Last year when it was discovered that several state police officials had their phones “sanitized” (What? Like with a cloth or something?), it puzzled us how such a thing could happen.
It was “policy,” the Louisiana State Police General Counsel Faye Morrison said in an email to Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns.
Yesterday, Louisiana Voice’s Thomas Aswell actually dug up the aforesaid policy documents.
What we cannot comprehend is how a law enforcement agency chock full of lawyers can with a straight face suggest that their “policy” invalidates state law.
LA RS 14:132. Injuring public records
A. First degree injuring public records is the intentional removal, mutilation, destruction, alteration, falsification, or concealment of any record, document, or other thing, filed or deposited, by authority of law, in any public office or with any public officer.
B. Second degree injuring public records is the intentional removal, mutilation, destruction, alteration, falsification, or concealment of any record, document, or other thing, defined as a public record pursuant to R.S. 44:1 et seq. and required to be preserved in any public office or by any person or public officer pursuant to R.S. 44:36.
C.(1) Whoever commits the crime of first degree injuring public records shall be imprisoned for not more than five years with or without hard labor or shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars or both.
(2) Whoever commits the crime of second degree injuring public records shall be imprisoned for not more than one year with or without hard labor or shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars or both.
WBRZ-TV2 – Baton Rouge – Chris Nakamoto and Erin McWilliams
See here the complete report.
Of interest to the local area is this passage in LSP Investigator Albert Paxton’s notes:
“Cain tells the DA Greene screamed out because a taser probe was being removed. Doug Cain defends Clary. Doug Cain does not want Clary prosecuted… Doug Cain appears angry the DA is even thinking about it.”
Cain is Louisiana State Police Chief of Staff Lt. Colonel Doug Cain.
Third Judicial (Lincoln, Union Parishes) District Attorney John Belton met with Louisiana State Police Commander Col Lamar Davis and his Chief of Staff Lt Col Doug Cain II in Ruston the day after the Associated Press published bodycam video of the incident, according to an AP story published earlier today.
The date was May 20 of this year, the AP says.
That was also a day after Belton put out a statement to the media vowing to make no extra judicial comments about the case.
Here are the pertinent paragraphs from today’s news story:
MONROE, La. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Louisiana State Police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers seen on punching, dragging and stunning Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest.
A key point under scrutiny in the federal investigation came just a day after the AP published the video, when the head of the state police, Col. Lamar Davis, and his chief of staff, Lt. Col. Doug Cain, made a hastily arranged attempt to dissuade state prosecutors from charging troopers in the Greene case, according to several people familiar with the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it.
Davis and Cain traveled to District Attorney John Belton’s office in Ruston — more than 200 miles north of Baton Rouge — on May 20 to review the video frame by frame and make the case that the troopers’ actions were justified. Belton, who told colleagues he was deeply disturbed by the footage, referred the case to federal authorities in September 2019 but has not ruled out prosecuting the troopers at the state level.
Nakamoto exclusive: Ronald Greene investigative notes show troopers asked for colleagues to be arrested
Chris Nakamoto Is Going To Get To The Bottom Of The Ronald Greene Cover-Up
The author has this bit of commentary about Third Judicial (Lincoln, Union Parishes) District Attorney John Belton.
Oh – and by the way, Belton is also saying he’s planning on running for Attorney General of Louisiana in 2023. Because sitting on a murder case for two years and laying it off on the feds when you knew exactly what happened is a great resume-builder for statewide office.
There are lots of questions somebody might ask of John Belton. Like, for example, whether he was asked to play possum on this investigation until after Edwards won re-election.
And what he might have been offered in order to agree to that plan.
Belton just held a fundraiser for his 2023 statewide campaign, by the way, and a whole host of district attorneys around the state threw in for him. Including Jason Williams, the uber-leftist DA from New Orleans.
Belton isn’t even a registered Democrat, interestingly enough. He’s an independent. That doesn’t really matter.
Now – is Belton wrong about the feds’ involvement precluding him from being able to do anything now? No. He’s right about that. What we don’t know is when the feds jumped in. As we understand this, though we could well be wrong, it was 2020 before the FBI started an investigation into the Greene matter, meaning that Belton would have had a window of his own discretion during which he chose not to move on the case.
From WBRZ-TV2 Baton Rouge – Trey Schmaltz
BATON ROUGE – The top attorney for Louisiana State Police was removed from her position Wednesday amid a handful of Chris Nakamoto and WBRZ Investigative Unit reports about State Police emails obtained by the TV station showing how top brass messaged to spin liability for the death of Ronald Greene.
WBRZ and Nakamoto were first to confirm news Faye Morrison was removed as general counsel for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety.
Multiple sources confirmed the re-assignment. State Police have not released more information.
Morrison was assigned a different position days after WBRZ initially reported on controversial emails Morrison wrote. She’d previously been the agency’s lead attorney, overseeing all legal matters for DPS, including State Police.
WBRZ obtained email threads showing Morrison discussing ways to spin “liability” after Ronald Greene died in State Police custody and suggested guilty pleas were important to justify troopers’ use of excessive force in any situation.
Union Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Christopher Harpin, one of several defendants named in a lawsuit alleging the wrongful death of Ronald Greene, has filed a response to an amended complaint that was filed last month.
The original lawsuit was filed in May, 2020, a year after the incident that occurred in Union Parish near the Crossroads community.
See here Harpin’s response.
From our friend Robert Burns at Sound Off Louisiana
Mike Noel, Gov. Edwards’ hand-picked Gaming Control Board Chairman and former Chief of Staff under former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, abruptly resigned mere hours before facing a Louisiana Senate confirmation hearing.
We’re going to elaborate some on this one. The night before the confirmation hearing, which was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. yesterday (Wednesday, June 9, 2021), we received multiple requests for any evidence we had that former Lt. Col. Noel’s phone had been sanitized prior to his departure. We complied with the request shortly before 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 8, 2021 by providing the requesting parties with this January 5, 2021 email from LSP Legal Counsel Faye Morrison in which she clearly states in writing that the phone was sanitized.
Let’s just say the requesting parties were stunned beyond words that LSP (via its legal counsel) readily confirmed that Noel’s phone was “sanitized” as he departed for the Gaming Control Board. We were informed Gov. Edwards became actively involved late on the evening of Tuesday, June 8, 2021 immediately after we provided the above email to the requesting parties. The next thing we heard (via another media outlet) was that Gov. Edwards’ office indicated that Noel opted to resign rather than face what had been described as an intense grilling over the Ronald Greene incident and any role he may have played in the coverup of same.
Also, while we cannot substantiate this assertion made to us, we have been told that former LSP Col. Kevin Reeves’ LSP-issued phone was also allegedly sanitized around June of 2020 during the same timeframe that Noel’s phone was sanitized. That sanitizing was allegedly performed notwithstanding that, unlike Noel who departed at the time of the sanitizing, Reeves hung around for another three or four months.
Also, we’ve been told by one source that there is no such “LSP policy” on phone sanitization. We were perplexed at the revelation that there was because the contents of that phone constitute public record. Hence, if they can be sanitized so readily, it would seem LSP has carte blanche authority to destroy public records at its whim.
Is there a District Attorney in the State of Louisiana, or for that matter an Attorney General that has the spine to put a stop to this?
Anyone ever wonder why we don’t have news accounts of Organized Crime activity any more? It’s because Government, at all levels, has adopted the Mafia’s business model and the Mob just cannot compete.
From The Associated Press’ Jim Mustian
The same Louisiana State Police unit whose troopers stunned, punched and dragged Ronald Greene on video during a deadly 2019 arrest is now under internal investigation by a secret panel over whether its officers are systematically targeting Black motorists for abuse.
The panel, whose existence was confirmed to The Associated Press by four people familiar with it, was set up in response to Greene’s death as well as three other violent stops of Black men: one who was punched, stunned and hoisted to his feet by his hair braids in a body-camera video obtained by the AP, another who was beaten after he was handcuffed, and yet another who was slammed 18 times with a flashlight.
Its seven members, drawn from officials from across the State Police, are not only scouring the videos for signs of excessive force, the people told the AP, but also examining whether troopers showed racist tendencies in their traffic stops and pursuits, and whether they mislabeled body-camera videos, turned off their cameras or used other means to hide evidence from internal investigators.
Used to, Grand Juries, made up of voting, taxpaying citizens were empaneled to review, investigate, and act upon violations of state law within judicial districts.
The coverup continues, uninterrupted.
Join us at the Louisiana State Bar Association’s 80th Annual Meeting and the LJC/LSBA Joint Summer School, “A New Frontier: Ideas Abound.” This year’s conference will be held at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin, Florida. Attendees will enjoy exceptional presentations, relaxing activities and networking opportunities at the six-day event.
Louisiana District Attorneys Association 43rd Annual Conference – Sandestin Resort, Destin, FL
Annual Conference Agenda
Lincoln Parish News Online 