Sound Off Louisiana

Former LSP Trooper and Pilot Michael Satcher, II, who faces a court hearing in 9th JDC in Alexandria on Thursday, February 25, 2021 regarding alleged domestic abuse of his former dating partner, Cynthia Chapman.

When we published our last feature regarding former Louisiana State Police Trooper and Pilot Michael Satcher II, we indicated that his next court date for allegations of domestic abuse entailing his former dating partner, Cynthia Chapman, would be February 25, 2021.  We also committed to follow the case and to report to our subscribers developments in the case notwithstanding the fact that Satcher agreed to retire from LSP effective December 18, 2020.

The most recent development in the case is Satcher’s filing of this Brady Motion.  A Brady Motion is essentially a request that the Court issue an order requiring the prosecution to turn over any evidence which may tend to exonerate the accused.

Satcher’s Brady Motion appears to be a shotgun effort in the hope that the prosecution may have such evidence and, in fact, may even be an act of desperation to try to counter the extensive detail provided in Cynthia Chapman’s, his former dating partner, Petition for Protective Order if Satcher and his defense attorney have no ability to counter such detail on their own.

Our subscribers may recall that Satcher was arrested on October 12, 2019 for alleged domestic abuse entailing Chapman.  Further, our subscribers may also recall that, as made plain by statements by LSP Chief of Staff Doug Cain in our November 19, 2020 Satcher feature, LSP had not initiated an administrative investigation on Satcher until “last week” (which would be well over a year after his arrest)!  Further, it is quite likely that even that administrative investigation was launched only after our  initial feature on Satcher of November 4, 2020!

As mentioned above, Satcher faces a hearing on Thursday, February 25, 2021 at which he is expected to make a plea of guilty or not guilty.

At this time, we’d like to share with our subscribers some of the material provided by Chapman in her Petition for Protective Order linked above (we think our subscribers owe it to themselves to view the document in its entirety, but we’ll provide some highlights):

[Incident of October 12, 2019].

For safety reasons, I walked to a group of people that I knew (at her son’s soccer game).  I was fearful that Michael would try to grab me…….He was angry when I left his house due to me ending the relationship.

<After Satcher allegedly forced his way into Chapman’s home.>

I then watched as he forced his way into my master bedroom using his upper body…..I could smell liquor on his breath.  I was crying, yelling for him to stop & let go, PLEADING desperately with him to stop.  We fell into a zero-gravity chair in my back patio then both rolled to the ground where my head hit the pavement…..I am still crying and screaming trying to alert my neighbors……..He then proceeds to pick me up, squeezes me so tight around my mid-section that I void myself.  He carries me to the master bedroom.  As he is carrying me, he tells me that I am fat & heavy & that I need to quit eating because I’ve gained weight.

He carries me into the master bedroom, puts me on the floor, straddles me by sitting on top of me & tells me he can do whatever he wants to me.  He puts his fingers in my vaginal area, poking at my vagina with his fingers (my pants are on).  He starts pulling on my pants as though he is going to pull them down all the while calling me a slut, whore, cunt……At this time, I am in fear for my life as he is now holding his hand over my nose and mouth to prevent me from screaming, restricting my air flow.  He removes his hand, and I told him, “Michael, Stop!  Please!  Think about my 5 kids!  They need me!”

<After Chapman’s son, Dylan, appears on the scene.>

Dylan opens the door for me.  I walk in & he (Dylan) walks in behind me.  Mike charges the front door and places his body in the way so Dylan can’t shut the front door.  The front door is open from Mike trying to force his way in.  Dylan reaches out around Mike’s waist, pushes him away from the front door, then tackles him to the ground…….Mike says to Dylan, “Do you really want a piece of me?”  <After Cynthia and Dylan make it safely inside and Satcher departs.>  Dylan says he is going to call the police.  I plead with him not to as I am fearful:  He is a State Trooper and a sniper.  I am scared he will retaliate.

<After Cynthia calls sister so that her boyfriend can ensure door is safely locked and secure and sister notes blood on Cynthia’s shirt.  Sister immediately calls 911.>

RPSO (Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office) arrives on scene, takes report.  An LSP Trooper also shows up (Betrand).  After the police leave, Dylan & I go to my sister’s to spend the night as we do not feel safe.

[Incidents Prior to 10/12/19].

Michael and I began dating March of 2018 right after he and his wife separated.  In the course of our dating, Michael was violent toward me 10-15 times.  The most memorable, most vivid moments are as follows:

July, 2018 – Louisiana State Trooper’s Association Cruise Sponsored by Troop E.

<After they are in their room after Chapman claims Satcher said a conversation she has with another trooper was “inappropriate.”>

He angrily ripped off the shirt he was wearing….Ripped his shirt in half.  He took my phone from me, threw it against the wall – it was no longer functional.  He took one of my shirts, ripped it in half.  He broke a pair of my sunglasses with his hands.  Ripped my cross-body purse off my person breaking the strap, ripped my toiletries bag & pulled the TV / TV Stand down off the wall (he called the Carnival maintenance dept. to get this fixed).   The next day, he was still angry at me…..He told me he wanted to talk.  I explained that we could talk after the (St. Jude) fundraiser.  He told me no, grabbed me around my hips, lifting me in the air, hitting my neck on the ceiling causing my neck to go into an unnatural position which caused my arm to go numb temporarily.  (For several days after I was unable to turn my head to the right & had to see a massage therapist for several months after the incident due to limited range of motion.)  Once he carried me in the room, he threw me on the bed, held his hand over my nose and mouth as I was trying to scream.  I was unable to breathe.  He then let go & shoved me off the bed onto the floor.  Later I had a significant bruise to my buttock.  Both incidents on the ship, Michael was intoxicated.  Both incidents caused great fear.  However, I did not report the incidents due to him being a state trooper and fear of retaliation.  Once back home, Michael’s ex-wife Courtney called me saying he was just at her apartment.  She told me he had just tried to strangle her & had put a gun to her head.  In that same conversation, she said, “Has he put his hands on you yet?”

Subscribers are welcome to read other detailed accounts within Chapman’s Petition for Protective Order in which she recounts alleged acts of violence perpetrated by Satcher against her on the following occassions:

1. 1.  Greg Phares’ (former Baton Rouge Police Chief) retirement party in September of 2018.
   2. An episode at Planet Fitness in September or October of 2018.
   3. An episode at Buffalo Wild Wings in September or October of 2019.
   4. A November 2018 episode at the Gulf Coast Motorcycle Competition in Gonzales, Louisiana.
   5. An episode at the December 2018 LSTA Christmas Party and T. Lawrence Concert (at which the incident actually allegedly transpired).
   6. A February 2019 incident at Chapman’s house.

Chapman also states in the Petition that she ended the relationship on April 13, 2019 but that Satcher nevertheless stalked her and would repeatedly tell her that it would be pointless to call the police since it would be “my word against yours.”  Chapman also contends that Satcher stated she would “lose my FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner) license” if she contacted police.

Chapman also states that Satcher would drive off from her home highly intoxicated (to the point he could not walk straight and would slur his words) in his LSP unmarked vehicle.

There’s plenty more to read entailing Sature’s alleged behavior and, as we said, we highly recommend reading Chapman’s Petition for Protective Order in its entirety to grasp the true magnitude of Satcher’s alleged actions and the degree of his apparent obsession with Chapman.

As we close this feature, we want to make a couple of points.  First, how in the name of God can LSP decline to even initiate an administrative investigation on this matter until OVER A YEAR after Satcher’s arrest given the HIGHLY EXTENSIVE detail Chapman provides in her Petition?  How?

That brings us to a point we now wish to make.  At the LSPC meeting of Thursday, February 11, 2021, LSP Col. Lamar Davis, who was attempting to indicate professionally to the members that he feels they are being too liberal in their willingness to reinstate leave for troopers charged with criminal acts, emphasized that regular citizens don’t have these kind of rights.  Subscribers may even recall Belinda Parker-Brown expressing concern to WBRZ’s Chris Nakamoto over “taxpayer-funded vacations for murderers at LSP.”   Let’s take a look at exactly what Davis had to say:

LSP Col. Lamar Davis indicates the public would not receive the same rights and liberal leave policies the LSPC is affording LSP Troopers.

We can tell you that, having spoken with many, many members of the public who have viewed LSPC meetings and the liberal treatments afforded LSP Troopers arrested for alleged criminal acts, the public FULLY agrees with the commentary of Col. Davis which he expresses above.  F-U-L-L-Y!!!

Davis makes brief reference to “shoplifting” in the above video.  He did not pull that word out of thin air!  LSPC Chairman Eulis Simien cited a hypothetical example of, if a Trooper had been arrested for “armed robbery,” but then it was ascertained that he had merely engaged in  “shoplifting,” then it may be appropriate to reinstate the majority of the leave the Trooper had utilized during the investigation!  THAT is why Davis emphasized his point (even pointing toward Simien as he did so) that, if a member of the public had shoplifted and been arrested for it, he wouldn’t have all these rights and privileges.  Davis further stated his contention that the public is viewing “police officers as being treated special.”

A long-time friend and former co-worker of Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns (whom Burns has declared to be the “smartest person he’s ever met,”) and who subscribes to this blog and has followed these LSP episodes (he resided in Louisiana many years ago and now resides in Kansas), stated:  “Robert, when a district attorney believes that he has sufficient evidence to convict someone in a court of law, which means he believes he can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, then it is inexcusable for Louisiana State Police not to fire that trooper immediately!”  He then asked, “What does a trooper have to do to get fired in Louisiana?  Does he have to openly murder someone in broad daylight with cameras rolling for the world to see to get fired?  It’s unbelievable!”

Notwithstanding Col. Davis’ commentary above and the words of Burns’ long-time friend above, at least one LSPC commissioner (beyond Simien who went to the extreme of suggesting mere “shoplifting” may justify reinstatement of leave since it wasn’t “armed robbery”), Brian Crawford, openly challenged Davis’ argument by stating how “painstaking” it is for an LSP trooper to be on forced annual leave, which is what gets triggered after a FULL 400 HOURS of “paid administrative leave.”  Let’s take a look at Crawford’s commentary directed at Davis from that February 11, 2020 meeting:

LSPC Commissioner Brian Crawford counters LSP Col. Davis’ statements about too liberal of leave policy for criminally-charged LSP Troopers by emphasizing the “painstaking” conditions those troopers are under while under investigation.

We’ll leave it to our subscribers to decide if the disciplinary procedures of LSP are antiquated and dysfunctional.

What are our sentiments? LSP troopers should be permitted to make all the political contributions they’d like to make (since they’re suing for that right anyway).  As a result of obtaining that “privilege,” however, they should be required to forfeit all civil service rights and become just like the regular folk Davis describes above (i.e. at-will employees).  That would also carry the side benefit of eliminating the LSPC and saving taxpayers another major expense to operate an entity that is near 100 percent dysfunctional and counterproductive and has proven that fact repetitively in the four years we’ve been observing them.

Jacob Brown, son of former LSP Chief of Staff under former Col. Kevin Reeves, Robert Brown, was recommended for “consideration of termination” while serving as a Cadet in the LSP Academy in 2015.

On December 10, 2020, one of our most steady and relaible sources within Louisiana State Police (LSP) advised us that we would be intrigued by what all we’d see if we made a public records request for LSP Trooper Jacob Brown’s academy records.

We immediately made the request and, on January 27, 2021, LSP attorney Faye Morrison informed us that the requested records were ready for review.  The next day, January 28, 2021, we showed up at LSP offices and commenced to scan all 184 pages of Brown’s LSP Academy records.

Our source certainly was right about what all we uncovered in the records.  Briefly, in addition to challenges regarding basic writing and grammar skills, Brown repeatedly violated a ban on contraband during his tenure as a Cadet; furthermore, he repeatedly lied to his superiors regarding his possession of contraband.  The end result of that was this two-page memo dated March 6, 2015 by Sergeant Len Marie which recommended that Brown be “considered for termination.”  From the memo:

HE IS WILLING TO CUT CORNERS AND EXPRESS HIMSELF IN A DISRESPECTFUL AND DECEPTIVE MANNER. RETAINING AN
EMPLOYEE WHO HAS ALREADY PROVEN THAT HE IS WILLING TO BE DISHONEST EXPOSES THE DEPARTMENT TO NEGLIGENT RETENTION. THESE ARE TRAITS OF A TOXIC EMPLOYEE THAT SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE WITH HIS TRAINING, AND THEREFORE BE CONSIDERED FOR
TERMINATION.

We provided the memo to WBRZ’s (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge) Investigative Reporter Chris Nakamoto on Friday, February 5, 2021.  Nakamoto also subsequently obtained the same memo from his own sources and contacted us to confirm that it was an official document released to us by LSP as part of our public records request.  Once he had that confirmation from us, he was off to the proverbial races!  Let’s take just a few minutes to view video news features of Nakamoto’s original feature of December 11, 2020 as well as a feature broadcast on yesterday’s (February 9, 2021) 6 p.m. newscast:

WBRZ (Channel 2 in Baton Rouge)’s Chris Nakamoto’s original feature of December 11, 2020 on Jacob Brown and his  2/9/21 feature.

Now, as is apparent in the feature above, Nakamoto references and interviews several attorneys representing one of Brown’s alleged victims, Aaron Bowman, entailing Brown’s alleged use of excessive force.  That incident transpired on May 30, 2019, or about 20 days after the Ronald Greene incident.  Let’s briefly dissect what all has transpired in that litigation.

1.  The original suit had a plethora of problems entailing improper agent for service of process, improper locations and descriptions of state agencies, etc.  The suit, originally filed on September 21, 2020 in Fourth JDC in State Court in Monroe, also focused heavily on establishing that prescription had not transpired since the suit was not filed until well over a year after the incident.
2. The suit was subsequently moved to Federal Court in Monroe as requested by LSP.
3. Quite a few more attorneys, many of whom are interviewed by Nakamoto in the above features, were enrolled as counsel representing Bowman.
4. Magistrate Judge Karen Hayes (the same one overseeing the Greene suit) provided plaintiff until January 15, 2021 to amend the suit to correct the obvious problems referenced in # 1 above.
5. On January 15, 2021, Bowman filed this amendment as well as this amendment.
6. One day prior to the above amendments, on January 14, 2021,  Bowman filed this motion indicating that all claims giving rise to Federal jurisdiction were being dropped and therefore asserting that Federal Court no longer has subject matter jurisdiction, and that the matter should therefore be remanded back to State District Court.
7. On January 15, 2021, Magistrate Judge Hayes established the parameters for the Remand Motion.
8. On February 4, 2021, the University of Louisiana System filed opposition to the matter being remanded back to State Court, and other defendants, such as the Monroe Police Department and City of Monroe, the next day, February 5, 2021, filed opposition which merely piggybacked off of the U of L filing.

Meanwhile, the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) has slated on its agenda for tomorrow (February 11, 2021) the placement of Brown on Leave Without Pay (LWOP as it’s known).  We’ll certainly be there to videotape the Commission’s deliberation of same and any comments made pertaining to the request.

No matter what transpires at tomorrow’s LSPC meeting entailing Brown, however, what’s undeniable is the fact that a memo such as Sergeant Marie drafted on March 6, 2015 is nothing short of pure gold for Bowman’s attorneys!  Further, it is truly sad that so many members of LSP’s upper brass would expose taxpayers to massive liability and individual citizens to such unbelievably inappropriate treatment.

Perhaps one individual whom we hold in very high regard summed it up best when he stated:  “If you haven’t figured this out, LSP upper brass saw to it their sons were hired because otherwise they’d end up having to be right back in their parents’ home with those parents providing their support.”

In concluding this feature, let’s give a very brief update to our Ronald Greene feature entailing adding the late-LSP Trooper Chris Hollingsworth’s wife, Darby, to the litigation.  Here are bullet points of the latest developments in that matter:

1.  Former Col. Kevin Reeves has been dismissed from the litigation.  As subscribers may recall, the Court granted the “access to Court” argument advanced by LSP (i.e. that nothing any defendants did denied Greene the right to pursue action in court), and as pointed out by Magistrate Judge Hayes, she’d previously dismissed that claim against ALL defendants.  Since that was the only claim against Reeves, his own Motion to Dismiss became moot.  Reeves was not awarded attorney fees.
2. The Motion to Substitute Darby Hollingsworth for her deceased husband and former LSP Trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was denied; however, the Judge stipulated that Greene’s attorney could take leave of court to depose Darby Hollingsworth for purposes of obtaining knowledge of who Chris Hollingsworth’s heirs are and also provided Greene’s attorneys until March 17, 2021 to file another Substitution Motion naming those heirs (be it Darby or otherwise).
3. Kory York (as well as other LSP Troopers) filed notice that he intends to appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals the Federal Court’s ruling failing to grant his Motion to Dismiss him from Greene’s litigation.

As anyone can plainly see, taxpayers incur massive legal fees for the kind of renegade behavior that seems to be so prevalent among LSP Troopers, particularly a subset in Monroe, which just so happens to be the very Troop from which former Col. Reeves emerged as leader to assume his utterly disastrous reign as Colonel of Louisiana State Police.

Again, we’ll let our subscribers know of the LSPC’s decision on Jacob Brown’s application for LWOP later this week after we’ve attended tomorrow’s LSPC meeting.

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