Day: January 14, 2010

Qui Tam Olympics – Defendants’ games pit Judge Vance (Branch) against Judge Senter (Rigsby)

So, in a way I was hedging and saying that if the Olympic stuff doesn’t work out at least I can be a lawyer.

Digging through the latest filings in the Rigsby and Branch qui tam cases, I began to notice the Branch Defendants’ were using rulings from the Rigsby case in their defense – a strategy that could prove helpful to State Farm’s current defense effort to limit discovery in Rigsby.  Coincidence? Probably not given the way Renfroe v Rigsby, the Alabama case, was used for Rigsby qui tam discovery in McIntosh v State Farm.

Games with Judge Acker were child’s play.  However, there is only one way to describe games that pit Louisiana Federal District Judge Sarah Vance against Mississippi’s L.T. Senter – a qui tam Olympics with a torch too hot to handle!

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Continue reading “Qui Tam Olympics – Defendants’ games pit Judge Vance (Branch) against Judge Senter (Rigsby)”

Slabbed goes behind the ‘green door’ and takes a peek at the Jefferson Parish corruption hive: Adams & Reese welcome back to Slabbed

I was actually tickled that a commenter mentioned former Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale yesterday on my profile of Lafayette Insurance Company as it loosely fits with other information that has come to light in the unfolding Jefferson Parish corruption scandal. The intersection of course is the lobbying arm of law firm Adams and Reese which has a penchant for hiring crooked former pols to lobby for their big business clients. As the title implies we’ve blogged a good bit on Adams and Reese through time, especially the saga of former A&R partner Jamie Perdigao who is now in prison serving time for embezzling almost $30MM from his partners there without being caught for years. Our archival posts on this topic can be found generally here with some notable posts here, here and here. 

The web of relationships that fostered the cesspool that is Jefferson Parish government cuts across the legal profession, as everyone will eventually learn as some of the best lawyers both trial and corporate form the rats nest on top of the Parish treasury. This post focuses on our old friends at A&R as one of their lobbyist, former Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon, has repeatedly surfaced in connection with the doubling dealing that centered around former Parish CAO Tim Whitmer and his insurance brokerage Lagniappe Industries. We’ll let Paul Murphy at WWL kick start things: 

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Federal investigators are now reviewing subpoenaed documents from the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, also known as the Superdome Commission.

They requested LSED contracts and insurance agreements from 2004 to 2008. That’s during a time when former Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon served as chairman of the board and was on the payroll at Lagniappe Industries, owned by former parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Whitmer.  Continue reading “Slabbed goes behind the ‘green door’ and takes a peek at the Jefferson Parish corruption hive: Adams & Reese welcome back to Slabbed”

Let’s make a deal: Monte I pick the green door!

Nowdy I think Stephanie Grace at the Times Picayune has helped me pick an overall title theme for my posts on the corruption scandal in Jefferson Parish. Her column today is very good. Here is a snippet:

Are there any Jefferson Parish employees who go to work every day, do their job and live on their income?

Actually, that’s a rhetorical question. I’m sure plenty of public sector workers do.

Boy, they must really feel like chumps these days.

I wonder how many of them knew before the Tim Whitmer investigation broke open that they were surrounded by moonlighters, people who collect a government paycheck and also have something going on the side.

Whitmer, until recently, was Moonlighter-in-Chief.

Jim Brown explains how the NOLA mayor

Thursday, January 13, 2009
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS MAYOR’S RACE

MIGHT DECIDE NEXT LOUISIANA GOVERNOR!

In less than a month, the election for the next mayor of New Orleans will be held. Current Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu is far and away the front runner, and some are predicting he might win in the first primary. Being the Queen City of the South, there is huge interest in the outcome. But even more so in this election. A Landrieu victory may be the key to picking the next Louisiana Governor.

Most New Orleanians feel the election cannot come soon enough, whoever ends up winning. The current mayor will go down in the annals of the Crescent City as one of the most dysfunctional public officials in the city’s history. And for New Orleans, that’s really saying a lot. From his “Chocolate City” comments, to his response of “keeping the brand out there” for the country’s highest murder rate, Ray Nagin has successfully proven the truth of the Peter Principal. Either by design or incompetence, C. Ray just doesn’t get it, and the city has suffered greatly. Continue reading “Jim Brown explains how the NOLA mayor”