Alternative New Media for the Gulf South
And they even wrote an editorial yesterday to prove it. Here at Slabbed we’ve been hip to that concept for quite some time most recently in the case of BP using a middle man to purchase certain Louisiana politicians such as Bobby Jindal, Mary Landrieu and such. I bet USA v St Pierre left an impression with the folks at the T-P as well as ol’ Marky Mark used Jackson based lawyer Danny Drake to do some of his dirty work. Welcome aboard guys. 😉
sop
And the Hammerman concludes Ray Nagin was pretty stupid but he included this exchange involving Jackson based lawyer Danny Drake, Meffert and St. Pierre in his story on what Nagin knew and when he knew it:
In emails discussing the letter to the mayor with Meffert and their lawyer, Danny Drake, it didn’t appear that St. Pierre was trying to inform the mayor. It really came from Meffert, who suggested there was another reason to write it.
“Ok, this is my final proposed letter, this might help while still protecting all of us and without boxing us in,” Meffert wrote in an email to St. Pierre and Drake.
“OK, and just so I understand, this is a letter from me to the mayor, correct?” St. Pierre wrote back. Continue reading “Laying down the Hammer: Hammerman asks about what Ray Nagin knew and when in the St Pierre saga”
And as I expected St Pierre was taken into custody immediately. Hat tip ‘gate in comments with the news.
Letten still has Ray Ray the Chocolate Guy plus St Pierre’s sack of shit politician/daddy to prosecute based upon what we heard in the testimony.
Congratulations to Team Letten.
sop
I’m working on a comprehensive Mark St Pierre post but this last bit of news from the courthouse can’t wait.
We’ve visited on this general topic before but today we again find out the true price of free speech, specifically in investigative blogging as evidence reveals that Mark St. Pierre went after blogger Jason Berry at American Zombie via neighborhood canvas after Jason broke to the world news of the now infamous sex Yacht used to bribe officials with the City of New Orleans. Hammerman has the scoop:
In mid-2006, when the American Zombie blog began the questions about St. Pierre’s use of a yacht for parties for Meffert and Meffert’s access to a corporate credit card, St. Pierre had the blogger investigated. An email presented by prosecutors showed that St. Pierre found out the then-anonymous blogger’s name, Jason Berry, as well as the names of his wife and children.
“The only thing we don’t know is his address and social security number,” St. Pierre bragged to his friends via email.
We have a bit of experience with these type things here at Slabbed. I’ll add the only thing worse than a crook stealing massive amounts of tax money is a crook that has the dishonest behavior rationalized like St Pierre because they tend to do stupid ass things like run a neighborhood canvas on a Continue reading “BREAKING: Mark St Pierre went after area blogger after St Pierre's shithouse deals with Meffert and the sex yacht broke on American Zombie.”
Jason Berry aka Dambala at American Zombie has outdone himself with his account of Greg Meffert’s testimony in the trial of Mark St Pierre. For our upstate Mississippi readers Greg Meffert ran technology in NOLA for former Mayor Ray Nagin and the graft to which Meffert has now admitted is simply staggering. This trial appears to be a prelude to the prosecution of Ray Ray himself as the revelations about St Pierre’s sex party boat pass into the realm of legend. I say all this because Jason’s post linked above is a must read for the entire Slabbed Nation as this snippet illustrates the stench with the Louisiana crime camera scandal extends to the Jackson Mississippi lobbying community:
The stripper sex on the boat act was hard to follow…unless Meff claimed he was fucking a mermaid or something.
Indeed the line of questioning then shifted to more mundane subjects like Lafayette CIO, Keith Thibadoux, and his wife. Meff set Thibadoux’s friends up with bullshit jobs in exchange for Netmethods’ contracts with the City of Lafayette. Some interesting facts were thrown out, including a name I didn’t quite catch that the prosecution referred to as a Mississippi lobbyist. That reference brought an immediate objection from the defense for leading the witness, the objection was sustained. I couldn’t tell if they were concerned about revealing the guy’s profession or if they were just trying to keep the prosecution in line.
I read Jason’s post this morning and after reading that I immediately called him. He later found out the name of the lobbyist and shared it with me. The lobbyist is not a guy though. It is an organization, one which I have heard quite a lot about of late in fact: Continue reading “Jason at American Zombie covers the Mark St Pierre trial and highlights an interesting Mississippi connection to Chocolate Guy”
My desktop is cluttered with links and that does not count the ones I present today for the consideration of the Slabbed Nation. If the spirit moves me I’ll try to string some of the saved links together around the Saints game today and put a couple of posts in the can for next week.
We must begin here in Mississippi where the judges are not mere pigs at the trough a la Judge pOrteous but instead are completely drunk with power. Oxford lawyer Tom Freeland has been telling the story of Judge Tommy Talmadge Littlejohnson and his asinine behavior jailing a lawyer for contempt because he wouldn’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Those wanting additional background can read Patsy Brumfield’s original story on the topic here.
Speaking of north Mississippi, escapee Jarvis DeBerry chips in with today’s column on the latest NOPD guilty plea in the Danziger Bridge shootings. Unfortunately for Shakespeare the term sociopath did not exist in his days but I think it is the word Jarvis is looking for. I’ll add this is a subject we’ve been interested in since we first identified similar personality traits in some of the insurance folks we’ve run across since beginning Slabbed.
We’ve spoken a lot about legal ethics and ethicists here on Slabbed through time. Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino, for example, is a favorite of the Slabbed Nation and we’ll be circling back to Dane but first Continue reading “Ethics and morality? Shakespeare knew not of sociopathy: A quick Slabbed update.”
I hate to admit it folks but I had the Meffert plea in my inbox early Sunday afternoon and took a pass since such tips are generally unreliable. When the news on the Greg Meffert guilty plea subsequently broke on Monday I immediately hopped in the car and headed for NOLA and my source, who reportedly hangs out around Lafayette Square with the Wino (when the Wino isn’t hanging out at Yenni). So I park and start walking, first down St Charles past the LeDale Hotel and then back to the Park. I then found a local watering hole and went in and there he was.
“You shudda listened to that tip I gave you about Meffert buddy. My sources are impeccable.” My attempt to explain that such tips have been unreliable for us in the past was interrupted with a “you shudda asked!” and he then told me who he overheard while lying in the gutter. So to make amends I bought the guy Colt 45 and made my way back to my vehicle wondering what to do with the info I had.
And I kept pondering until earlier this evening, when I saw this Frank Donze story which highlighted Ray Ray the Chocolate Guy’s take on Meffert’s plea. I had to laugh because Mr Meffert is telling all and then some according to skid row bum. Meffert is really fond of his wifey and is endeavoring to save her skin by spilling his guts. The boogie man is coming for you Ray Ray.
sop
So I got the music post up and was headed out the door to Buzzard’s Roost for a late Friday afternoon appointment when the phone rang and my appointment cancelled. Then Sock emailed me the link to a breaking story involving newly elected 24th Judicial District Judge Ray Steib, by all accounts a conservative guy, who nonetheless garnered the Slabbed Seal of Approval because we thought he was honest. In fact we still do think he is honest and impartial and we hope he will maintain a distance from the corrupting influences of Magnum JD.
Lest I digress further I’ll add the Louisiana Judicial Commission also evidently thinks Steib the honest sort as they absolved him of the complaints filed by his two former opponents for Joan Benge’s old seat on the court as reported today by Paul Purpura. This is rich because these guys who filed the complaints, Times Picayune endorsed Ungarino & Eckert partner Don Klotz and a former occupant of the “Warren Suite” at the Do Slabb Inn, Debbie Villio have all sorts of skeletons, especially Villio who popped back up on the Slab just this morning in connection with potential payroll fraud in Parish Government. Ungarino & Eckert, well let’s just say those guys don’t enjoy a very good rep among their peers at the present time.
Next up is a guest post by SupaSleuth in comments involving good old-fashioned kickbacks on various crime camera programs across the state of Louisiana. Today the Tech Chief for Baton Rouge hit the exits as this scandal, with origins in the Nagin Administration, has spread like wildfire.
Finally the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals bitch slapped Judge Ivan Lemelle and his screwed up, pro defense pretrial ruling in the criminal case involving Dollar Bill Jefferson’s brother Moses Jefferson and his squeeze, former NOLA City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt. Judge Lemelle has a record of some very dubious rulings in the insurance litigation though he remains Ashton’s favorite judge in all of the LAED. 😉 Continue reading “Slabbed news miscellany: The news gods smile upon us.”