature falsely claiming that Broussard is burning four times within the same article linked above!

We know Jim Mustian personally, and we know him to be a reporter of absolutely impeccable character and extreme professional competency.

While we are not going to speak on whom his source for the quote above may be, we will simply say, again speaking for Sound Off Louisiana only and our practices, we would not have run with such a statement unless we got that information first-hand from someone in attendance at the meeting.

If Mustian insisted upon the same criterion, and going on the presumption that the source is an LSP official (and we realize that it may not have been given the non-LSP officials Davis states were in attendance at the meeting), we all heard in the video above Davis call out the names of those four (4) LSP officials in attendance at the meeting.

We can also use common sense to deduce Mustian’s source certainly was not Davis or Cain.  If Mustian’s source was an LSP official (and, again, we acknowledge the fact that may not be the case), that leaves only two to choose from:  Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon and Davis’ “then legal counsel, Faye Morrison.”

All of the preceding discussion notwithstanding, we do feel it’s imperative to point out the fact that Mustian reached out to Davis for comment before publishing the feature.  What was Davis’ response?  We’ll reproduce it at this time:

Davis has declined repeated interview requests.

Our advice to Davis is to respond to requests for interviews (i.e. be “transparent” as he promised to do soon after taking office) so that the “air can be cleared” long before large segments of Louisiana’s population (black, white, etc.) are now openly questioning his leadership, integrity, and honesty.  The reporter referenced above regarding the SMPG feature did NOT reach out to Broussard before printing the repeated falsehoods he printed about Broussard “burning.”  Davis cannot invoke that complaint against Mustian, and it is his own fault if he chose not to respond to “repeated interview requests.”

Regarding Davis’ honesty and integrity, he faced one more intriguing question posed by an alleged victim of police brutality.  That gentleman essentially dismissed all of Davis’ defense of LSP.  From our efforts to break out what he asked of and said to Davis, he appears to be from the Lafayette area (or at least asserts he was victimized by law enforcement officials in the Lafayette area).

We’ve yet to see any other media outlet report on this gentleman openly confronting Davis.  Perhaps that may be as a result of a perception that he was ineligible to pose a question in not being a member of the media.  Nevertheless, lack of media credentials notwithstanding, this gentleman certainly made his sentiments known to Davis.  Let’s take a look:


A gentleman at the press conference openly confronts Davis on allegations of “alteration of body cam video” by law enforcement and accuses law enforcement of being, “worse criminals than us.”

Let us conclude by providing this link for the press conference in its entirety; however, we will forewarn our subscribers who may wish to view it that we’ve taken the time to read many of the news media’s reviews of LSP and, more specifically, Davis’ performance at Friday’s press conference.  Those reviews range from one fellow blogger grading Davis at a “D-” for substance (ouch!) to even this Advocate feature which referred to Davis’ presentation as “a rambling press conference.”  Finally, one observer with extensive ties to LSP’s operations who watched the press conference live via steam service provided by a mainstream media outlet, summed the press conference up with these words he uttered to us:  “It has more BS than a Kansas City feed lot.”

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