Louisiana State Representative-Elect of House District 81 (and long-time former Ascension Parish Sheriff) Jeff Wiley.
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, C. J. Matthews, who unsuccessfully ran for Ascension Parish Sheriff and was defeated by incumbent Sheriff Bobby Webre by an 87-13 margin, describes the angst and turmoil which he indicates has transpired at the Sheriff’s Office in the immediate aftermath of Webre’s victory.
Let’s take a look at all that Matthews had to say regarding the matters presented above:
10/23/23: Matthews describes the angst and turmoil he asserts exist in Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre’s office in the immediate aftermath of Webre’s successful re-election of October 14, 2023 and follows that up with countering Wiley’s recent claim that he, “acted in haste to play ‘gotcha'” on Wiley’s campaign nursing home visit days before the October 14, 2023 election.
We were also provided with a copy of another public records request response from Webre. That request entailed obtaining, “all documentation concerning the telephone records of Sheriff Robert “Bobby” Webre from October 2, 2021 – October 31, 2021.”
The response letter, which was dated October 20, 2023 and was signed by Deputy Kyle Gautreau, Paralegal/Custodian of Records, Legal Affairs Section, stated: “This office has no records responsive to your request.”
The request for the records was made by Delatte about four (4) months ago; however, it wasn’t until October 20, 2023 that Webre’s office got around to informing her that it has no records responsive to her request.
In the above video, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns indicated that he’d provide the link for a number of lawsuits he filed against the Louisiana Auctioneer’s Licensing Board, the majority of which entailed either public records or alleged open meetings violations. Here is that link.
Now let’s provide the text messages Matthews references in the video above that he received from Wiley. Here they are:
Now, it’s not our norm, but since the above video is just shy of 40 minutes long, we’re going to point out a few key spots on the video entailing points regarding State Representative-Elect Jeff Wiley’s nursing home visit:
19:13 Transition to Wiley discussion (away from Webre turmoil Matthews discussed).
20:10 Burns states the unfortunate aspect of Wiley stating to him that he’d allow no videotaping of a forum conducted just before the election because Burns indicated that Wiley’s responses to questions would indicate that Wiley is likely to vote as a State Representative in a manner consistent with the manner in which Burns would desire him to vote.
21:00 Burns states the unfortunate reality that, Vitter’s philosophy about the way Louisiana should be governed (particularly regarding tort reform) matching Burns’ philosophy notwithstanding, Vitter had the obvious problem that he consorted with prostitutes, and that completely destroyed his bid to become Governor of Louisiana in 2015.
21:12 Burns states, “Now I’m certainly not prepared to suggest in any manner that Jeff Wiley has ever consorted with prostitutes.”
22:05 Burns again reiterates that he’s not prepared to suggest in any manner that Jeff Wiley has ever consorted with prostitutes.
22:30 Burns transitions to Matthews to counter Wiley’s texts messages provided above regarding the nursing home visit by Jeff Wiley days prior to the election on October 14, 2023.
Former Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Mike “party down” Edmonson (left) and presumed Louisiana Sheriff’s Association-backed LSP future Colonel Frank Besson (right – a/k/a by many current and recently-retired troopers as “Edmonson 2.0.”)
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns openly poses the question of Governor-Elect Jeff Landry regarding whether he will continue the pattern of his two most-recent predecessors, Bobby Jindal and John Bel Edwards, and merely appoint as Louisiana State Police (LSP) Colonel whomever the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association dictates to him he’ll appoint. Burns further states the belief of many current and recently-retired troopers that doing so will merely perpetuate the 15-year downward spiral that has transpired at LSP since former Colonel Edmonson was appointed in early 2008. Here’s the feature (and please excuse the intermittent blurriness of the picture):
Here are links for the disciplinary record of former Col. Edmonson prior to his appointment in 2008, all of which the Jindal Administration either ignored or failed to even vet Edmonson and merely let the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association dictate the appointment (or both):
As stated on the video above, over the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting various problematic occurrences within LSP which are transpiring in real time.
As we indicated on our most recent feature, Landry is inheriting one hell of a mess at LSP, and the hope is that he won’t just act in a “business as usual” manner and thereby perpetuate the 15-year downward spiral that LSP has endured since Edmonson’s appointment in early 2008 as Bobby Jindal began his tenure as Governor of Louisiana.
At the meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission of Thursday, October 12, 2023, fired LSP Trooper Kasha Domingue pleaded with the Commission’s members to change her “termination” from LSP to “retired voluntarily.” Photo courtesy of WBRZ (Channel 2) in Baton Rouge and us.
Domingue has appeared on LSPC agendas a number of times since she was fired from LSP for the incident, and it has never been very clear exactly what her objective for placement on the agendas has been. That fact has been amplified by the fact Domingue has consistently been pro se, and the Commission has chided her for not returning LSPC attorney Lenore Feeney’s phone calls in a timely manner.
This most-recent Domingue appearance before the LSPC was where the rubber met the road, so to speak. Domingue objected to LSP’s presentation of the evidence which led to her termination, and she indicated that, from her vantage point, all of that evidence constituted mere “allegations,” and she emphasized that all of the charges against her had been “dropped,” and that her record had been expunged. She said that her sole purpose for appearing before the LSPC was to have her termination reclassified from “termination” to “voluntary resignation.”
We’ve just summarized what took the LSPC about 3 1/2 hours to muddle through, and Burns stated to a few individuals (including LSPC Chairman Eulis Simien, Jr.,) who were stunned to see him depart early that, “I’ve seen all I need to see,” as he took off for the Jeff Landry Baton Rouge rally at George’s transpiring at 11:30 a.m. the same day.
Nevertheless, Burns did telephone WBRZ Investigative Reporter Chris Nakamoto and indicate that Domingue had stated under oath that her record had been “expunged.” Nakamoto asked Burns if he had video of Domingue making that statement, to which Burns responded in the affirmative and added that he could have that video to Nakamoto within an hour.
We want to also provide the testimony before the LSPC of Dilley’s mother, Deborah Higginbotham. Here’s her testimony:
10/12/23: Deborah Higginbotham testifies before the LSPC regarding Domingue’s acts in July of 2018 that left her son paralyzed.
The LSPC voted unanimously to affirm Domingue’s discipline as a “termination,” and that is the way it will remain in her employment record at LSP and will not be changed to “voluntarily resigned.”
As everyone knows, we sort of took a detour from our normal reporting in the last couple of months and devoted time to the elections of this past Saturday (October 14, 2023). As everyone knows, we did an extensive series of features on Ascension Parish Sheriff challenger C. J. Matthews, who took it on the chin in an 87-13 shellacking to incumbent Sheriff Bobby Webre. We are very pleased, however, that Matthews has resolved to continue to be our guest in exposing what he contends is a long-term pattern of corruption in that office. In fact, Matthews should be visiting with us one day next week, and we know our viewers and subscribers will be very intrigued by what he has to say!
Our point about the diversion to a few election-related features is that we’ve now gotten way, way behind on reporting about problems in Louisiana State Police; however, we are going to double down in reporting upon many of those problems over the next few weeks! For now, let us just say that Governor-Elect Jeff Landry is inheriting one hell of a mess at LSP from his predecessor, John Bel Edwards.
We are also going to permit Landry a week or so to enjoy the authoritative victory he got on Saturday before producing a feature letting him too know whom we believe he, just like Edwards, would be making a huge mistake if he names one certain individual as LSP Colonel. We’ll also add that, at the time we made the admonition to Edwards (see link above), we didn’t have anywhere near the extensive database of knowledge of LSP corruption, wrongdoing, and absolute plethora of bad actors (and that is a VERY kind characterization) that we have now. We’re going to give Landry every possible benefit of the doubt that he’ll strive to find a way to clean the mess up, but we’re also firmly committed to continuing to expose LSP corruption and bad actors with the same vigor we did under the outgoing administration of John Bel Edwards!
As we wrap up this feature, let us update the Carl Cavalier matter.
On September 20, 2023, when we issued this “back-handed” endorsement of Landry with the SPECIFIC goal of helping him get over 50 percent in the primary (looks like that panned out, huh?), we stated point-blank on the video on that feature that Shawn Wilson, the only major Democrat in the race, has a “stigma” associated with him in that he had Edwards’ endorsement and served under him, and that many black voters simply had no enthusiasm whatsoever toward Wilson because, as Burns stated on that video, “they believe Edwards is complicit in a murder (Ronald Greene), and we agree with them.”
Well, black voter turnout was abysmal this past Saturday; furthermore, we have examined several precincts which reveal the fact that, in some predominantly black precincts where voter turnout was anemic, many voters opted to leave the Governor’s race blank! We examined one precinct with an abysmal 82 voters casting a ballot but, of those 82, 39 left the Governor’s line blank! Of the 43 who did vote for Governor, four (4) voted for Landry! THAT is what produces a “perfect formula” for a Jeff Landry outright win in the primary, which is exactly what transpired.
Perhaps if Wilson had been willing to buck his former boss, John Bel Edwards, and indicate that he’d insist on the rehiring of Carl Cavalier and reference other similar matters important to black voters, maybe, just maybe, he might have been able to take the race to a runoff. Instead, in our firm opinion (and we stressed that we were “in a position to know the mindset of many black voters” on the feature linked above), what happened is that many black voters simply said, “You don’t have our back, so we sure as hell don’t have your back,” and thus Shawn Wilson finds himself on the sidelines five weeks sooner than he anticipated.
Perhaps after seeing our “back-handed endorsement” of Landry linked above with the specific goal of helping to get him over 50 percent in the primary, Carl Cavalier’s attorneys (the new ones post Jill Craft, though Cavalier is now pro se) may have realized that they better lay stake to the $80,000 in attorney fees associated with the Cavalier settlement given that anything can happen with a new administration, and that new administration may spring to life a full five weeks sooner than conventional wisdom may dictate (as we now know is exactly what has transpired)! We say that because, seven (7) days after we made the post entailing helping Landry get above 50 percent, Cavalier’s new attorneys (who also withdrew at Cavalier’s request) filed this Motion for Leave to file Complaint to put their hands in the cookie jar and come away with some (up to half) of that $80,000 in attorney fees associated with the Cavalier “settlement” (the one Cavalier himself has opposed for over a year now).
After all, a Governor is all powerful, and that power is about to shift to Jeff Landry. We view it as unlikely, but Landry could say something along the lines of, “When I was AG I had a duty to defend the State of Louisiana against lawsuits and minimize any payment to plaintiffs to safeguard taxpayer resources. If this man (Cavalier) doesn’t want the money, as Governor, I am now empowered to rescind the agreement and permit him to have his appeal hearing before the Louisiana State Police Commission if that’s his desire!” [Sidebar: It has been his desire for over a year now.] It’s also true that Jill Craft has very, very STRONG ties to outgoing Gov. John Bel Edwards, but her “stroke” with Landry isn’t expected to be much, if there would be any “stroke” at all. We doubt Craft looks very forward to the next four years!
Whatever the case and as would be expected, Craft didn’t take too kindly to an infringement upon her $80,000 in fees when and if the Cavalier settlement is ever effectuated by way of (we assume) someone literally informing Cavalier that he’ll be slapped with court-ordered sanctions if he doesn’t pick up a pen and sign his settlement check and the agreement which stipulates that he’ll never work for LSP again. Let’s take a look at a few highlights from the Motion for Leave filed by Cavalier’s newer attorneys who, like Craft, resigned as his counsel of record (but, unlike Craft, did so at Cavalier’s specific request):
After the Court denied Mr. Cavalier’s Motion to Reopen the Cause (R. Doc. 88), Mr. Cavalier asked his Counsel (The Carver Law Firm, LLC and the Ivey Law Firm, LLC) to withdraw as counsel so he could represent himself in further proceedings. Accordingly, The Carver Law Firm, LLC and the Ivey Law Firm, LLC, agreed to withdraw as Counsel (R. Doc. 91). Mr. Cavalier proceeded in this matter in Proper Person, filing a Motion for Rehearing on Ruling and Order (R. Doc. 92).
While this matter is still open, Defendants maintain that there is an enforceable settlement in the matter. Therefore, because of the Contingent Fee Contract (See Exhibit 1) between Mr. Cavalier and The Carver Law Firm, LLC and the Ivey Law Firm, LLC, there remains a monetary component for which Intervenors have a property interest.
On or about September 8, 2023, Movers received an email from Jill L. Craft, Attorney at Law, LLC, informing Movers that because Movers had withdrawn in this matter, they had no right to any legal fees. (See Exhibit 2.) Based on the telephone conference with Magistrate Bourgeois (R. Doc. 90), it was the understanding of the Movers that before any final action was taken, the parties (including the Movers herein) would be notified. Thus, Intervention is necessary to protect the property interest that Movers have in this matter.
Movants’ interests are inadequately represented by the existing parties. The existing parties would have no reason or motivation to protect Movants’ interest in receiving the legal fees owed to them in this matter. Defendants would only be interested in paying the settlement to the Plaintiff. Plaintiff would not be motivated to assure that a part of the settlement would be paid to Movants. The other party, intervenor, Jill L. Craft, Attorney at Law, LLC, seeks to obtain all possible legal fees for itself, and has notified Movants that it does not believe Movants have any right to legal fees in this matter.
Counsel contacted Mr. Cavalier and counsel for the defense, who have no objection to the filing of the Complaint in Intervention herein. Counsel for Jill L. Craft, Attorney at Law, LLC objects to this filing.
WHEREFORE, James C. Carver, Trial Attorney, Clifton J. Ivey, and the Law Offices of The Carver Law Firm, LLC and Ivey Law Firm, LLC, pray after due proceedings are had that they will be granted permission to file the attached Complaint in Intervention, and that they be afforded all such other relief to which they are entitled.
Perhaps most interesting is Jill Craft’s very brief response to Dr. Carver’s email wherein he expresses his understanding of the matter. Let’s take a look:
Thank you for your email. We will need to discuss this matter further as we understand that Mr. Cavalier paid your firm for all of the legal services your firm rendered to him in this matter prior to the medication (and your contingent fee contract). Thus, it is our position that we are entitled to a portion of any contingent fee paid. We suggest we put this matter before the Court. Regards,
Jim
James C. Carver, PhD TheCarver Law Firm 201 St. Charles St.
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Yep, we’d say we’re about to have a “good old-fashioned Louisiana courtroom attorney throw down” over this $80,000 that is up for grabs entailing the soap opera that is the Carl Cavalier “settlement” with LSP. We just find it interesting that current Governor John Bel Edward is all but certain to have mandated the settlement and staunchly opposes Cavalier having any hearing before the LSPC, and Shawn Wilson apparently thought he could simply refuse to ever even mention Cavalier, the settlement, him having a hearing before the LSPC or much else entailing specificity regarding the Ronald Greene matter of May 10, 2019 during his ill-fated quest to become Louisiana’s next Governor!! We’d say the “jury” on that matter (i.e. black voters across this state) rendered their verdict of Wilson (and, indirectly, Edwards) on Wilson’s tone deaf handling of that matter during the campaign of the last seven months or so.
