On May 14, 2022 at approximately 8:30 p.m., Cindy Lamperez explains to St. Martin Parish Deputy Darren Countee why she wants charges pressed against her neighbor, Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez, and her former husband, Gil Lamperez (who married Joelle). Lamperez indicated that, mere moments after Countee drove off from a first callout wherein Joelle told him to, “have your cuffs ready because I’m going to beat the f— out of her,” she followed through in crossing the street saying to Cindy, “I’m going to whip your ass!” Countee witnessed the incident and therefore placed Dubroc-Lamperez and her husband, Gil, under arrest. Parish President Chester Cedars has relied heavily upon the Dubroc clan in his relentless pursuit against Billy Broussard.
Everyone will recall us publishing this feature entailing St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars’ trusted confidant, Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez, having the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s office called out due to close associates of hers repeatedly firing off an AK-47 rifle.
The just-linked feature adheres to Sound Off Louisiana’s policy of presenting body cam video in its entirety upon initial publication. At this time, we want to focus in on the following 50-second clip highlighting all of the derogatory comments and threats made by Joelle toward her neighbor, Cindy Lamperez, who is the ex-wife of Joelle’s current husband, Gil (Warning: Extensive use of profanity):
May 14, 2022 at 8:05 – 8:10 p.m.: Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez repeatedly utters profanity directed toward her neighbor, Cindy Lamperez, and issues an admonition to SMP Sheriff Darren Countee to, “have your cuffs ready” as she’d already indicated she was willing to be arrested for, “beating the f—” out of her and inquires, “that’s just battery, right?”
Within an hour of us publishing the above-linked feature, we started receiving notifications that we, “only touched the tip of the iceberg of what all happened that night because that was only the first visit, and the second visit from the Sheriff’s Office was way worse!”
As we indicated in the feature linked above, one retired law-enforcement officer with whom we consulted heavily criticized the first visit (stating that the incident report showed “no investigation whatsoever,” and no admonishment was given to Dubroc-Lamperez that, “alcohol and firearms don’t mix”).
Well, he has now indicated to us that he believes that it is an “absolute disgrace” the way that St. Martin Parish Sheriff Becket Breaux handled this whole matter! Why? Because, as this retired law-enforcement officer has emphasized that Countee should have easily recognized was going to be the case, things escalated considerably almost instantly after Countee drove off from his first call immediately after having witnessed first-hand that which is depicted on the 50-second video clip above.
Just how soon did Countee have to return? Well, by our estimate, it was somewhere between six and nine minutes! Let us explain how we came to that computation:
Countee used his cell phone to take drivers license photos on the first visit. When he did so, his cell phone clearly showed 8:06 p.m., and it was four minutes after that point (going by him driving away and thus turning off his body camera) that he pulled away. Here’s a screen shot of his cell phone and that time depicted on his first callout:
St. Martin Parish Deputy Darren Countee pulls out his cell phone to take a photo of the AK-47 rifle for which one or more complaints were called into the Sheriff’s Office entailing a “massive” number of rounds being fired from that AK-47. Ashton Palmisano, Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez’s son, holds the rifle for Countee to take the photo while his mother, Joelle, points across the street complaining that she knows that it was the “bitch” across the street (Cindy Lamperez) who called the Sheriff’s Office out. As seen by his cell phone, Countee takes the photo at 8:06 p.m., and he departed the residence four (4) minutes later, at 8:10 p.m.
Now, let’s take a look at another screen shot photo, with this one being taken upon Countee’s return trip back to the Dubroc residence and nine (9) minutes having elapsed after he activated his body camera:
Nine (9) minutes AFTER Countee’s return trip BACK to the Dubroc residence, Countee pulls his cell phone out, and it clearly shows “8:30 p.m.”
Hence: Departure time = 8:10 p.m. Eleven (11) minutes later (8:30 p.m. – 9 minutes), Countee has returned back, gotten Joelle in handcuffs, placed her in a squad car, and THEN activated his body camera. So, if one assumes it took 4-5 minutes for Countee to get Joelle in custody and in the back of a squad car, that leaves a MAXIMUM amount of time from his departure to his return of being 6-7 minutes!
The retired law-enforcement officer described Countee’s initial report as “woefully inadequate,” and he referenced this second Incident Report as “atrocious.” Since this gentleman was so strong in his wording of Countee’s second Incident Report, we decided to contact Sheriff Becket Breaux’s office and pose questions of his office entailing the retired officer’s concerns. We spoke with St. Martin Parish Sheriff Captain Stevens. Let us first provide the narrative of Countee’s report before we address our inquires of Stevens and his responses to those inquiries:
On May 14th, 2022, at approximately 2343 hours, I, Deputy Darren Countee with the St. Martin Sheriffs Office Patrol Division was patrolling the area and observed a disturbance in the 1600 block of Duchamp Rd. I observed a white female subject using hand gestures to a group of females that were down a driveway. Note that the subject was later identified as Joelle Dubroc. Her actions led me to believe that she was angry. I rolled my window down and heard her fussing with the group of females.
Subsequently, I exited my marked patrol unit and activated my worn body camera. I tried to calm the female subject down do her being in a rage. Note while speaking to Joelle she was using profanity wanting to fight the group of females. I also smelled a strong odor of alcohol emitting from her person. The female subject began walking down the drive-in rage trying to fight the group of females. Her son picked her up from the ground and walked her to the residence that was located across the street from the disturbance. Once her son A.P placed her on the ground she ran across the public roadway, into the driveway trying to fight. I grabbed her and placed her into handcuffs (double-locked checked for fitness). I then observed a male subject walking across the street, entering the driveway cursing the group of women. I notified 911 communications to send additional units due to being outnumbered.
I patted Joelle down with the back of my hands and placed her in the backseat of my marked patrol unit. I then observed the male subject walking to my unit asking what I was doing. He then put his hands on her as if he wanted to grab her from me. I demanded him to back up, and the male subject backed up and stood in the driveway across from the disturbance.
Once things were calmed down, I made contact with the group of females. I determined that it was a disturbance between the homeowner Cindy Lamperez and the irate female located inside my marked patrol unit. It was discovered that the two have been having troubles with each other due to Gil Lamperez taking Cindy to court for a divorce. Cindy mentioned that the irate female stated she wanted to fight due to her calling the cops on her. Cindy wrote a statement in regards to what occurred.
After speaking to Cindy contact was made with Cindy and Gil’s daughter Mallorie Lamperez. Mallorie stated she was located nearby when this incident occurred and she believed her dad Gil would have hurt them if he wasn’t held back. Both Cindy and Mallorie provided a statement in regard to what occurred. Cindy stated that she wanted to pursue charges for trespassing. Contact was made with the irate female in the back seat of my marked patrol unit. Note that she calmed down and was ready to speak to me. Prior to any question, I called her boyfriend Gil over to my marked patrol unit where we were located. Both Gil and Joelle were read their Miranda Rights which they both understood. Both stated that they were willing to talk. I notified them that I observed them trespassing on Cindy’s property and by her requesting to pursue charges, they will be issued a citation. Both Cindy and Gil agreed.
Both Cindy and Gil were issued a citation (Citation# 00069634 & 00069633) for the following:
LA R.S. 14:63Ml — CRIMINAL TRESPASSING
Joelle was later released from handcuffs with no further incidents. I departed with no further information.
Deputy Darren Countee
Question 1: “Clearly Deputy Countee was not on ‘routine patrol’ at approximately 11:43 p.m. as the report indicates, would you agree?”
Capt. Stevens acknowledged that the time on the narrative above is indeed incorrect and further acknowledged that Deputy Countee did have to return to the scene within mere minutes of his departure from the initial callout. He indicated that the Incident Report will be corrected entailing the time of arrival.
Question 2: “All of the interactions which Deputy Countee states happened regarding Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez’s actions are not depicted in his body cam video, so is the report inaccurate entailing exactly when that body camera was turned on?”
Capt. Stevens acknowledged the discrepancy between when Deputy Countee states in the Incident Report that he turned on the body camera and what is reflected on that body camera, and he indicated that the Incident Report will be corrected accordingly.
Question 3: “Gil is identified as Joelle’s ‘boyfriend’ in the Incident Report, but Joelle repeatedly referenced him as her ‘husband.’ Is that not an obvious inaccurate reference to their relationship?”
Captain Stevens indicated that portion of the Incident Report will also be corrected.
Question 4: We apprised Captain Stevens of the following short video clip after which we asked if Joelle did in fact succeed in escaping from Deputy Countee’s handcuffs as she bragged of doing? Our retired law-enforcement officer says he is certain that she did in fact manage to escape his handcuffs, and we’ll invite every subscriber, casual viewer, sheriff deputies across Louisiana and other states, LSP Troopers, and anyone else to judge for themselves if she did in fact free herself of his handcuffs:
Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez brags of being, “already out your handcuffs,” and she appears not to be restricted by any such handcuffs when Deputy Countee removes her from the back of his squad car.
Captain Stevens indicated that the matter of whether Joelle managed to free herself from the handcuffs would, “be a matter for Deputy Countee and the courts to resolve.” We indicated that, if he so desired, he could make inquiry of Deputy Countee and that he could call us back and make clarification. We received no such follow-up phone call in the three days between when we spoke with him and this feature being published.
Question 5: “The Incident Report shows a citation being issued to Cindy Lamperez. That is clearly in error, and that citation was issued to Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez. Correct?
Captain Stevens indicated that was an error and the Incident Report would be corrected.
Our retired law-enforcement officer also indicated that it was “inexcusable” that the second Incident Report made no reference whatsoever to the prior incident taking place only minutes before. He indicated that any judge looking at this would have no ability to discern just exactly what all transpired here.
At this time, let us present Deputy Countee’s body camera video in its entirety with the usual forewarning that Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez uses profanity throughout the video:
Body worn camera video footage of SMP Sheriff Deputy Darren Countee upon him returning to the Dubroc residence a mere 5-7 minutes from departing from it previously. WARNING: Profane language.
We feel compelled to publish the fact that we also received complaints that the Dubrocs are being “shielded” and treated with kid glove by Breaux. The only explanation in our minds for that being the case, if it is in fact true, is the fact that St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars is known to be friendly with the Dubrocs, and he itemizes Blake Dubroc along with one of his employees, Evan Mautrin, (depicted among those in our previous feature) as two of his star witnesses for any court proceeding against Broussard.
What is apparent to us is that SMP Sheriff Deputies certainly do take marching orders from Cedars and/or the attorney he deployed to pursue Broussard, Lee Durio.
Why do we make such a claim? Simple! One needs only to examine this October 7, 2021 Incident Report entailing a complaint by Blake Dubroc against Broussard. From that complaint:
CAD Dispo B-ASSISTANCE RENDE, NO OFF RPT BLAKE DUBROC WISHED TO REPORT THAT BILLY BROUSSARD’S TREE SERVICE WAS STILL DUMPING THEIR BY-PRODUCT ON THE PROPERTY NEXT TO HIS, WHICH HE WAS TOLD IS NOT ALLOWED DUE TO THE COMPANY NOT HAVING PERMITS; HE ALSO WANTED TO REPORT THE TRUCKS SPEEDING. BLAKE ADDED THAT ST. MARTIN PARISH GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED AND THE PARISH ATTORNEY. CONTACT WAS MADE WITH THE LAW OFFICE OF LEE DURIO AND HIS PARALEGAL INFORMED ME THAT THERE IS SOMETHING IN MOTION BUT SHE COULD NOT GO INTO DETAIL AT THIS TIME. SHE FURTHER ADDED THAT DUE TO THIS ONGOING CIVIL ISSUE, DOCUMENT WHAT BLAKE IS REPORTING, IN CASE IT IS NEEDED. BLAKE WAS INFORMED OF EVERYTHING AND EXPLAINED THAT I WILL BE DOCUMENTING WHAT HE REPORTED TO ME.
WOW!! So we have SMP Sheriff Deputies taking marching orders from Durio’s paralegal, who CLEARLY did not inform the SMP Deputy that, on October 7, 2021, Billy Broussard had Parish President Chester Cedars’ full blessing to engage in as much hauling and dumping as his heart desired! UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!
This is one of those instances where, as a former fraud investigator, Burns would rise out of his seat and exclaim, “Yes!” We now have unquestioned proof that Chester Cedars and Lee Durio had, “something in the works” on October 7, 2021, which matches precisely the same timeframe that Cedars had told his motley crew that Broussard would have to have “heavy industrial zoning” and all of the Facebook lies and defamatory statements began being posted by the two managers of that Facebook group: Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez and Mendy “Mob Boss” Girouard! This disclosure is the “smoking gun” that Cedars was actively orchestrating a smear campaign against Broussard to make Duchamp Road residents, including LSP Trooper Scott Lopez, believe that Broussard was, “violating the law with his dumping,” when he obviously never uttered the first word to them that Cedars himself gave Broussard full approval to do so commencing on September 14, 2021! WOW!!
Further, Broussard’s prior attorney, Michael Adley, can certainly be called as a witness in the Permanent Injunction hearing to testify that, at that same timeframe, October 7, 2021, Cedars and Durio (through Calder “Pop” Hebert a/k/a “popcorn”) were telling him that, “all will be fine. You’re going to get the zoning variance. We may have some token opposition, but we can manage that.”
In short, that notation in that Incident Report is damning beyond words in our humble opinion in terms of the behind-the-scenes smear campaign Cedars was orchestrating. When various individuals who either have or soon will receive knocks on their doors with paperwork from the St. Martin Parish Sheriff, we’re certain they can submit all of their legal defense invoices for defamation to Cedars for payment. We’d love to see and hear Cedars’ reaction when they do submit such invoices to him for payment!
Our retired law-enforcement officer was very, very emphatic that enough transpired on Countee’s first callout that Joelle Dubroc-Lamperez should have “taken a ride” with Countee to the local jail. He indicated that Breaux’s office should hold their collective heads in shame that nobody ended up going to jail over the night’s conduct. Further, he indicated that he tends to agree with those from whom we received complains about Sheriff Breaux’s office extending preferential treatment to the Dubrocs.
One party stated to us: “I wonder if they’d been called out to a predominantly black neighborhood with an AK-47 being fired, if the Deputy would have said, ‘Long as you shootin’ in a good direction, it’s all good?” He further pondered if that would be the case if a black participant walked up to a white police officer and inquired, “is there a f—k— problem?”
Our retired law-enforcement officer concluded his commentary by emphasizing that, had Dubroc-Lamperez actually managed to physically commit battery upon Cindy Lamperez, the SMP Sheriff’s Office would have been “clearly liable” for leaving the scene under such circumstances. He added that, “it would have been an insurance adjuster’s nightmare.”
The reason this feature has taken an extended time to release is that we wanted to consult with as many folk as possible with law-enforcement knowledge both for stating observations for this feature but also obtaining their overall observations of the entire incident.
In that regard, we have received universal consensus that this latest Incident Report and body cam videos were intentionally withheld from us because Breaux’s Office’s handling of this matter was nothing short of, “a total disgrace,” and they didn’t want such a colossal failure being placed on prominent display on a blog.
That’s not something we’re willing to cast judgment on, especially given all of the praise and extensive cooperation and friendliness we’ve provided to and received from both Ms. Karen Berthelot and Ms. Eve Laperouse in the fulfillment of our public records requests. As everyone is aware, we’ve also given praise to Breaux himself for his focus on body cameras being on for an ENTIRE encounter with the public, and it’s regrettable that’s not the case in this particular incident. What we will do, however, is reproduce our initial public records request at this time:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2022 11:11 AM
To: Karen Berthelot <[email protected]>
Subject: Public Records Request
Good Morning Ms. Berthelot:
Thanks so much for your fulfillment of my most recent PRR. The Girouard video was especially beneficial for the post earlier this week (https://www.soundoffla.com/mendyg/).
I will publish a separate feature entailing the Dubroc audio files in the near future. To that end, let me make the following public records request to augment that planned Dubroc feature:
Any incident report(s), video footage (body-cam or dashcam), and/or audio files associated with an incident the weekend of May 14, 2022 at which time there were reportedly between three and five SMPS Deputies responding to a 911 call originating from the 1600 Block of Duchamp Road.
As always, thank you so much for your courtesy and dedication, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or other matters entailing this request.
When we got that initial response containing only the one incident report and only Countee’s initial body cam video which we published in our first feature, our first thought was, “Well, people sure can exaggerate!” We’d been told there were, “between three and five SMPS Deputies” and sure enough there were between three and five! We’ll let people make up their own minds as to whether the material was intentionally withheld, but we will reproduce our follow-up public records request upon subscribers and others alerting us to the fact that we’d only, “gotten the tip of the iceberg.”:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2022 10:54 AM
To: Karen Berthelot <[email protected]>
Subject: Public Records Request Since Apparently Callout to Dubroc Residence on 5/14 Was the Tip of the Iceberg to a MUCH More Involved Subsequent Callout
Good Morning, Ms. Berthelot:
I hope you enjoyed a happy Labor Day!
Thanks so much for the video footage on the May 14, 2022 callout to the Dubroc residence entailing the discharge of the AK-47s. It was invaluable for Sunday’s Sound Off Louisiana feature: https://www.soundoffla.com/jdubroc/.
Literally within an hour of publication, I began receiving notifications that the video on the feature was merely the first callout on that evening and that the second callout was, “way, way worse.”
I figure the reason I didn’t receive those videos and Incident Report(s) from my other public records request is that I was a tad too restrictive in my wording of the request. Accordingly, by way of this email, let me broaden the wording to where I can obtain any incident report and body cam videos associated with the subsequent callout:
Please provide me with any incident report(s) applicable for any and all dispatches to Duchamp Road during the weekend of May 14, 2022. Please also provide any dash cam and/or body cam videos associated with those callouts.
Obviously, you may disregard the callout resulting in Incident Report # 22-16806 as I already have it as well as the videos associated with it.
Please don’t be concerned with the fact that we may be talking about several body cam and dash cam videos associated with any subsequent callout to the Dubroc residence. I request ALL of those videos and will make payment as always for obtaining the videos.
Thank you again, Ms. Berthelot, and I hope your week is starting off well after the extended holiday weekend.
Again, we’ll allow readers of the above two correspondences to form their own opinions about whether anything was intentionally withheld. As is obvious from the correspondence above, Burns was willing to assume blame for any technical wording that may have enabled the records to “not quite fit.” Being blunt, Ms. Berthelot and Ms. Laperouse have been some of the most courteous, professional, and pleasant public officials with whom we’ve had the pleasure of interacting, and we don’t want to place any fly in the ointment entailing that because we have every confidence that we’re likely going to be requesting more body cam videos between now and whenever Broussard opts to take Cedars to court for the Permanent Injunction hearing. After all, the Dubrocs are part of the “frequent callout club” on Sheriff Breaux’s list, and we can state for certain that some are complaining about the priviledges Sheriff Breaux is extended to those with such exclusive memberships.
We did check with the St. Martin Parish Clerk’s Office, and we were able to confirm that Cindy Lamperez did follow Deputy Countee’s guidance regarding a restraining order; however, because only an attempt to harm her or other family members transpired rather than actual physical contact, what ultimately wound up happening is that both sides signed a mutual “stay away” agreement that prohibits them from communicating with one another except for logistics on arranging transportation for the youngest daughter.
We will also note that Gil Lamperez was ordered to pay $250/month in child support and provisions were made for him catching up on $3,000 that he is in arrears entailing such child support as of the date of the hearing.
There is actually other material which we originally intended to place in this feature; however, it’s becoming too long, so we’re going to defer that material to a subsequent feature. That will also enable some public records requests which we have pending with SMPG itself to be received for examination as well.
What we do want to do in finishing up this feature is to provide other deputies’ body cam videos associated with this callout. We are only going to embed one other short video clip, however, and that is of Deputy Baily Romero because he made an ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS quote in the following 12-second video clip:
12-second clip from Baily Romero’s body cam video of the May 14, 2022 callout to the Dubroc residence that is ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!!
Other deputies’ body cam videos from May 14, 2022 callout to Dubroc residence on Duchamp Road:
Lastly, we want to state to all of the active LSP Troopers in Louisiana that we are aware of concerns you have which have been communicated to us by former colleagues on your behalf.
Accordingly, we made a massive public records request in order to be able to substantiate your concerns.
We were notified yesterday (Wednesday, September 14, 2022) that the public records request is now ready.
We have an appointment to scan the records today (Thursday, September 15, 2022) at 2:30 p.m. today.
Once we are able to organize those records (and likely place links for them within a table), we promise to provide coverage of your concerns which have been conveyed to us by your former colleagues.
We appreciate your patience and just want to make sure that you know that your concerns have by no means fallen upon deaf ears!
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