Before the current Lousiana Ethics Board is a case # BD 2007-527. Sixteen-year Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre is the subject of the investigation. Webre, who also is head of the National Sheriff's Association, allegedly engaged in repeat violations of the Board's 2002 prohibitions concerning his state-wide business empire, Smart Start of Louisiana. Smart Start markets court-related punitive devices, that is ignition interlock devices and ankle monitoring bracelets.
The Ethics Board's 2002 ruling held that Webre's private Smart Start enterprise was not to transact business with any individuals who were being prosecuted in OR resided within his home parish of Lafourche.
The evidence thus far suggests that Webre defied the order for the past five years, engaging in hundreds of such transactions. The current law provides that Webre will be fined $10,000 a transaction, a hefty penalty to say the least. But enough of a penalty to make a dent in this Louisiana law-enforcement official who now owns a monopoly across the state in the sales and leases of this law-enforcement related equipment ?
Governor Jindal wants to make ethics law changes with an impact ? A code revision is needed to cover INTENTIONAL and BRAZEN REPEAT OFFENDERS . In such instances the code should mandate that the Board report the malfeasance to the AG’s Criminal Division.
Governor, you need to make another code change. And the Webre case again shows why.
The new Code needs to address elected officials who aid and abet in its violation .
In 2005 Webre attempted to evade the language of the board’s 2002 ruling. He got together with Houma Senator Reggie Dupre who helped draft Senate Bill No. 72. The Bill was passed and the code of criminal procedure now has a provision which makes mandatory the installation of interlock devices as A CONDITION OF BAIL. That's right, prior to arraignment, trial and conviction. A punitive sentencing device as a condition of pre-trial prison release ? We are in south Louisiana, land of the unreal. " Sentence first, then the verdict " says the Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
Webre now is telling those in Lafourche, who more and more are beginning to discern his corruption sophistiquée , that he really hasn’t violated the board’s decision since 2006 when Reggie’s ignition interlock / bail bond scheme became law. Why sheriff ?
Because he will tell you that the language of the Board’s 2002 ruling stated Smart Start couldn’t deal with people who were being PROSECUTED in Lafourche Parish. But these new mandatory ignition interlock devices that Lafourche citizens are being forced to install just to to get out of jail are different. They are being installed as a BOND CONDITION. The bail bond process, he says, is PRIOR TO PROSECUTION !
So alas, he claims, he is an honest man who has not technically violated the words of the 2002 ruling, not at least within the past 2 years. What ? Yes, folks, he and his high-paid parish (county) lawyer say this with a straight face. ( While simultaneously ignoring the other half of the board’s prohibition on his commercial dealings with his constituents, that his Smart Start customers not even live in Lafourche Parish ! )
So why was a Louisiana Senator, Reggie Dupree, involved in Craig Webre and Smart Start's crazy little word game to suppoedly bypass the Ethics Board’s 2002 rule with a slick new bail bond / interlock law ? Dupre and Webre both are licensed attorneys, both know the bail bond / interlock law likely will not pass Constitutional muster once inevitably challenged.
Webre subsequently got together in 2007 with Ernie Wooten and did a lobbying stunt in B.R. ( dressed in his sheriff's uniform, no less ) on another new interlock law he helped draft. Even first offender DWI’s should be made to have ignition interlock devices installed on their vehicles for at least a year, Webre proclaimed. For the public good !
Webre has 12 Smart Start franchises located across the state of Louisiana . How much profit will he reap from this additional mandatory 1-3 years of interlock installations and rentals which he and Wooten got passed as new law ? Using the alcoholism council’s own statements, that’s 12 to 15 MILLION$ per year.
Should there be an ethics code provision which would have placed severe sanctions on Dupree for what he did ? ABSOLUTELY ! Why not ? When you get right down to it, wasn't Dupree actively and directly involved in another Louisiana elected official's scheme to evade the both the letter and the spirit of the ethics board's exisiting 2002 ruling ?
Mr. Jindal, the Code needs to punish those who would help others seeking to undermine its provisions and rulings.
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3 comments:
These are the demented, paranoid ravings of a truly evil person, who lied and twisted the truth so often that he eventually forgot what truth was. While of above average intelligence, he was afflicted with a delusional disorder of a persecutory type, which prompted him to create a "paranoid pseudo-community" of enemies in his mind. He had no conception of the hurt he caused to innocent people through his sick lies and depraved vulgarities, many of which he posted on the online forums of the Thibodaux Daily Comet. He was a first-class coward and hypocrite, and the epitome of a "loser." At least he won't be filing any more of his frivolous and outrageous lawsuits; he has gone on to his "reward."
The author of this blog was a "disabled" (psychologically) bum and egotist, who wasn't as smart as what he thought he was. He sued me, but that didn't last too long.
I read this blogger's stuff and checked it out. He was a demented paranoid freak, to say the least. Not to mention a professional litigant who filed lawsuits to finance his fruity lifestyle.
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