Sound Off Louisiana

Logo for the launch of a website devoted to tracking problematic appointees of Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (JBE) on December 8, 2015, about a month before Edwards was inaugurated as Louisiana Governor.

As everyone is no doubt aware by now, yet another appointee of Gov. John Bel Edwards (or hire made by his appointees), has ended in disaster.  This time it’s Bridgette Hull, Executive Secretary of the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners.  It’s yet another useless Board/Commission with nine members, all of whom are appointed by the Governor.  It was only a year ago when Hull’s predecessor, Fabian Blanche, III, was ousted due to a complaint of sexual misconduct.

Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns launched the website because of his steadfast belief that Gov. Edwards had made way too many “deals with the Devil” to conceivably live up to his much-touted “West Point Honor Code.”

Burns maintained the site through Edwards’ re-election but discontinued maintaining it after the two Republican rivals to Edwards in the 2019 Governor’s election opted to give Edwards a complete and total pass on pinpointing all of his negative appointments.  Instead, they largely believed they could just cling to then-President Donald Trump and ride his coattails to victory even though Louisiana has an extensive past history of voting very differently on a state-level election than it does on electing its Representatives and Senators to go to Washington.

Edwards, who clearly had a far more astute crew of political operatives and advisors, meanwhile, kept both Republicans on the defensive by strategically exploiting even minor (which should have been irrelevant) matters in their pasts, such as U. S. Rep. Ralph Abraham not donating as much money (his salary) to charity as he may have touted.  Edwards had to laugh almost uncontrollably when he saw how easy it was to put the two of them on the defensive so effortlessly while neither of those candidates had the slightest clue how to place Edwards on the defensive.  That was the case notwithstanding Rispone’s hiring of two twenty-something, snot-nosed, arrogant, and immature relative rookies to literally run his $15 million campaign straight into the ground.

In Burns’ opinion, there was no bigger blown opportunity by Rispone and Abraham than them both completely and totally ignoring Edwards’ hiring NOT ONCE BUT TWICE of convicted domestic abuser Stephen Holliday.

At any rate, when WBRZ Investigative Reporter Chris Nakamoto posed a question to Edwards at a news conference yesterday (entailing yet another disastrous appointment), Marketa Walters,  Edwards didn’t have much of a response to counter Nakamoto’s quoting of State Sen. Patrick McMath’s concern that Edwards’ status as a “lame duck” will preclude any substantial improvement at the agency Walters heads, DCFS, from transpiring before his term is up.

Likewise, there would seem to be little point to even leaving JBE fraud up anymore.  Everyone knows that Edwards’ entire seven-year tenure as Governor thus far has been replete with one disastrous appointment after another.

Sadly, we at Sound Off Louisiana are simply not encouraged that things will improve much at all (and potentially may even get worse) once Edwards is gone given the crop of potential candidates we’ve heard who will seek to replace him.  It’s a pretty sad group.  There are a few names we know of that may change that, but so far, there’s no indication any of them have any intention to seek the office.

The one rumor (and it may be more than just a rumor, but we’re very reluctant to classify it as anything but that at this stage of the game) that would change everything is that Attorney General Jeff Landry has no intention of running for Governor but is instead serving as a “placeholder” to keep the field narrow through January, at which time U. S. Senator John Kennedy, fresh off an authoritative re-election effort, would announce that he is running for Governor and that, upon his winning the Governor’s Mansion, would then appoint Landry to serve out the remaining five years of his six-year term.

Even though we view such talk as total rumor (though we’ve heard it from several sources, one of whom we view as historically very credible), we will admit that our eyebrows were raised when  Bill Stiles, Landry’s long-time right-hand man, drew no opposition at all in his quest for an OPEN seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  Those who told us about Landry’s true plans just reiterated to us upon that development that it constituted further evidence of Landry’s intentions and even said that Landry discouraged any opposition to Stiles’ candidacy (though Stiles nevertheless went through the motions and set up an election website).

One thing we do know for sure because Landry made no secret of it.  Once he and former U. S. Representative Boustany both realized somebody had to go due to re-districting from 2010, Landry wanted to sit tight and wait for 2014 and run for U. S. Senate, but his advisors told him the smarter move was to challenge Boustany.

That guidance didn’t end well for Landry and, being blunt, we’re not convinced Landry can win a statewide race when he faces well-organized competition.  The fact that he has won two statewide races demonstrates little to us because, in instance number one, Caldwell was too cocky to agree to debate Landry and, in instance number two, Landry had no real opposition whatsoever.

If the rumor is true, however, Landry could simply seek re-election for Attorney General (where the competition would be extremely light by comparison to Governor) and then be appointed to the U. S. Senate by Kennedy, thus not needing to win a statewide campaign to become a U. S. Senator.  Landry would have the job he has coveted for a long time and, after serving five years, the old adage of it being difficult to defeat an incumbent would kick in.

As we said, we still officially classify such talk as “rumor,” but if it does materialize, folk can say they heard it first on Sound Off Louisiana.

No matter the case, if anyone wants to take a final peek at Edwards’ disastrous appointments from his first term in office, feel free to click here because, after September 30, 2022, the JBEfraud website will vanish!

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

Louisiana Inspector General Stephen Street, who scored a resounding victory in the 19th JDC Courtroom of Judge Wilson Fields on August 8, 2022 in the matter of Murphy Painter v. Office of Inspector General et. al. to include a $9,700 assessment of attorney fees for Street’s former investigator, Shane Evans.

In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns updates everyone on the latest civil court hearing entailing Murphy Painter v. Louisiana Office of Inspector General et. al.:

Burns recaps July 25, August 1, and August 8, 2022 civil court hearings (arguments on July 25, false alarm judgment on August 1, and judgment rendered August 8) entailing Murphy Painter v. Louisiana Office of Inspector General Stephen Street et. al.

Support Documents for the video above:

1.  Judgment in favor of OIG Defendants (including $9,700 in Shane Evans’ attorney fees per CCP 971).  Here is the link for LA CCP 971 enabling the $9,700 award for Shane Evans’ attorney fees ($27,000 was sought, but Judge Fields ruled $9,700 constituted “reasonable” attorney fees pertaining to Evans).

2.  Judgment in favor of ATC Defendants.

3.  Judgment in favor of Brant Thompson.

4.  Painter’s Motion for a New Trial filed on Friday, September 2, 2022.

Finally, CLICK HERE for the 8th Sound Off episode with Mr. Painter (with links at the bottom for the previous seven).

Here are a few highlights from the above Motion for New Trial:

When the facts are viewed in a the light favorable to Mr. Painter, and with every doubt resolved in his behalf, his petition states a valid cause of action that should have precluded the grant of the various exceptions of no cause of action.  Similarly, as also detailed herein, Mr. Painter submits that the grant of the exception of
res judicata and other evidentiary motions were contrary to law. As a result, Mr. Painter submits that there are good grounds to grant a new trial and he urges this Court to do (sic) grant him a new trial on the motions underlying the August 2022 rulings.

Ms. Suire, admitted to the investigator that she had not been sexually harassed by Mr. Painter. Within days of receiving Ms. Suire’s complaint, the OIG brought Ms. Suire’ s already-discredited claims to the Governor’s Office and Mr. Painter’s employment was terminated on Friday, August 13, 2010.

The search warrant, which contained false statements attributed to Ms. Suire, was picked up by local media and resulted in intense media scrutiny and speculation that effectively destroyed the reputation and career that Mr. Painter had built over the prior decades. The OIG’ s misconduct, however, did· not stop there. It released a public report that further disseminated Ms. Suire’ s false accusations after it had learned of the report prepared by the outside investigator hired by the Department of Revenue. After Mr. Painter filed this suit, the OIG doubled down when it brought the erroneous fruits of its investigation to the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana, resulting in Mr. Painter being charged with crimes by the Department of Justice.

OIG investigator Shane Evans who testified at trial that he chose to use the terms “sexual harassment” and “stalking” in his search warrant application even though Ms. Suire did not make such claims.

The sheer volume of pleadings before this Court on July 25, 2022 no doubt obscured the forest for the trees.

More specifically, this Court’s ruling and associated judgments, have resulted in the dismissal of the entirety of Mr. Painter’s claims against all defendants……such results are clearly contrary both to the law· and the evidence.

As it relates to the standard of review, Mr. Painter’s petition, as amended, puts forth a multitude of facts that state viable causes of action for (a) defamation; (b) malicious prosecution; (c) abuse of right; (d) abuse of process; and (e) negligence against the OIG and Stephen B. Street, Jr., in his official capacity as the State’ Inspector General.

Mr. Painter has put forth detailed and substantial allegations establishing that his former employees conspired to have him removed as the Commissioner of ATC and, once successful, that they attempted to do so again with a subsequent Commissioner.

Likewise, given Mr. Street’s steadfast determination to continue pushing the discredited lies of Ms. Suire – even after he was provided substantial evidence documenting them as such, Mr. Painter also states a viable Section 1983 claim against Mr. Street.

Given the substantial volume of pleadings and atypical issues put before this· Court, Mr. Painter moves this Court to set this Motion for New Trial for hearing and to, thereafter, grant him a new trial regarding this Court’s recent rulings.

Once a hearing date is set for oral arguments for and against Mr. Painter being granted a new trial, we will certainly attend and alert our subscribers and casual site visitors as to the outcome.

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.

St. Martin Parish Sheriff Deputy Baily Romero is greeted by Melissa Dubroc, wife of Blake Dubroc, to begin his investigation of a callout by Blake during which he (Dubroc) informs Romero that SMPG President Chester Cedars has insisted that they file a complaint on Broussard if he’s on his property with a truck so that citations can be issued for his arrest and that, if he’s seen on his property after a Restraining Order is served upon him, “he’s going straight to jail” because the Restraining Order is intended to, “keep him from going on his own property.”

We’re going to keep this post extremely brief, but we want to express our sincere appreciation for all of our dedicated subscribers and site visitors who collectively broke Sound Off Louisiana‘s all-time record for most views of a video in a single day!  We reached over 300 views after one day of Baily Romero’s body cam video, and we’re rapidly closing in on 400 views now with still six hours left today.

We think the reason is obvious that views are this high, and it quite simply shock and astonishment that a Parish President, Chester Cedars, (as reflected by Blake Dubroc’s own words on the video) would egg his constituents on into filing complaints with the SMP Sheriff, and that those he had egged on would state, “That way we can issue citations and that will lead to his arrest,” and also stating that Cedars said that, if Broussard even goes on his OWN property after he’s served with a Cedars-sought-after Restraining Order, “He’s going straight to jail.”

We thank everyone for your dedication and, as a result of the huge interest in Chester Cedars’ outlandish actions (as alleged by Blake Dubroc), we’re going to do something we’ve never before done in our history.  We’re going to provide an encore presentation of the video.  If you want to go straight to Dubroc uttering the words he claims St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars made in egging him into filing the complaint, simply go to the 4:00 mark and begin listening to the phone call between Romero and Dubroc.  Here’s the video again:

March 4, 2022 callout of SMP Sheriff Deputy Baily Romero in response to a complaint by Blake Dubroc in which, beginning at the 4:00 mark, Dubroc states that SMPG President Chester Cedars indicates that a Restraining Order is about to be served on Broussard, “to where he can’t even go on his own property and, if he does, he’s going straight to jail.  Until then, they’ll issue citations that will lead to his arrest.”

We hope everyone enjoyed a Happy Labor Day and, trust us, we’ve got more videos of SMP Sheriff callouts coming your way real soon!

If you would like to be added to our Sound Off Louisiana email list to be notified of future posts, simply go to our home page and scroll to the bottom (mobile devices) or to the top of the right-hand column (desktops).  Supply your email address within the subscribe box.  You’ll then receive an automated email from Word Press, and all you have to do is click on the blue “confirm follow” bar contained within that email, and you’ll begin receiving great posts such as the preceding one above.