Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle says she plans to delete an item on tonight's agenda calling for a discussion about whether the police chief should be an elected position. She says it's "certainly" something she intends to bring before the council in the future, when she's armed with essential data. "I'm waiting on a report from the [law enforcement] unification committee, and I'm not ready to bring it back tonight," she says. The issue, which was first raised and placed on the agenda in March, was most recently deferred at the council's last meeting, on April 24. It came about following the controversial firing of former Chief Dewayne White. In order to change the police chief position from one selected by the mayor to one selected by a vote, the Plan of Government would need to be changed, which would also require voter approval. Meanwhile, a search for a permanent replacement for White continues. "It's going to be difficult to pass, yes. It's difficult to even get it on the...
LSU and the state of Louisiana spent just less than $1 million defending its decision to fire former Hurricane Center deputy director Ivor van Heerden. Documents obtained today by Levees.org indicate the university paid the Baton Rouge law firm of Kantrow Spaht Weaver & Blitzer more than $457,000 over two and a half years to handle the case. That's on top of the $435,000 settlement the Louisiana Office of Risk Management paid to van Heerden last month. Levees.org notes the $892,000 total doesn't include any amounts LSU paid its own staff to comply with court orders, respond to subpoenas and appear for depositions. Van Heerden alleges he was fired for statements in his post-Katrina levee failure investigation funded by the Louisiana Department of Transportation, namely that the Army Corps of Engineers' faulty levees caused the flooding during Katrina. The Association of American University Professors censured the university in 2011 for firing van Heerden. "LSU has chosen to hound a...
While the new city-parish crime-fighting initiative known as the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program, or BRAVE, targets violent criminals in the 70805 ZIP code, District Attorney Hillar Moore III and Mayor Kip Holden's office have applied for three additional federal grants worth a total of nearly $1.7 million to focus on other trouble spots around Baton Rouge. Two of the grants in particular would be used to bring targeted policing and beefed-up patrols to the 70802 ZIP code, which is adjacent to 70805 in northwest Baton Rouge. The two ZIP codes collectively account for nearly half the city's crime, Moore says, despite comprising just 3.5 square miles and having just 13,800 residents. The grant application notes that additional policing is needed in those areas, particularly as BRAVE cracks down on known drug gangs and repeat offenders in 70805. Data shows that "as crime goes up in 70805 it goes down in 70802 and vice versa," the application reads. "GIS mapping clearly...
In his latest column, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister says he likes the idea of consolidating the city police, sheriff and constable—a notion that has been revived recently by Metro Councilman Joel Boé but was previously discussed in the 1960s, 1970s, 2002 and 2011. "You may remember a TV campaign this past fall, 'Fight, Not Fear', funded by businessman Lane Grigsby, which promoted this idea," McCollister writes. "Grigsby points out that other major cities have reduced crime by as much as 45% with the unification of [law enforcement] agencies—cities such as Charlotte, Indianapolis, Louisville and Las Vegas. The question seems to be: If they can do it and it helps, why not Baton Rouge?" The timing also seems right for the consolidation conversation to resurface in light of the controversy surrounding the recent firing of Police Chief Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden. "Boé says the committee's first...
The five-member committee that has been formed to look into the possibility of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office is meeting this afternoon for the first time.
Metro Councilwoman Denise Marcelle is sending a formal request today to the U.S. Department of Justice to find out whether the department will investigate allegations made by fired Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White. Marcelle previously toldDaily Report she wanted the feds to look into White's allegations and firing. Since then, she and council members Tara Wicker, Donna Collins-Lewis and Ronnie Edwards met with the parish attorney's office to discuss the situation. At that meeting, they asked to be included in a regularly scheduled meeting between the parish attorney's office and officials from the Department of Justice, who periodically come to town for updates on the police department's compliance with a 1980 consent decree. That regularly scheduled meeting was canceled, however, as a result of the federal budget cuts...
If the Baton Rouge police chief were ever to become an elected position—as some are calling for in the wake of the recent firing of former Chief of Police Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden—only voters living within city limits would be allowed to cast a vote for their choice at the polls. Furthermore, state law requires city-position candidates to have lived within city limits for at least a year prior to an election, says Parish Attorney Mary Roper. It gets trickier: Most police chiefs historically have come up through the ranks of BRPD, but under state law, existing officers on the force who wish to campaign for police chief have to resign in order to do so. "It's a prohibitive practice to be employed in the classified service and be a candidate for a public office," Roper explains. And then there's the potential confusion created by the bizarre boundaries of the Baton Rouge city limits, which exclude a large portion of southeast Baton Rouge between interstates 10 and...
The damage control that Mayor Kip Holden displays over the next 60 days is going to be the most interesting aspect of the fallout from Monday's official firing of Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White, says local political consultant and pollster Bernie Pinsonat. "What fool from outside the police department will take the job to begin with?" says Pinsonat, who speculates Holden had grown tired of the ongoing battle between White and the police union and chose to sacrifice the police chief, who'd had less than two years on the job. "After this fiasco, what kind of police chief do you end up with?" On Wednesday, the mayor's office confirmed Lt. Carl Dabadie as interim police chief. Dabadie has been taking on police chief duties since White was informed on Feb. 6 of his impending termination. Rannah Gray, who doesn't work in the mayor's office but managed Holden's recent political campaign and stays in constant contact with him, says she doesn't believe there was a clash between White...
One thread of an email exchange between former Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White and Mayor Kip Holden may provide insight into allegations of micromanagement of the police chief's personnel decisions by the mayor's office. White's attorney, Jill Craft, says those emails are just the beginning of micromanagement. "There's a lot more emails than that," Craft says. The mayor's office isn't commenting. The thread of emails ends Jan. 25, or 12 days before White was reportedly informed by Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel that he was fired. They are the last emails the city-parish attorney's office provided Daily Report in a public records request for emails between White and the mayor's office between Jan. 1 and Feb. 6, when White was given notice of his termination. On Jan. 24, White emailed Daniel and requested the next day off. Daniel granted the request that day, and brought up the issue of transfers in the police department. "Would you please discuss those with...
Architect Coleman Brown doesn't know all of the details that led Mayor Kip Holden to fire Baton Rouge Chief of Police Dewayne White Feb. 6. But the Mid City businessman says he thinks White was doing a pretty good job.
Mayor Kip Holden says that, technically, he didn't fire Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White on Feb. 6. White and his attorney, Jill Craft, say the opposite. In any event, Holden made the firing official following a hearing this morning, although White plans to appeal to the civil service board. "I stand ready to serve this community," White said shortly before Holden publicly announced his decision. Craft says White "started a lot of good work" and "certainly would like the opportunity to complete it" when asked why White would still want his job. "I think he feels very strongly that people need to know what's going on," whether he continues as chief or not, she adds. White declined to answer questions during the hearing today, instead focusing on refuting 14 justifications for his dismissal outlined in a letter released by Holden last week. For example, White was accused of not being truthful about the extent of the security detail provided to Nation of Islam minister Louis...
The testimony of fired Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White was enough today to convince Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle that a federal investigation of the department is needed. "I believe this opens it up for the feds to come in," she says. "I think that needs to happen, and I am at least willing to discuss it because these are some serious allegations." During a public hearing this morning, White says he has addressed the "vestiges of racism that have torn this department apart" and described disciplining a police officer who used a racial slur at the scene of a homicide. "We have a serious race problem here, whether you want to acknowledge it or not," White said to Holden. According to White, the department has been under a federal consent decree for past racial and gender discrimination since 1975. Kelley Morgan, a black woman who spoke today on White's behalf, says the chief went to bat for her after she suffered discrimination. However, Holden said White actually...
Mayor Kip Holden has announced that Dewayne White will not be allowed to continue to serve as Baton Rouge Chief of Police. Holden says White has not been honest about his tenure and his failure to follow the "rules and regulations," and says the truth will come out. White’s attorney, Jill Craft, says White intends to appeal to the state civil service board. Holden made the announcement following a public hearing this morning at which White was appealing his firing, which Holden announced last week. Read Daily Report PM for further coverage.
The fate of Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White hangs in the balance this morning, as Mayor Kip Holden is deliberating whether to fire the chief, who was placed on leave earlier this month. The deliberations follow a public dismissal hearing held this morning in Metro Council chambers. The packed hearing was contentious right off the bat, as Holden's attorney, Murphy Foster, and White's attorney, Jill Craft, immediately began arguing over the rules of the hearing. Its purpose was to give White an opportunity to rebut the reasons for his proposed termination, which were delineated in a five-page letter the mayor's office released last week. That letter accuses White of insubordination and leaking confidential information, among other things. White has accused the mayor or micromanaging the department. About the only thing no one disagrees on is that White and the powerful police union were frequently and increasingly at odds. Going into this morning's hearing, council members were...
As the war of words escalates between Mayor Kip Holden and fired Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White, White's attorney says an email exchange between the two illustrates the counterproductive ways in which Holden was micromanaging the police department. Specifically, the email shows that three days before he was fired, White alerted the mayor to a disciplinary action he was taking against a white police officer for uttering a racial slur at the scene of a homicide. Jill Craft, White's attorney, says the email was sent because the police chief was verbally ordered by the mayor about a month before his firing to run all personnel and disciplinary matters through the mayor's office first. But the mayor's office denies White's claim and says White was free to issue disciplinary measures himself. "I guess he sent that [email] as a heads up," says Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel, who also insists that the officer isn't a high-ranking officer in the police union. "I don't...
Following the visit Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan made to Southern University in October, Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White signed an affidavit stating that "Only one Baton Rouge Police officer accompanied State Police" in the department's "routine involvement" in the escort of Farrakhan from New Orleans. Mayor Kip Holden says in a letter outlining his reasons for firing White released Wednesday that the police chief was not truthful about the "the lack of overtime required for the detail," among other accusations. In the affidavit, which White apparently wrote and signed following Metro Council member Mike Walker's campaign advertisement criticizing the mayor and police department for escorting Farrakhan, the police chief says it is departmental policy to escort public and controversial figures. "This includes insuring [sic] the safety of public figures that may be controversial and may invite a threat to their safety and the safety of the general public," White...
It's Transocean's turn in the penalty box. The Houston Chroncile reports that a lawyer for the Swiss drilling contractor is expected to enter a guilty plea on the company's behalf Thursday in a New Orleans federal courtroom to a single misdemeanor charge of violating the Clean Water Act through negligent discharge of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Transocean has agreed to pay a $400 million criminal fine and serve five years of probation. The decision whether to approve the deal rests with U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo. The charge stems from a U.S. government criminal investigation of the 2010 Gulf oil spill that also has ensnared BP and four of its current and former employees. The probe continues nearly three years later. Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and sank about 50 miles off Louisiana after a well a mile beneath the sea blew out. Eleven rig workers, including nine Transocean employees, were killed. The hearing is expected to be...
Chris Stewart, president of the Baton Rouge Union of Police Local 237, today announced his support for Mayor Kip Holden's decision to fire Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White, saying White's termination ended "the most tumultuous era ever within the Baton Rouge Police Department." In a statement released to the media today, Stewart blames White for an increase in violent crime last year. "Rather than work with us to address this issue, Chief White chose to publicly attack our organization and its members without provocation in an attempt to shift the blame for the failure of his leadership," Stewart says. White frequently clashed with the union, and once publicly said the union was the biggest obstacle he faced in his attempts to improve the department. White's attorney, Jill Craft, claims Holden micromanaged White's personnel decisions. She says tensions got heated between White and the mayor last fall when White tried to transfer Stewart from a position of "professional...
We want to express our support for Mayor Holden's steps to end the most tumultuous era ever within the Baton Rouge Police Department. Like Mayor Holden, we are truly disappointed with the lack of leadership exhibited by Chief DeWayne White. As an organization, we attempted to assist and work with him on numerous occasions in an effort to create a safe and secure environment for our citizens.
Former Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White offered to resign three weeks ago through his attorney Jill Craft before being fired Wednesday by Mayor Kip Holden, says Craft. However, Craft says when she contacted Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel to tender White's resignation, there was denial of White's job being in jeopardy. In fact, White reportedly received a "heated call" from the mayor about 30 minutes after Craft contacted Daniel because Holden was upset White had acquired counsel. White received a letter from Daniel on Wednesday stating his "termination has to do with a substantial disagreement with the direction of the future of the Baton Rouge Police Department," Craft says. But White knew rumors about his firing after the November election had been swirling for months, says Craft, who spoke for White at a news conference this afternoon at her downtown office. She says White contacted her to help him reach a "peaceful resolution" with the mayor. White will appeal...
Mayor Kip Holden says Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White was given the opportunity to resign before being fired Wednesday. "I think he told [Chief Administrative Officer] William [Daniel]: 'Just go ahead and fire me,'" Holden says. White is appealing the decision. Holden continues to deflect questions about why White was fired, or what the process or criteria might be for finding a new chief, saying he doesn't discuss personnel matters with the media. However, the dismissal letter, which was released by White's attorney today, says: "The basis for your termination has to do with a substantial disagreement with the direction of the future of the Baton Rouge Police Department."When asked if the Metro Council's discussions about merging the police department with the sheriff's office would have any affect on his thought process, Holden reiterated his opposition to consolidation. Most of the speculation about White's dismissal has focused on his
Despite the abrupt firing of Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden on Wednesday, a Metro Council initiative to look at the logistics of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office will get under way later this month with a special committee meeting. "Regardless of who the chief is and regardless of who the sheriff is," the committee will perform the due diligence needed to understand how a consolidation could happen, says Metro Councilman Joel Boé, who in November called for staffing the committee. Council members Tara Wicker and John Delgado join Boé on the committee. Police Sgt. Jonathan Dunnam and sheriff's office Col. Lawrence McLeary represent the law enforcement agencies on the committee. While an exact date and time have not yet been set for the committee's first meeting, Boé says he expects it will...
The East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is finalizing plans to present a new code enforcement effort—a series of proposed ordinances that will make it easier for the parish to clean up blighted properties. RDA president and CEO Walter Monsour hopes to present the package to Mayor Kip Holden and the Metro Council by the end of March. The initiative, based on code enforcement models that have proven to be successful in cities such as New Orleans and Baltimore, will include the creation of a code enforcement department that will be self-sustaining within three years and separate from the Department of Public Works, which currently handles code violations. Other proposed ordinances will stiffen fines for code violators and make it easier for the parish to foreclose on properties that are not brought up to code within one year of being cited. "We have found in looking at other models that when landowners understand they are going to be forced to bring their property up to code...
Mary Kistler, executive assistant to Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks, will not be investigated by the state Board of Ethics, Ricks says. Last year, the Livingston Parish Council asked for an investigation into the deletion of thousands of emails by Kistler, who was then the council clerk. Some of the emails reportedly discussed political strategy on behalf of Ricks, the wording of council minutes, and a possible subsidized housing development in Watson. Ricks says Kistler, who could not be reached through her parish email address for comment, recently received a letter from the Board of Ethics saying they would not investigate, but that the state Inspector General and FBI still were reviewing the information. “No one's ever talked to her,” Ricks says. “She's done no wrong, and welcomes the opportunity to tell her story someday.” –David Jacobs
Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White's performance will be under review by Mayor Kip Holden, with some local reports saying he's in jeopardy of losing his job. But Holden spokesman Scott Dyer says the mayor is simply doing regular evaluations of White and 13 other department heads, similar to those he conducted of department heads at the start of his previous two terms. Dyer says Holden will begin the reviews when he returns Tuesday from the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., adding that White's evaluation is no different from the others. Dyer says he's not sure how long the mayor will take to administer the evaluations. Dyer says other officials under review include DDD Director Davis Rhorer, Community Development Interim Director Mukadas Alli-Balogun, Constituent and Neighborhood Services Director Mary Fontenot, EMS Interim Director Chad Guilliot, Finance Director Marsha Hanlon, Fire Chief Ed Smith, Human Resources Interim Director Brian Bernard, Human...
Metro Council member Joel Boé says he is going to wait two more weeks to introduce a proposal to form a committee to study the viability of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office.
Perhaps it's because it was an otherwise slow Saturday night. Perhaps it's because of the recent spate of violent incidents in public venues across the country. Whatever the reason, the story of the melee that broke out Saturday evening in the food court of the Mall of Louisiana involving some 200 local teens went viral and topped the list of trending stories for much of Sunday on websites such as Yahoo! News and Google. While there's no way to do damage control in the age of social media, local law enforcement and elected officials are grappling with how to prevent such incidents from happening again. There's no clear-cut solution. Metro Councilman Chandler Loupe, who tried unsuccessfully in 2011 to pass an ordinance that would have applied the existing 11 p.m. curfew to 17-year-olds, says he still favors a curfew as a potential solution. But a curfew wouldn't have made any difference Saturday night: The fight broke out in the early evening, and many of the kids involved were too...
Perhaps it's because it was an otherwise slow Saturday night. Perhaps it's because of the recent spate of violent incidents in public venues across the country. Whatever the reason, the story of the melee that broke out Saturday evening in the food court of the Mall of Louisiana involving some 200 local teens went viral and topped the list of trending stories for much of Sunday on websites such as Yahoo! News and Google.
Mayor Kip Holden's office is closely guarding how it plans to buy the old Woman's Hospital campus at the corner of Goodwood Boulevard and Airline Highway for $10 million. The disclosure could be as far as five months out, with the city-parish getting a 150-day inspection period to determine whether the 140,000-square-foot Physicians Tower is suitable for a conversion into headquarters for the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Many across southeast Louisiana were surprised and saddened last week by the resignation of Jim Letten, who announced he was stepping down after 12 years as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District because of a scandal involving his top aides. One person not shedding a tear is local attorney Mary Olive Pierson, who has faced off against Letten and his prosecutors in several high-profile cases, most notably the gambling corruption trial of former Gov. Edwin Edwards and four others in 2000. The outspoken Pierson tells Daily Report she wasn't at all surprised by the turn of events in the U.S. Attorney's office. "Jim Letten and his crew have been behaving this way the entire time they have been in office. … They're just now getting caught," she says. "They were always above the law in their own mind." Pierson says the scandal, which involves anonymous blog posts about an ongoing investigation that two top prosecutors under Letten made on nola.com—and the ensuing cover...
Those parking in the Third Street garage after hours and on weekends won't have to worry about getting towed anymore. The state of Louisiana is suspending the controversial practice, opting instead for a more amicable solution.
Metro Council member Joel Boé says by early next year it will be time to revisit and staff a committee formed in April 2011 to study the viability of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. "Sadly it made no progress," Boé says in a prepared statement released Monday. "I support police unification for Baton Rouge as a way to put more police on our streets." Councilman Chandler Loupe originally introduced forming the committee, although he had no intention of serving on it at the time and still doesn't. However, Loupe says he'll be supportive of choosing three council members to serve on the committee. Boé says the committee would also be served by representatives from BRPD and the sheriff's office, and should include a position for a representative of Mayor Kip Holden's administration, which it currently doesn't have. Boé says the committee would study what steps are needed to actually consolidate law enforcement. As he understands it,...
Dennis Kelley says he proposed a consolidation of the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office in the mid-1980s after attending homicide schools in Atlanta and Florida’s Miami-Dade County and seeing consolidation work among the departments there. The local proposal was something of a lead balloon, recalls Kelley, who retired 10 years ago from the Baton Rouge Police Department as night major: "Baton Rouge is far behind the times." Kelley originally retired from city police as a major in the violent offenders unit before working for the FBI and returning to the city for another two and a half years. He says consolidation in Atlanta and Florida worked by jettisoning a duplication of services and superfluous police stations. By doing so in Baton Rouge, city police would be left in charge of preventing and solving crime and traffic; the sheriff’s office would supervise civil courts and the jail. Therein, however, lies the problem of...
As businessman and activist Lane Grigsby prepares a campaign to consolidate the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office with the Baton Rouge Police Department, the idea has not been met with open arms inside or out of the circuitous boundaries of Baton Rouge.
Consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office into one agency would reduce administration costs but would not effectively improve crime prevention, says former police chief and sheriff Greg Phares. "You would still need the same amount of boots on the ground," says Phares, who served as police chief from 1991 to 2001 and interim sheriff for a year before Sid Gautreaux took office in 2008. To consolidate, Phares says, the mayor and city police would have to cede power to the sheriff's office, since it has jurisdiction outside city limits. That would give the sheriff "unchecked power," says Phares, who added: "Do you want to give one person that much power over something that is as important as crime and safety?" Phares says city police will fight consolidation, since its officers have a union, collective bargaining and a civil service commission, while the sheriff's office doesn't. Businessman and political activist Lane Grigsby recently...
City and law enforcement leaders have responded tepidly to local businessman and political activist Lane Grigsby's announcement Friday that he plans to mount a campaign for consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office into one agency. Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White has stayed silent since Daily Report reached out to him Monday, while Sheriff Sid Gautreaux says he would be "open to that discussion" if in the future the public and law enforcement agencies show support for consolidation. "I am committed to do what I need to as sheriff of this parish to keep the community safe as outlined by our state's constitution," Gautreaux says. "I have the utmost respect for Chief White, and we will certainly continue to offer any support that his agency needs." Consolidation of the two agencies is not a new idea. In April 2011, the Metro Council voted to form a committee to study the prospect of unifying the departments into a single...
A New York-based investment fund that owns shares in U.S. engineering company Shaw Group has demanded that a special committee be set up to investigate Shaw's chairman for potential conflicts of interest as he looks to sell the company to Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. for $3 billion, Reuters reports. Denali Investors, which calls the offer by CB&I undervalued, says in a letter to independent directors that Shaw's chairman, James Bernhard, wants to close the deal by the first half of 2013 to enable him to run for the Senate or for governor of Louisiana, where Shaw is based. "We believe this helps explain why the current deal discussions began in May 2012 and [are] timed to close in the first half of 2013, given any Senate candidate cannot afford to wait beyond 2013,"
Attorneys for Andrew Sawyer, a 20-year-old Baton Rouge resident who alleges he was sexually abused while working for The Shaw Group in Walker earlier this year, is asking Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to intercede and demand that four men who were arrested in connection with the case be prosecuted. Sawyer's attorneys say Livingston Parish District Attorney Scott Perrilloux is not pursuing the case, and that's why Caldwell is being asked to get involved. Attorneys from Dedrick Moore & Associates and Haley & Associates have also sent word to U.S Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to intercede. Perrilloux did not return calls seeking comment today. A spokesperson at Caldwell's office says the AG won't comment. Sawyer worked for The Shaw Group at Sunland Pipefitting Plant in Walker for eight months, his attorneys say, and was subjected to sexual abuse and harassment by his co-workers, "including multiple levels of management." His lawyers say Sawyer was tied down with...
In his quest to take Mayor Kip Holden's job, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker has been campaigning largely on a platform of stemming violent crime. Meanwhile, two-term incumbent Holden has been pointing to his eight-year record, part of which includes creating Operation BRAVE—the crime-fighting initiative from which he accuses Walker of lifting ideas. At the end of June, the Metro Council passed an $11.1 million budget supplement Holden introduced that includes a police academy this fall for 32 new police officers. Walker, a Republican who is in his third and final term, says if he were mayor now he would immediately hire at least 60 new police officers. "Right now, the mayor knows where all the money is hidden," Walker says. Holden, a Democrat seeking his third term as mayor, contends the police academy doesn't have the training to hire 60 officers at once, and adds another 30 will be hired next year. He also shows little effort to hide his bemusement with Walker's notion that...
As a downtown resident and landlord, Darryl Gissel pays a 117.5-mill property tax on his home as well as on each of the rental properties he owns—money that goes, in part, to the Baton Rouge Police Department and to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. On each property he pays an additional 10 mills that goes to the Downtown Development District, a portion of which the agency spends on beefed-up security downtown. On top of all that, he pays $100 a year to the Historic Spanish Town Civic Association for an off-duty police officer who patrols the neighborhood several hours a week. That Gissel is essentially paying three times for protection that, in theory, should be provided by local law enforcement as a matter of course might strike some as troubling. But Gissel is unfazed by what he has come to accept as the price of living in Baton Rouge—and, in his particular case, downtown Baton Rouge. "It doesn't bother me," he says. "I'm to the point where I'll do whatever...
A Syrian-born man who is represented as the hero-rescuer in Dave Eggers' best-selling nonfiction work Zeitoun, which chronicles the eerie aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the nightmarish side of the American justice system, has been accused of plotting to murder his ex-wife, her son and another man. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, faces charges of offering $20,000 to a fellow jail inmate in exchange for the killings. Zeitoun also faces a domestic abuse battery charge after he allegedly beat his wife, Kathy Zeitoun, on a New Orleans street. In Zeitoun, which won an American Book Award in 2010, the protagonist was described as a compassionate man paddling a canoe through Katrina's floodwaters, helping people and animals, before being arrested on false charges of looting. He then was thrown into prison on suspicion of being a terrorist.
Officials say initial readings from monitoring equipment taken today at a sinkhole in Assumption Parish do not show any signs of naturally occurring radiation. "Based on the first round of data, we are confident that the potential exposure of citizens to NORM [naturally occurring radioactive material] is not a problem in this matter. We will continue to provide data based on air and water sampling to Assumption Parish and DNR," Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Peggy Hatch says in a news release. DEQ says the slurry hole near Bayou Corne is near areas that have been used for oil and gas exploration. Low levels of radioactivity may be remaining from the work, though not at harmful levels, officials have said before today's initial testing. Department spokesman Rodney Mallett says such material tends to accumulate in low levels on equipment used to drill for oil and gas. Scientists say the sinkhole might be related to brine contained in an underground salt cavern owned by...
Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson says he still has an investigator working with the FBI on wiretapping allegations involving the New Orleans Saints, but adds that no evidence has been turned over to federal prosecutors at this time. Authorities have been working on the case since April, when ESPN, citing anonymous sources, reported Superdome wiring was rigged so Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis could listen to opposing teams' radio communications during games. Loomis and the Saints have denied those allegations, and the Saints have hired the firm of former FBI Director Louis Freeh to do its own investigation. Edmonson says his investigator has been conducting interviews along with FBI agents but that it is too early to discuss whether those interviews have produced any credible leads.
Outside the site of a prominent East Lakeshore Drive mansion that has been under construction for the past two years, a Baton Rouge Police Department officer stands guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
As a downtown resident and landlord, Darryl Gissel pays a 117.5-mill property tax on his home as well as on each of the rental properties he owns—money that goes, in part, to the Baton Rouge Police Department and to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.
It was over coffee at a north Louisiana diner 34 years ago that a local sheriff's deputy made the observation, "People who are with the police department down there in New Orleans—a lot of them would be in jail if they were up here," says The (Lafayette) Advertiser. Sure, it's an exaggeration, but it shows just how ingrained and widespread the New Orleans Police Department's reputation for scandal was even then. And that was two years before a young officer's murder sparked investigations of abuse as well as deaths that led to indictment of officers known as the "Algiers Seven, 12 years before suspected cop killer Adolph Archie died a messy death in police custody, 16 years before officer Len Davis was exposed as a protector of a cocaine ring who ordered the murder of a woman, and 17 years before Officer Antoinette Frank killed a fellow officer and two others during a restaurant robbery. It was a generation preceding the Danziger Bridge shootings and the discovery of the...
A court-backed plan to excise corruption, discrimination and a frequent use of deadly force from the long-troubled New Orleans Police Department will last at least four years and likely cost the financially strapped city $11 million annually. Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced the plan Tuesday, says the agreement is the most wide-ranging in the Justice Department's history and resolves allegations that New Orleans police officers have engaged in a pattern of discriminatory and unconstitutional activity. It comes in the form of a court-approved consent decree, an agreement the Justice Department negotiated with the city after releasing a scathing report taking the department to task on multiple fronts in March 2011. The agreement includes extensive requirements for improved training, better supervision and new technology including cameras in police cars. Mayor Mitch Landrieu estimates the plan's cost at roughly $11 million a year over the next four to five years. The...
The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties this morning, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all former coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, the loss of 20 scholarships per year over four years and probation for five years. The NCAA also says any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school. NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the sanctions at a news conference in Indianapolis. Though the NCAA stopped short of imposing the "death penalty"—shutting down the Nittany Lions' program completely—the punishment is still crippling for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook. Emmert fast-tracked penalties rather than go through the usual circuitous series of investigations and hearings. The NCAA says the $60 million is equivalent to the...
A Livingston Parish grand jury today indicted the mayor and police chief of Springfield—a town of roughly 400 people located about 40 miles east of Baton Rouge—on charges they conspired to hide a woman's 2011 drunken driving citation. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office says the four-count indictment charges Mayor Charles Martin and Police Chief James Jones with obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, injuring public records, and criminal conspiracy to injure public records. Martin and Jones were booked on related charges last year. Caldwell's office says the 62-year-old mayor and 48-year-old police chief plotted to conceal evidence and obstruct the prosecution of a suspect arrested in April 2011 on suspicion of drunken driving. Martin and Jones didn't immediately respond to a message for comment left at the town's administrative office by The Associated Press.
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III continued touting a new crime-fighting initiative targeting the 70805 ZIP code, telling the Baton Rouge Press Club today that the Operation Ceasefire–style program nicknamed Project BRAVE will beef up patrols in the north Baton Rouge community and let criminal groups in the area know they will all be held accountable for one member's actions. Moore recently gave a similar address to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge. "I surely want to get the message out. The community's moral voice is important, as is its support," says Moore, who estimates victims and witnesses in 70% of shootings don't cooperate with police. Getting community support behind those victims and witnesses is how the city-parish intends to reduce violent crime through Project BRAVE, which is short for Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination. Moore says by September, the city-parish will know if it's eligible for a federal Ceasefire grant that would make...
A $6.6 million tax lien has been filed against the Crawford Lewis law firm for failing to pay federal employment taxes from June 2006 through September 2009. According to documents filed with Clerk of Court Doug Welborn's office, two liens were filed against the firm on April 23, one totaling more than $3.7 million, the other more than $2.9 million. The liens indicate that taxes were owed for every quarter during the more than three-year period. The liens do not indicate why the taxes were not paid, but an attorney who represents Crawford Lewis on an unrelated matter says the firm is currently working toward a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service. "Crawford Lewis is in a civil administrative process with the IRS and has a pending offer in compromise," says Mary Olive Pierson, adding that the firm is current and compliant on all tax returns since the period in question. Pierson also confirms that Crawford Lewis is under investigation by the state's Office of Disciplinary...
A federal judge says he is determined to identify the source of leaked information about the Justice Department's probe of deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt says it appears federal prosecutors didn't conduct a "full-blown investigation" after news reports in 2010 forecast a former police officer's guilty plea while the case was under seal. Attorneys for five former officers convicted of charges stemming from the shootings claim leaks to the media deprived their clients of a fair trial. They're asking Engelhardt to order a new trial. The judge didn't rule on that request today, but did say the leaks are "serious business" warranting greater scrutiny. He ordered prosecutors to compile a report on their efforts to investigate the leaks.
Mayor Kip Holden introduced a supplemental budget amendment this afternoon that asks the Metro Council to appropriate more than $11 million in surplus funds to the city-parish capital and operating budgets—with most of that money going to fund law enforcement and public safety needs. In his cover letter to the council, Holden says 93% of the extra money, or about $9.7 million, would go to new academies for the police and fire departments, new weapons, new vehicles for both departments, and the cost of housing inmates in other parishes due to parish prison overcrowding. The additional money, which the administration says it was not aware of when it prepared the budget in late 2011, is coming from several sources, among them: higher-than-expected sales tax collections during the first quarter of 2012, unused money in the general fund budget, unused money in the police department's budget, and interest from cash balances in the parish construction budget. The item has been placed...
Gerald R. Lane and his company, Gerry Lane Enterprises, were sued today in district court by one former and four current Gerry Lane Chevrolet employees who allege Gerald Lane subjected them to "constant harassment, abuse and [a] degrading environment." The suit, which you can see here, claims that Lane uses racial slurs and harasses "black salesmen on a weekly if not daily basis. He refers to his car dealership as his 'plantation' and tells the sales staff to 'pick his cotton.' " Plaintiffs say they complained to management and were told to ignore the harassment because Lane is "old-school" and will be gone soon. Gerry Lane Enterprises General Manager Cedric Patton, who's also a part-owner, says company officials hadn't seen the suit yet and won't comment on the specific allegations. "We can deny, however, that any employees were mistreated in any way by any member of management," Patton says in a prepared...
Discussion on electing police chief to be put off once again
Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle says she plans to delete an item on tonight's agenda calling for a discussion about whether the police chief should be an elected position. She says it's "certainly" something she intends to bring before the council in the future, when she's armed with essential data. "I'm waiting on a report from the [law enforcement] unification committee, and I'm not ready to bring it back tonight," she says. The issue, which was first raised and placed on the agenda in March, was most recently deferred at the council's last meeting, on April 24. It came about following the controversial firing of former Chief Dewayne White. In order to change the police chief position from one selected by the mayor to one selected by a vote, the Plan of Government would need to be changed, which would also require voter approval. Meanwhile, a search for a permanent replacement for White continues. "It's going to be difficult to pass, yes. It's difficult to even get it on the...
LSU, state spent nearly $1M defending van Heerden case
LSU and the state of Louisiana spent just less than $1 million defending its decision to fire former Hurricane Center deputy director Ivor van Heerden. Documents obtained today by Levees.org indicate the university paid the Baton Rouge law firm of Kantrow Spaht Weaver & Blitzer more than $457,000 over two and a half years to handle the case. That's on top of the $435,000 settlement the Louisiana Office of Risk Management paid to van Heerden last month. Levees.org notes the $892,000 total doesn't include any amounts LSU paid its own staff to comply with court orders, respond to subpoenas and appear for depositions. Van Heerden alleges he was fired for statements in his post-Katrina levee failure investigation funded by the Louisiana Department of Transportation, namely that the Army Corps of Engineers' faulty levees caused the flooding during Katrina. The Association of American University Professors censured the university in 2011 for firing van Heerden. "LSU has chosen to hound a...
Grant funds sought to target crime in 70802
While the new city-parish crime-fighting initiative known as the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program, or BRAVE, targets violent criminals in the 70805 ZIP code, District Attorney Hillar Moore III and Mayor Kip Holden's office have applied for three additional federal grants worth a total of nearly $1.7 million to focus on other trouble spots around Baton Rouge. Two of the grants in particular would be used to bring targeted policing and beefed-up patrols to the 70802 ZIP code, which is adjacent to 70805 in northwest Baton Rouge. The two ZIP codes collectively account for nearly half the city's crime, Moore says, despite comprising just 3.5 square miles and having just 13,800 residents. The grant application notes that additional policing is needed in those areas, particularly as BRAVE cracks down on known drug gangs and repeat offenders in 70805. Data shows that "as crime goes up in 70805 it goes down in 70802 and vice versa," the application reads. "GIS mapping clearly...
Publisher: Law enforcement consolidation a good idea
In his latest column, Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister says he likes the idea of consolidating the city police, sheriff and constable—a notion that has been revived recently by Metro Councilman Joel Boé but was previously discussed in the 1960s, 1970s, 2002 and 2011. "You may remember a TV campaign this past fall, 'Fight, Not Fear', funded by businessman Lane Grigsby, which promoted this idea," McCollister writes. "Grigsby points out that other major cities have reduced crime by as much as 45% with the unification of [law enforcement] agencies—cities such as Charlotte, Indianapolis, Louisville and Las Vegas. The question seems to be: If they can do it and it helps, why not Baton Rouge?" The timing also seems right for the consolidation conversation to resurface in light of the controversy surrounding the recent firing of Police Chief Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden. "Boé says the committee's first...
Law enforcement consolidation committee holds first meeting today
The five-member committee that has been formed to look into the possibility of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office is meeting this afternoon for the first time.
Marcelle formally asks feds to investigate BRPD
Metro Councilwoman Denise Marcelle is sending a formal request today to the U.S. Department of Justice to find out whether the department will investigate allegations made by fired Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White. Marcelle previously told Daily Report she wanted the feds to look into White's allegations and firing. Since then, she and council members Tara Wicker, Donna Collins-Lewis and Ronnie Edwards met with the parish attorney's office to discuss the situation. At that meeting, they asked to be included in a regularly scheduled meeting between the parish attorney's office and officials from the Department of Justice, who periodically come to town for updates on the police department's compliance with a 1980 consent decree. That regularly scheduled meeting was canceled, however, as a result of the federal budget cuts...
Only those in city limits could vote for police chief
If the Baton Rouge police chief were ever to become an elected position—as some are calling for in the wake of the recent firing of former Chief of Police Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden—only voters living within city limits would be allowed to cast a vote for their choice at the polls. Furthermore, state law requires city-position candidates to have lived within city limits for at least a year prior to an election, says Parish Attorney Mary Roper. It gets trickier: Most police chiefs historically have come up through the ranks of BRPD, but under state law, existing officers on the force who wish to campaign for police chief have to resign in order to do so. "It's a prohibitive practice to be employed in the classified service and be a candidate for a public office," Roper explains. And then there's the potential confusion created by the bizarre boundaries of the Baton Rouge city limits, which exclude a large portion of southeast Baton Rouge between interstates 10 and...
Holden's handling of White's firing may complicate search for replacement
The damage control that Mayor Kip Holden displays over the next 60 days is going to be the most interesting aspect of the fallout from Monday's official firing of Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White, says local political consultant and pollster Bernie Pinsonat. "What fool from outside the police department will take the job to begin with?" says Pinsonat, who speculates Holden had grown tired of the ongoing battle between White and the police union and chose to sacrifice the police chief, who'd had less than two years on the job. "After this fiasco, what kind of police chief do you end up with?" On Wednesday, the mayor's office confirmed Lt. Carl Dabadie as interim police chief. Dabadie has been taking on police chief duties since White was informed on Feb. 6 of his impending termination. Rannah Gray, who doesn't work in the mayor's office but managed Holden's recent political campaign and stays in constant contact with him, says she doesn't believe there was a clash between White...
Emails between mayor's office, former police chief detail personnel decisions
One thread of an email exchange between former Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White and Mayor Kip Holden may provide insight into allegations of micromanagement of the police chief's personnel decisions by the mayor's office. White's attorney, Jill Craft, says those emails are just the beginning of micromanagement. "There's a lot more emails than that," Craft says. The mayor's office isn't commenting. The thread of emails ends Jan. 25, or 12 days before White was reportedly informed by Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel that he was fired. They are the last emails the city-parish attorney's office provided Daily Report in a public records request for emails between White and the mayor's office between Jan. 1 and Feb. 6, when White was given notice of his termination. On Jan. 24, White emailed Daniel and requested the next day off. Daniel granted the request that day, and brought up the issue of transfers in the police department. "Would you please discuss those with...
Not in union
Architect Coleman Brown doesn't know all of the details that led Mayor Kip Holden to fire Baton Rouge Chief of Police Dewayne White Feb. 6. But the Mid City businessman says he thinks White was doing a pretty good job.
White to appeal firing
Mayor Kip Holden says that, technically, he didn't fire Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White on Feb. 6. White and his attorney, Jill Craft, say the opposite. In any event, Holden made the firing official following a hearing this morning, although White plans to appeal to the civil service board. "I stand ready to serve this community," White said shortly before Holden publicly announced his decision. Craft says White "started a lot of good work" and "certainly would like the opportunity to complete it" when asked why White would still want his job. "I think he feels very strongly that people need to know what's going on," whether he continues as chief or not, she adds. White declined to answer questions during the hearing today, instead focusing on refuting 14 justifications for his dismissal outlined in a letter released by Holden last week. For example, White was accused of not being truthful about the extent of the security detail provided to Nation of Islam minister Louis...
Councilwoman calls for federal investigation of BRPD
The testimony of fired Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White was enough today to convince Metro Councilwoman C. Denise Marcelle that a federal investigation of the department is needed. "I believe this opens it up for the feds to come in," she says. "I think that needs to happen, and I am at least willing to discuss it because these are some serious allegations." During a public hearing this morning, White says he has addressed the "vestiges of racism that have torn this department apart" and described disciplining a police officer who used a racial slur at the scene of a homicide. "We have a serious race problem here, whether you want to acknowledge it or not," White said to Holden. According to White, the department has been under a federal consent decree for past racial and gender discrimination since 1975. Kelley Morgan, a black woman who spoke today on White's behalf, says the chief went to bat for her after she suffered discrimination. However, Holden said White actually...
News alert: Holden upholds police chief firing
Mayor Kip Holden has announced that Dewayne White will not be allowed to continue to serve as Baton Rouge Chief of Police. Holden says White has not been honest about his tenure and his failure to follow the "rules and regulations," and says the truth will come out. White’s attorney, Jill Craft, says White intends to appeal to the state civil service board. Holden made the announcement following a public hearing this morning at which White was appealing his firing, which Holden announced last week. Read Daily Report PM for further coverage.
Hearing on police chief grows contentious
The fate of Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White hangs in the balance this morning, as Mayor Kip Holden is deliberating whether to fire the chief, who was placed on leave earlier this month. The deliberations follow a public dismissal hearing held this morning in Metro Council chambers. The packed hearing was contentious right off the bat, as Holden's attorney, Murphy Foster, and White's attorney, Jill Craft, immediately began arguing over the rules of the hearing. Its purpose was to give White an opportunity to rebut the reasons for his proposed termination, which were delineated in a five-page letter the mayor's office released last week. That letter accuses White of insubordination and leaking confidential information, among other things. White has accused the mayor or micromanaging the department. About the only thing no one disagrees on is that White and the powerful police union were frequently and increasingly at odds. Going into this morning's hearing, council members were...
White's attorney: Holden's micromanagement of BRPD evident in emails
As the war of words escalates between Mayor Kip Holden and fired Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White, White's attorney says an email exchange between the two illustrates the counterproductive ways in which Holden was micromanaging the police department. Specifically, the email shows that three days before he was fired, White alerted the mayor to a disciplinary action he was taking against a white police officer for uttering a racial slur at the scene of a homicide. Jill Craft, White's attorney, says the email was sent because the police chief was verbally ordered by the mayor about a month before his firing to run all personnel and disciplinary matters through the mayor's office first. But the mayor's office denies White's claim and says White was free to issue disciplinary measures himself. "I guess he sent that [email] as a heads up," says Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel, who also insists that the officer isn't a high-ranking officer in the police union. "I don't...
Police chief says in affidavit only one officer escorted Farrakhan
Following the visit Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan made to Southern University in October, Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White signed an affidavit stating that "Only one Baton Rouge Police officer accompanied State Police" in the department's "routine involvement" in the escort of Farrakhan from New Orleans. Mayor Kip Holden says in a letter outlining his reasons for firing White released Wednesday that the police chief was not truthful about the "the lack of overtime required for the detail," among other accusations. In the affidavit, which White apparently wrote and signed following Metro Council member Mike Walker's campaign advertisement criticizing the mayor and police department for escorting Farrakhan, the police chief says it is departmental policy to escort public and controversial figures. "This includes insuring [sic] the safety of public figures that may be controversial and may invite a threat to their safety and the safety of the general public," White...
Transocean set to plead guilty to misdemeanor in spill case
It's Transocean's turn in the penalty box. The Houston Chroncile reports that a lawyer for the Swiss drilling contractor is expected to enter a guilty plea on the company's behalf Thursday in a New Orleans federal courtroom to a single misdemeanor charge of violating the Clean Water Act through negligent discharge of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Transocean has agreed to pay a $400 million criminal fine and serve five years of probation. The decision whether to approve the deal rests with U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo. The charge stems from a U.S. government criminal investigation of the 2010 Gulf oil spill that also has ensnared BP and four of its current and former employees. The probe continues nearly three years later. Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and sank about 50 miles off Louisiana after a well a mile beneath the sea blew out. Eleven rig workers, including nine Transocean employees, were killed. The hearing is expected to be...
Police union breaks silence on chief's firing
Chris Stewart, president of the Baton Rouge Union of Police Local 237, today announced his support for Mayor Kip Holden's decision to fire Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White, saying White's termination ended "the most tumultuous era ever within the Baton Rouge Police Department." In a statement released to the media today, Stewart blames White for an increase in violent crime last year. "Rather than work with us to address this issue, Chief White chose to publicly attack our organization and its members without provocation in an attempt to shift the blame for the failure of his leadership," Stewart says. White frequently clashed with the union, and once publicly said the union was the biggest obstacle he faced in his attempts to improve the department. White's attorney, Jill Craft, claims Holden micromanaged White's personnel decisions. She says tensions got heated between White and the mayor last fall when White tried to transfer Stewart from a position of "professional...
Statement from Chris Stewart, President, Baton Rouge Union of Police
We want to express our support for Mayor Holden's steps to end the most tumultuous era ever within the Baton Rouge Police Department. Like Mayor Holden, we are truly disappointed with the lack of leadership exhibited by Chief DeWayne White. As an organization, we attempted to assist and work with him on numerous occasions in an effort to create a safe and secure environment for our citizens.
White to appeal firing
Former Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White offered to resign three weeks ago through his attorney Jill Craft before being fired Wednesday by Mayor Kip Holden, says Craft. However, Craft says when she contacted Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel to tender White's resignation, there was denial of White's job being in jeopardy. In fact, White reportedly received a "heated call" from the mayor about 30 minutes after Craft contacted Daniel because Holden was upset White had acquired counsel. White received a letter from Daniel on Wednesday stating his "termination has to do with a substantial disagreement with the direction of the future of the Baton Rouge Police Department," Craft says. But White knew rumors about his firing after the November election had been swirling for months, says Craft, who spoke for White at a news conference this afternoon at her downtown office. She says White contacted her to help him reach a "peaceful resolution" with the mayor. White will appeal...
Holden: Chief was asked to resign
Mayor Kip Holden says Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White was given the opportunity to resign before being fired Wednesday. "I think he told [Chief Administrative Officer] William [Daniel]: 'Just go ahead and fire me,'" Holden says. White is appealing the decision. Holden continues to deflect questions about why White was fired, or what the process or criteria might be for finding a new chief, saying he doesn't discuss personnel matters with the media. However, the dismissal letter, which was released by White's attorney today, says: "The basis for your termination has to do with a substantial disagreement with the direction of the future of the Baton Rouge Police Department."When asked if the Metro Council's discussions about merging the police department with the sheriff's office would have any affect on his thought process, Holden reiterated his opposition to consolidation. Most of the speculation about White's dismissal has focused on his
Law enforcement consolidation committee to meet later this month
Despite the abrupt firing of Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden on Wednesday, a Metro Council initiative to look at the logistics of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office will get under way later this month with a special committee meeting. "Regardless of who the chief is and regardless of who the sheriff is," the committee will perform the due diligence needed to understand how a consolidation could happen, says Metro Councilman Joel Boé, who in November called for staffing the committee. Council members Tara Wicker and John Delgado join Boé on the committee. Police Sgt. Jonathan Dunnam and sheriff's office Col. Lawrence McLeary represent the law enforcement agencies on the committee. While an exact date and time have not yet been set for the committee's first meeting, Boé says he expects it will...
Tougher code enforcement coming
The East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority is finalizing plans to present a new code enforcement effort—a series of proposed ordinances that will make it easier for the parish to clean up blighted properties. RDA president and CEO Walter Monsour hopes to present the package to Mayor Kip Holden and the Metro Council by the end of March. The initiative, based on code enforcement models that have proven to be successful in cities such as New Orleans and Baltimore, will include the creation of a code enforcement department that will be self-sustaining within three years and separate from the Department of Public Works, which currently handles code violations. Other proposed ordinances will stiffen fines for code violators and make it easier for the parish to foreclose on properties that are not brought up to code within one year of being cited. "We have found in looking at other models that when landowners understand they are going to be forced to bring their property up to code...
News alert: Livingston president says assistant cleared by ethics board; FBI and IG reviewing
Mary Kistler, executive assistant to Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks, will not be investigated by the state Board of Ethics, Ricks says. Last year, the Livingston Parish Council asked for an investigation into the deletion of thousands of emails by Kistler, who was then the council clerk. Some of the emails reportedly discussed political strategy on behalf of Ricks, the wording of council minutes, and a possible subsidized housing development in Watson. Ricks says Kistler, who could not be reached through her parish email address for comment, recently received a letter from the Board of Ethics saying they would not investigate, but that the state Inspector General and FBI still were reviewing the information. “No one's ever talked to her,” Ricks says. “She's done no wrong, and welcomes the opportunity to tell her story someday.” –David Jacobs
Holden to review Police Chief White, 13 other department heads
Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White's performance will be under review by Mayor Kip Holden, with some local reports saying he's in jeopardy of losing his job. But Holden spokesman Scott Dyer says the mayor is simply doing regular evaluations of White and 13 other department heads, similar to those he conducted of department heads at the start of his previous two terms. Dyer says Holden will begin the reviews when he returns Tuesday from the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., adding that White's evaluation is no different from the others. Dyer says he's not sure how long the mayor will take to administer the evaluations. Dyer says other officials under review include DDD Director Davis Rhorer, Community Development Interim Director Mukadas Alli-Balogun, Constituent and Neighborhood Services Director Mary Fontenot, EMS Interim Director Chad Guilliot, Finance Director Marsha Hanlon, Fire Chief Ed Smith, Human Resources Interim Director Brian Bernard, Human...
Boé delays introducing law enforcement consolidation committee
Metro Council member Joel Boé says he is going to wait two more weeks to introduce a proposal to form a committee to study the viability of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office.
Law enforcement: Preventing incidents like Saturday mall melee a challenge
Perhaps it's because it was an otherwise slow Saturday night. Perhaps it's because of the recent spate of violent incidents in public venues across the country. Whatever the reason, the story of the melee that broke out Saturday evening in the food court of the Mall of Louisiana involving some 200 local teens went viral and topped the list of trending stories for much of Sunday on websites such as Yahoo! News and Google. While there's no way to do damage control in the age of social media, local law enforcement and elected officials are grappling with how to prevent such incidents from happening again. There's no clear-cut solution. Metro Councilman Chandler Loupe, who tried unsuccessfully in 2011 to pass an ordinance that would have applied the existing 11 p.m. curfew to 17-year-olds, says he still favors a curfew as a potential solution. But a curfew wouldn't have made any difference Saturday night: The fight broke out in the early evening, and many of the kids involved were too...
Law enforcement: Preventing incidents like Saturday mall melee a challenge
Perhaps it's because it was an otherwise slow Saturday night. Perhaps it's because of the recent spate of violent incidents in public venues across the country. Whatever the reason, the story of the melee that broke out Saturday evening in the food court of the Mall of Louisiana involving some 200 local teens went viral and topped the list of trending stories for much of Sunday on websites such as Yahoo! News and Google.
Hospital checkup
Mayor Kip Holden's office is closely guarding how it plans to buy the old Woman's Hospital campus at the corner of Goodwood Boulevard and Airline Highway for $10 million. The disclosure could be as far as five months out, with the city-parish getting a 150-day inspection period to determine whether the 140,000-square-foot Physicians Tower is suitable for a conversion into headquarters for the Baton Rouge Police Department.
Pierson: Letten and crew always thought they were above the law
Many across southeast Louisiana were surprised and saddened last week by the resignation of Jim Letten, who announced he was stepping down after 12 years as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District because of a scandal involving his top aides. One person not shedding a tear is local attorney Mary Olive Pierson, who has faced off against Letten and his prosecutors in several high-profile cases, most notably the gambling corruption trial of former Gov. Edwin Edwards and four others in 2000. The outspoken Pierson tells Daily Report she wasn't at all surprised by the turn of events in the U.S. Attorney's office. "Jim Letten and his crew have been behaving this way the entire time they have been in office. … They're just now getting caught," she says. "They were always above the law in their own mind." Pierson says the scandal, which involves anonymous blog posts about an ongoing investigation that two top prosecutors under Letten made on nola.com—and the ensuing cover...
That's the ticket
Those parking in the Third Street garage after hours and on weekends won't have to worry about getting towed anymore. The state of Louisiana is suspending the controversial practice, opting instead for a more amicable solution.
Boé calls for consolidating law enforcement
Metro Council member Joel Boé says by early next year it will be time to revisit and staff a committee formed in April 2011 to study the viability of consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. "Sadly it made no progress," Boé says in a prepared statement released Monday. "I support police unification for Baton Rouge as a way to put more police on our streets." Councilman Chandler Loupe originally introduced forming the committee, although he had no intention of serving on it at the time and still doesn't. However, Loupe says he'll be supportive of choosing three council members to serve on the committee. Boé says the committee would also be served by representatives from BRPD and the sheriff's office, and should include a position for a representative of Mayor Kip Holden's administration, which it currently doesn't have. Boé says the committee would study what steps are needed to actually consolidate law enforcement. As he understands it,...
Public pressure is key to law enforcement consolidation, says retired city police major
Dennis Kelley says he proposed a consolidation of the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office in the mid-1980s after attending homicide schools in Atlanta and Florida’s Miami-Dade County and seeing consolidation work among the departments there. The local proposal was something of a lead balloon, recalls Kelley, who retired 10 years ago from the Baton Rouge Police Department as night major: "Baton Rouge is far behind the times." Kelley originally retired from city police as a major in the violent offenders unit before working for the FBI and returning to the city for another two and a half years. He says consolidation in Atlanta and Florida worked by jettisoning a duplication of services and superfluous police stations. By doing so in Baton Rouge, city police would be left in charge of preventing and solving crime and traffic; the sheriff’s office would supervise civil courts and the jail. Therein, however, lies the problem of...
Collision course?
As businessman and activist Lane Grigsby prepares a campaign to consolidate the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office with the Baton Rouge Police Department, the idea has not been met with open arms inside or out of the circuitous boundaries of Baton Rouge.
Former police chief, sheriff: Consolidation would create 'unchecked power'
Consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office into one agency would reduce administration costs but would not effectively improve crime prevention, says former police chief and sheriff Greg Phares. "You would still need the same amount of boots on the ground," says Phares, who served as police chief from 1991 to 2001 and interim sheriff for a year before Sid Gautreaux took office in 2008. To consolidate, Phares says, the mayor and city police would have to cede power to the sheriff's office, since it has jurisdiction outside city limits. That would give the sheriff "unchecked power," says Phares, who added: "Do you want to give one person that much power over something that is as important as crime and safety?" Phares says city police will fight consolidation, since its officers have a union, collective bargaining and a civil service commission, while the sheriff's office doesn't. Businessman and political activist Lane Grigsby recently...
Law enforcement consolidation campaign gets lukewarm reception
City and law enforcement leaders have responded tepidly to local businessman and political activist Lane Grigsby's announcement Friday that he plans to mount a campaign for consolidating the Baton Rouge Police Department and East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office into one agency. Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White has stayed silent since Daily Report reached out to him Monday, while Sheriff Sid Gautreaux says he would be "open to that discussion" if in the future the public and law enforcement agencies show support for consolidation. "I am committed to do what I need to as sheriff of this parish to keep the community safe as outlined by our state's constitution," Gautreaux says. "I have the utmost respect for Chief White, and we will certainly continue to offer any support that his agency needs." Consolidation of the two agencies is not a new idea. In April 2011, the Metro Council voted to form a committee to study the prospect of unifying the departments into a single...
Denali Investors call for investigation of Shaw Group chairman
A New York-based investment fund that owns shares in U.S. engineering company Shaw Group has demanded that a special committee be set up to investigate Shaw's chairman for potential conflicts of interest as he looks to sell the company to Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. for $3 billion, Reuters reports. Denali Investors, which calls the offer by CB&I undervalued, says in a letter to independent directors that Shaw's chairman, James Bernhard, wants to close the deal by the first half of 2013 to enable him to run for the Senate or for governor of Louisiana, where Shaw is based. "We believe this helps explain why the current deal discussions began in May 2012 and [are] timed to close in the first half of 2013, given any Senate candidate cannot afford to wait beyond 2013,"
Attorneys want AG to intercede in suit involving former Shaw employee
Attorneys for Andrew Sawyer, a 20-year-old Baton Rouge resident who alleges he was sexually abused while working for The Shaw Group in Walker earlier this year, is asking Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to intercede and demand that four men who were arrested in connection with the case be prosecuted. Sawyer's attorneys say Livingston Parish District Attorney Scott Perrilloux is not pursuing the case, and that's why Caldwell is being asked to get involved. Attorneys from Dedrick Moore & Associates and Haley & Associates have also sent word to U.S Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to intercede. Perrilloux did not return calls seeking comment today. A spokesperson at Caldwell's office says the AG won't comment. Sawyer worked for The Shaw Group at Sunland Pipefitting Plant in Walker for eight months, his attorneys say, and was subjected to sexual abuse and harassment by his co-workers, "including multiple levels of management." His lawyers say Sawyer was tied down with...
Holden, Walker lay out differing plans for police staffing
In his quest to take Mayor Kip Holden's job, Mayor Pro Tem Mike Walker has been campaigning largely on a platform of stemming violent crime. Meanwhile, two-term incumbent Holden has been pointing to his eight-year record, part of which includes creating Operation BRAVE—the crime-fighting initiative from which he accuses Walker of lifting ideas. At the end of June, the Metro Council passed an $11.1 million budget supplement Holden introduced that includes a police academy this fall for 32 new police officers. Walker, a Republican who is in his third and final term, says if he were mayor now he would immediately hire at least 60 new police officers. "Right now, the mayor knows where all the money is hidden," Walker says. Holden, a Democrat seeking his third term as mayor, contends the police academy doesn't have the training to hire 60 officers at once, and adds another 30 will be hired next year. He also shows little effort to hide his bemusement with Walker's notion that...
Despite additional costs, many B.R. property owners hire extra security
As a downtown resident and landlord, Darryl Gissel pays a 117.5-mill property tax on his home as well as on each of the rental properties he owns—money that goes, in part, to the Baton Rouge Police Department and to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. On each property he pays an additional 10 mills that goes to the Downtown Development District, a portion of which the agency spends on beefed-up security downtown. On top of all that, he pays $100 a year to the Historic Spanish Town Civic Association for an off-duty police officer who patrols the neighborhood several hours a week. That Gissel is essentially paying three times for protection that, in theory, should be provided by local law enforcement as a matter of course might strike some as troubling. But Gissel is unfazed by what he has come to accept as the price of living in Baton Rouge—and, in his particular case, downtown Baton Rouge. "It doesn't bother me," he says. "I'm to the point where I'll do whatever...
Police: Katrina hero plotted ex-wife's murder
A Syrian-born man who is represented as the hero-rescuer in Dave Eggers' best-selling nonfiction work Zeitoun, which chronicles the eerie aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the nightmarish side of the American justice system, has been accused of plotting to murder his ex-wife, her son and another man. Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, faces charges of offering $20,000 to a fellow jail inmate in exchange for the killings. Zeitoun also faces a domestic abuse battery charge after he allegedly beat his wife, Kathy Zeitoun, on a New Orleans street. In Zeitoun, which won an American Book Award in 2010, the protagonist was described as a compassionate man paddling a canoe through Katrina's floodwaters, helping people and animals, before being arrested on false charges of looting. He then was thrown into prison on suspicion of being a terrorist.
No radioactivity detected at mystery sinkhole
Officials say initial readings from monitoring equipment taken today at a sinkhole in Assumption Parish do not show any signs of naturally occurring radiation. "Based on the first round of data, we are confident that the potential exposure of citizens to NORM [naturally occurring radioactive material] is not a problem in this matter. We will continue to provide data based on air and water sampling to Assumption Parish and DNR," Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Peggy Hatch says in a news release. DEQ says the slurry hole near Bayou Corne is near areas that have been used for oil and gas exploration. Low levels of radioactivity may be remaining from the work, though not at harmful levels, officials have said before today's initial testing. Department spokesman Rodney Mallett says such material tends to accumulate in low levels on equipment used to drill for oil and gas. Scientists say the sinkhole might be related to brine contained in an underground salt cavern owned by...
State police: Saints wiretapping probe ongoing
Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson says he still has an investigator working with the FBI on wiretapping allegations involving the New Orleans Saints, but adds that no evidence has been turned over to federal prosecutors at this time. Authorities have been working on the case since April, when ESPN, citing anonymous sources, reported Superdome wiring was rigged so Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis could listen to opposing teams' radio communications during games. Loomis and the Saints have denied those allegations, and the Saints have hired the firm of former FBI Director Louis Freeh to do its own investigation. Edmonson says his investigator has been conducting interviews along with FBI agents but that it is too early to discuss whether those interviews have produced any credible leads.
Who pays for protection?
Outside the site of a prominent East Lakeshore Drive mansion that has been under construction for the past two years, a Baton Rouge Police Department officer stands guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The devil in the details
As a downtown resident and landlord, Darryl Gissel pays a 117.5-mill property tax on his home as well as on each of the rental properties he owns—money that goes, in part, to the Baton Rouge Police Department and to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office.
NOPD reputation has suffered for many years
It was over coffee at a north Louisiana diner 34 years ago that a local sheriff's deputy made the observation, "People who are with the police department down there in New Orleans—a lot of them would be in jail if they were up here," says The (Lafayette) Advertiser. Sure, it's an exaggeration, but it shows just how ingrained and widespread the New Orleans Police Department's reputation for scandal was even then. And that was two years before a young officer's murder sparked investigations of abuse as well as deaths that led to indictment of officers known as the "Algiers Seven, 12 years before suspected cop killer Adolph Archie died a messy death in police custody, 16 years before officer Len Davis was exposed as a protector of a cocaine ring who ordered the murder of a woman, and 17 years before Officer Antoinette Frank killed a fellow officer and two others during a restaurant robbery. It was a generation preceding the Danziger Bridge shootings and the discovery of the...
New Orleans PD revamp comprehensive, expensive
A court-backed plan to excise corruption, discrimination and a frequent use of deadly force from the long-troubled New Orleans Police Department will last at least four years and likely cost the financially strapped city $11 million annually. Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced the plan Tuesday, says the agreement is the most wide-ranging in the Justice Department's history and resolves allegations that New Orleans police officers have engaged in a pattern of discriminatory and unconstitutional activity. It comes in the form of a court-approved consent decree, an agreement the Justice Department negotiated with the city after releasing a scathing report taking the department to task on multiple fronts in March 2011. The agreement includes extensive requirements for improved training, better supervision and new technology including cameras in police cars. Mayor Mitch Landrieu estimates the plan's cost at roughly $11 million a year over the next four to five years. The...
Penn State punishments includes $60M fine
The NCAA slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties this morning, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all former coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, the loss of 20 scholarships per year over four years and probation for five years. The NCAA also says any current or incoming football players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another school. NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the sanctions at a news conference in Indianapolis. Though the NCAA stopped short of imposing the "death penalty"—shutting down the Nittany Lions' program completely—the punishment is still crippling for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook. Emmert fast-tracked penalties rather than go through the usual circuitous series of investigations and hearings. The NCAA says the $60 million is equivalent to the...
Springfield mayor, police chief indicted on conspiracy charges
A Livingston Parish grand jury today indicted the mayor and police chief of Springfield—a town of roughly 400 people located about 40 miles east of Baton Rouge—on charges they conspired to hide a woman's 2011 drunken driving citation. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office says the four-count indictment charges Mayor Charles Martin and Police Chief James Jones with obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, injuring public records, and criminal conspiracy to injure public records. Martin and Jones were booked on related charges last year. Caldwell's office says the 62-year-old mayor and 48-year-old police chief plotted to conceal evidence and obstruct the prosecution of a suspect arrested in April 2011 on suspicion of drunken driving. Martin and Jones didn't immediately respond to a message for comment left at the town's administrative office by The Associated Press.
Moore: Better support of crime victims, witnesses needed
East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III continued touting a new crime-fighting initiative targeting the 70805 ZIP code, telling the Baton Rouge Press Club today that the Operation Ceasefire–style program nicknamed Project BRAVE will beef up patrols in the north Baton Rouge community and let criminal groups in the area know they will all be held accountable for one member's actions. Moore recently gave a similar address to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge. "I surely want to get the message out. The community's moral voice is important, as is its support," says Moore, who estimates victims and witnesses in 70% of shootings don't cooperate with police. Getting community support behind those victims and witnesses is how the city-parish intends to reduce violent crime through Project BRAVE, which is short for Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination. Moore says by September, the city-parish will know if it's eligible for a federal Ceasefire grant that would make...
Tax lien filed against Crawford Lewis
A $6.6 million tax lien has been filed against the Crawford Lewis law firm for failing to pay federal employment taxes from June 2006 through September 2009. According to documents filed with Clerk of Court Doug Welborn's office, two liens were filed against the firm on April 23, one totaling more than $3.7 million, the other more than $2.9 million. The liens indicate that taxes were owed for every quarter during the more than three-year period. The liens do not indicate why the taxes were not paid, but an attorney who represents Crawford Lewis on an unrelated matter says the firm is currently working toward a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service. "Crawford Lewis is in a civil administrative process with the IRS and has a pending offer in compromise," says Mary Olive Pierson, adding that the firm is current and compliant on all tax returns since the period in question. Pierson also confirms that Crawford Lewis is under investigation by the state's Office of Disciplinary...
Judge: Leaks of Katrina case are 'serious business'
A federal judge says he is determined to identify the source of leaked information about the Justice Department's probe of deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt says it appears federal prosecutors didn't conduct a "full-blown investigation" after news reports in 2010 forecast a former police officer's guilty plea while the case was under seal. Attorneys for five former officers convicted of charges stemming from the shootings claim leaks to the media deprived their clients of a fair trial. They're asking Engelhardt to order a new trial. The judge didn't rule on that request today, but did say the leaks are "serious business" warranting greater scrutiny. He ordered prosecutors to compile a report on their efforts to investigate the leaks.
Holden finds surplus funds for law enforcement
Mayor Kip Holden introduced a supplemental budget amendment this afternoon that asks the Metro Council to appropriate more than $11 million in surplus funds to the city-parish capital and operating budgets—with most of that money going to fund law enforcement and public safety needs. In his cover letter to the council, Holden says 93% of the extra money, or about $9.7 million, would go to new academies for the police and fire departments, new weapons, new vehicles for both departments, and the cost of housing inmates in other parishes due to parish prison overcrowding. The additional money, which the administration says it was not aware of when it prepared the budget in late 2011, is coming from several sources, among them: higher-than-expected sales tax collections during the first quarter of 2012, unused money in the general fund budget, unused money in the police department's budget, and interest from cash balances in the parish construction budget. The item has been placed...
Lawsuit claims Gerry Lane harassed employees
Gerald R. Lane and his company, Gerry Lane Enterprises, were sued today in district court by one former and four current Gerry Lane Chevrolet employees who allege Gerald Lane subjected them to "constant harassment, abuse and [a] degrading environment." The suit, which you can see here, claims that Lane uses racial slurs and harasses "black salesmen on a weekly if not daily basis. He refers to his car dealership as his 'plantation' and tells the sales staff to 'pick his cotton.' " Plaintiffs say they complained to management and were told to ignore the harassment because Lane is "old-school" and will be gone soon. Gerry Lane Enterprises General Manager Cedric Patton, who's also a part-owner, says company officials hadn't seen the suit yet and won't comment on the specific allegations. "We can deny, however, that any employees were mistreated in any way by any member of management," Patton says in a prepared...