Louisiana State Trooper’s Association Legal Counsel Floyd Falcon
On January 28, 2018, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns provided the first installment of a feature on Cathy Derbonne’s constructive discharge lawsuit against her former employer, the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC). The focus of that segment was paragraph 17, which alleges that Gov. John Bel Edwards’ Chairman of his Gaming Control Board, Ronnie Jones, stated in a telephone conference call on July 19, 2016 that Gov. Edwards’ office, “had told her to shut the f— up” entailing her concerns over Gov. Edwards’ failure to adhere to Louisiana’s Constitution in making appointments to the Commission. In today’s feature, Burns focuses on the fourth page of Derbonne’s lawsuit:
Burns discusses the fourth page of Derbonne’s litigation and just what a minefield Derbonne stepped into entailing Louisiana State Trooper’s Association (LSTA) political contributions to Gov. Edwards’ campaign.
In a controversial move, the LSTA had a representative of an “organization affiliated with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital” provide testimonials of the LSTA’s assistance. The LSTA used this testimonial as part of a concerted effort to convince the LSPC that it should have the right to make political contributions and formally endorse candidates notwithstanding that members of the organization are CLASSIFIED state employees.
Immediately after the “St. Jude affiliation” testimony above, a representative for Dreams Come True provides testimony to assist the LSTA in its efforts to make political contributions and formally endorse political candidates.
After the water works from the preceding testimonies subsided, Charron Thomas, Treasurer and Member of the Board of Directors of the Central State Trooper’s Coalition of Louisiana provides her rationale as to why the LSTA and the CSTCL should both be able to make political contributions and formally endorse candidates.
LSTA Attorney Floyd Falcon provides statements to the LSPC explaining why he firmly believes the
LSTA has the legal right to make political contributions and endorse candidates.
Regarding the preceding video, it’s interesting to note that Falcon said nothing illegal transpired (see bottom of page two and top of page three) when the LSTA funneled contributions in the 2015 campaign of Gov. John Bel Edwards through a “straw donor,” David Young, its Executive Director, who would issue checks from his personal checking account to the campaign and then be fully reimbursed by the LSTA for those contributions. Falcon never provides any explanation entailing why, if it’s all “legal,” the LSTA resorted to such a clandestine maneuver to make those contributions rather than merely writing the checks directly out of its own account.
Falcon has also run into some other legal problems of late entailing his own law firm’s operations. Specifically, we reference this Federal lawsuit filed against him and his firm for his apparent amnesia when it comes to reimbursing Medicare for payments made after personal injury settlements have been obtained which included coverage of the same medical expenses. Clearly, Falcon saw the handwriting on the wall once the litigation was filed, and he quickly agreed to settle the litigation.
Given the incredible depths to which the LSTA will stoop to justify its steadfast determination that it ought to be able to make political contributions and formally endorse political candidates, is it any wonder Cathy Derbonne quickly found herself on the proverbial “hot seat” and soon found herself out the door when she acted on complaints by retired LSP Troopers entailing the contributions to Gov. Edwards’ 2015 campaign? Now the questions are: #1) will the LSPC, which is scheduled to take up the matter at its March 8, 2018 meeting, cave to the will of the LSTA and back off its initiative to prohibit such contributions, and #2) has the LSTA’s above actions actually strengthened the constructive discharge lawsuit filed by Derbonne above? Regarding the latter, we at Sound Off Louisiana firmly believe that they have!
On a personal note, Sound Off Louisiana’s founder, Robert Burns, wants to give a very special thanks to Scott McKay, founder and publisher of The Hayride. Immediately after the LSPC meeting of February 8, 2018, Burns was literally so sick to his stomach entailing what he contends is the raw, naked, exploitation he states is illustrated above, that he would not have been able to produce a Sound Off Louisiana feature because he indicates he was literally that angry at what he witnessed. Accordingly, he asked Scott if he would mind producing a feature on it because Scott is far more detached from LSPC affairs and could offer less of the hostility that would have come from Burns at the time. Scott came through as he always does, and he produced this outstanding post which enabled Burns to have a “30-day cooling off period” to compose today’s feature, which he indicated he very much needed.
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