Day: February 5, 2010

Do, Did, Dunn and the new math of Teel’s resentencing in USA v Minor

After five on “Super Friday” and what do I see but a copy of what the Government did file in opposition to the Motion for Release Pending Resentencing of former judge Wes Teel, a defendant in USA v Minor.

Unlike Opposition to the Minor defendants’ past requests for release during their Appeal, this opposition was filed by the formerly recused office of the Southern District Mississippi USA – and that Dunn surprised me as there has been no appointment of a new USA to fill the position.

In addition to that big surprise, there are more to come as the risen-from-recusal USA details the argument in opposition to Teel’s release.  The first argument is this eyebrow raising claim, Since defendant has no pending appeal, most of the §3143(b) factors governing release pending appeal do not apply to him”:

In United States v. Olis, 450 F.3d 583, 587 (5th Cir. 2006), the Fifth Circuit held that “§3143(b)’s “pending appeal” language envisions a defendant . . .who has a pending appeal on a matter…” The Fifth Circuit in Olis did find that the reduced-sentence provision of §3143(b)(1)(B) would apply to a defendant like Teel who is awaiting sentencing but whose convictions have been affirmed; but that it would not overcome the presumption against release pending resentencing if the defendant had not served all of his possible sentence. Id. at 586-87.

The government apparently misplaced more than just a modifier or two in the rush to oppose Teel’s release.  Continue reading “Do, Did, Dunn and the new math of Teel’s resentencing in USA v Minor”

Anyone else notice Chehardy Sherman de-Norma’d their website? Hmmm. (Updated)

This is the second time we linked a website that supported one of our Jefferson Parish political corruption posts only to have the owner break the link. This time it was the Chehardy Sherman law firm who evidently is no longer quite so proud of their previous association with Aaron Broussard’s daughter in law Norma. Luckily for us and (like the Billy Hill Trail Society) it lives on in the google cache. (H/T John Deaux)

The first time it happened was with our post on Trout Point Lodge and Aaron Broussard’s association with the Billy Hill Trails Society which can be found here.

Nowdy my mind is open to the possibility we’re doing some serious damage to the entrenched political establishment in Jefferson Parish. :mrgreen:

Stay tuned folks. We have posts coming on old-fashioned Jefferson Parish corruption that includes some dumpster diving and a Craig Codina update.

Update:

As predicted the google cache was cleared but our readers can view the web archive here.

sop

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Breaking: The Jefferson Parish political establishment throws Karen Parker Broussard under the bus

Paul Rioux has this breaking story:

Former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard’s ex-wife has been fired from her $65,000 parish job as a paralegal supervisor.

The announcement came after revelations that Karen Parker, who divorced Broussard in October, actually worked in another department processing parish ID cards, a job that has a $43,000 salary cap.

“Her position has been discontinued and she is no longer employed by the parish,” spokeswoman Pat Borne said.

Superbowl fever! Slabbed hops on to dat Glory Bound train with Editilla

From the Creator of the Original Who Dat Song…

“This year’s Saints have prompted a number of artists to record their own Saints song, so Carlo Nuccio – who wrote and recorded the original “Who Dat” more than 25 years ago – has returned with “Glory Bound,” an update of the song. The song features the return of Aaron Neville, who sang the song the first time around, and Theresa Andersson, along with Ivan Neville, Jon Cleary, Matt Perrine, Barry Foulon, Shamarr Allen, Joe Cabral, Ben Schenck, Jimi Burtchaell, Alex McMurray, Paul Sanchez, Derrick Freeman and Rob Schafer.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywyw2YeOOPk]

We’ve had lots of new visitors of late so I thought I would supplement our about page. A repost

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPuQ8_kD-gE]

Nowdy is Daisy Duke.
Our offline legal team (too numerous to mention) are Bo and Luke.
Steve is Cooter Davenport
Mr CLS is the General Lee
And I’m Uncle Jesse

Ed Rust is Boss Hogg
James Robie is Sheriff Coltrane
H Scot Spragins is Deputy Enos
Lucky Tucker is Deputy Cletus.

Welcome and enjoy

Rigsby sisters designate experts and disclose expert testimony – Part 1: Evidence of fraud resulting from State Farm’s use of XACT-Total

…the State Farm submission for NFIP payment does not properly support a payment of $250,000, and the report contains numerous line item entries not consistent with flood damage if one accepts the adjustor’s apparent method of analysis.

The expert testimony of  Joe Gregg, “a FEMA-certified flood adjuster with more than a decade of experience in evaluating and adjusting flood claims under the National Flood Insurance Program”, is based on an item-by-item analysis of the McIntosh claim that State Farm submitted to the NFIP McIntosh property the most detailed analysis of the (“NFIP”)”.

Mr. Gregg’s report evidences State Farm’s use of  XACT Total program as a key element of the fraudulent scheme detailed in the Rigsbys’ qui tam Complaint.  The expert report of Risk Management Consultant Louis G. Fey adds to the discussion:

The adjuster used Xacttotal to create an estimate of flood damage that deemed the house a total loss from flood…The use of Xacttotal for the flood claim and Xactimate for the wind claim is another example of SF placing their own interests in front of the interests of NFIP / FEMA’s and their own insured’s…

By way of background, Xacttotal is a program developed by XactWare specifically for SF. This software is not sold to the industry for broad use. The limitation of Xacttotal is that the resulting estimate is not an accurate depiction of the actual structure being estimated. It is more of an average estimate of the value of the house based on square footage and the quality of construction. Particular characteristics of the house are not considered and those unique qualities of the property can easily affect the value of the house. The scope generated by the program is basically useless as it is inaccurate and merely a generalization of the house. Additional information from the homeowner or photos taken prior to the loss with regard to the layout and number of rooms and the unique characteristics of the house in question must be considered and either additions or subtractions would need to be made to the estimate. This is why it is inappropriate to use Xacttotal when the house can be accessed and accurately scoped.

State Farm’s “inappropriate” use of Xacttotal inflated the amount of flood damage to the McIntosh property.  Mr. Gregg’s report contains compelling examples of the inflated cost: Continue reading “Rigsby sisters designate experts and disclose expert testimony – Part 1: Evidence of fraud resulting from State Farm’s use of XACT-Total”

Channel 4 explores Broussard curatorships and makes more connections on the double dealing in Jefferson Parish Government

Last month we highlighted the first investigative report on three judges in Jefferson Parish with a penchant for giving former Parish President Broussard legal work as a curator while he was serving as Parish President. Bigad Shaban at Channel 4 has kicked things up a notch by focusing in on one judge, Glen Ansardi and frankly the stench emanating from the hive is beginning to smell worse than three day old road kill in July.

At first blush I thought this was a Broussard family re-run as we find out that besides being DA Paul Connick’s main girl prosecuting traffic tickets and DUIs Norma Broussard also is in the notary business courtesy of Judge Ansardi. Then we are introduced to a new player in the Jefferson Parish Nepotism game, Judge Ansardi’s daughter Jennifer.

Evidently DA Connick’s attitude toward traffic enforcement is something along the lines of so what if a few schmucks die on the road because an incompetent fluffer is in charge of traffic violations so long as everyone on the inside gets their slice of the pie. When this is said and done it is my hope these miscreants are sentenced to attend the funeral of a 5 year old killed by a drunk driver so that maybe they’ll understand the depths of their greed driven depravity.

I threw props yesterday to Fox 8 and the Times Picayune for their investigative coverage of this unfolding scandal. With last night’s investigative report Channel 4 is letting everyone know they are not going to be a shrinking violet when it comes to this story. Before we get to the video embed lets highlight some of the key points from the transcript that accompanies Bigad Shaban’s report starting with some background on curatorships:

Most know Broussard as the now former leader of the state’s largest parish. Some at the university of New Orleans remember him as a political science professor. But according to documents obtained by Eyewitness News, Broussard actually had 185 other jobs while parish president, little known jobs called ‘curatorships.’ Continue reading “Channel 4 explores Broussard curatorships and makes more connections on the double dealing in Jefferson Parish Government”