Tag: USA v Maier

Comment bump: It always seems to circle back to Gidget

Oyster aka Mark Moseley stopped in yesterday on Nowdy’s old Booker Diggins post and left a dynamite comment that is well worth repeating as it amplifies why her black book is a holy grail of sorts in local investigative journalism circles.  On the media side Mark’s work on the topic is second to none so we should consider the implications of why Assistant U.S. Attorney Gaynell Williams evidently fell out when the subject of its release was broached and why the public was not served by covering up what happened at the Canal Street Brothel.  Here is Oyster’s comment:

Whitmergate says “it’s the ‘The Who Wanted What’…that’s the bogeyman.”

I believe this is correct. The list itself of doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs, sons of political party Presidents, judges, rich businessmen, City Councilmen, news anchors and other elites is sufficiently long and broad enough to make high level calls for a public release politically toxic. (Plus there’s the “these guys have families that will be needlessly destroyed” argument.) A decade ago Letten and Connick played hot potato with the black book issue, as I recall, and mainstream news has been silent on the matter except for the occasional Vitter-related mention.

But the deviancy– even by freaky New Orleans standards!– is where the rubbers (nyuk) hit the road. When Madam Maier had to build a dungeon inside the brothel, to slake the very particular desires of some of her highest paying, and most frequent customers… well, that raises eyebrows. I assume she had some sort of symbol code beside the name of each john to remind her (revolving) crew precisely what whip to use to get (insert bigwig name here) off. Its bad bad business not to create detailed customer profiles.

Still, that’s not unprecedented in the Crescent City. As I recall, ole’ Volz brought out a box of evidence that contained whips and shackles and other goodies from Clay Shaw’s FQ house back in the day, before Volz distanced himself from Garrison’s windmill jousting, and went on to bigger and better offices, some of which boasted a lot of up and coming legal talent.

However, sado-maso-domination predilections are one thing. Young street boys being procured and then raped in a brothel by ever-more-twisted power addicts… those are dark rumors that certainly wouldn’t, as whitmergate says, be tolerated by the public in N.O– much less the rest of the state. Sounds like blackmail material, if you catch my drift.

Perricone disaster overnight miscellany: The heat is on

Indeed it is folks as we start with Times Picayune Editor Gordon Russell:

At this point I’d like to say it was not a very bold prediction to say the Fazzio prosecution is very much endangered by the unfolding scandal at the US Attorney’s office as the dominoes continue to fall.

Jim Letten’s last prosecutor in River Birch landfill probe should be removed, Fazzio argues ~ Manuel Torres

But there is mucho downside risk for Heebe in using the courts as a means to unmask internet commenters via SLAPP suits as there are two issues in play that I can see, though only the one that benefits Fred Heebe has become manifest to this point.  I mention this because there is no way in hell his defamation suits against Jan Mann and Sal Perricone are going back to state court and when these suits proceed he best have his lap dog Garland(fill) Robinette ready to ‘splain things. I mention this because:

Sal Perricone’s ‘online sniping’ is a matter for state court, Fred Heebe argues ~ Manuel Torres

Finally I’ll add there are two angles here that have popped up a time or two in comments at either NOLA or Slabbed, one involving whistleblower Anne Marie Vandenweghe and another involving Gidget aka the Canal Street Madam aka Jeanette Maier.  AMV gets a separate post later but Patricia left a link and comment yesterday those catching up may wish to consider:

In November 2002, government and defense lawyers met in Judge Lemelle’s chambers and squared off over the secret customer list. Defense lawyers, convinced the government was treating their female clients unfairly, threatened to go public with the men’s names. According to one of the lawyers in the judge’s chambers, the one name that kept popping up during the tense meeting was that of the son of the former head of the Louisiana Republican Party. Continue reading “Perricone disaster overnight miscellany: The heat is on”

Billy Nungesser's name surfaces in the Canal Street Madam's black book.

We were leaked Nungesser’s name over the weekend after we reignited the conversation about the contents of the infamous Canal Street Madam black book.  I am very happy to see Miss Maier speak out publicly on this. Jay Vice at WWL 870 has the story. (H/T Whitmergate):

Jeanette Maier, the so-called “canal street madam,” says that her brothel serviced Billy Nungesser Jr., president of Plaquemines Parish before he was a political figure.

Maier claimed today in an interview with WWL that Nungesser visited her establishment in the 1980s, and that his father, a long-time political figure, had to pay Nungesser’s $10,000 tab at the brothel. Continue reading “Billy Nungesser's name surfaces in the Canal Street Madam's black book.”

BREAKING: Nothing to see here. Slabbed calls bull on Judge Lemelle and his last order in USA v Maier.

I just got word folks, the Canal Street Madam’s black book remains sealed despite what Judge Lemelle wrote in that order we profiled Saturday:

IT IS ORDERED that the Motion to Intervene (Rec. Doc. No. 320) is DENIED as baseless and frivolous. Release of the records at issue to Defendants in the above-captioned matter has already been authorized (see Rec. Doc. No. 217, pg. 3 of 14). Moreover, Record Documents 200, 209, 217, 221, 240, and 243 were released publicly by the Court’s unsealing order issued in January 2003 (see Rec. Doc. 264).

It is beginning to appear that the only thing baseless and frivolous about this is Judge Lemelle’s order, which neither addressed the motion at hand and is misleading in its text.

Sources with knowledge of the contents of the black book tell us that Vitter was a customer before Ms. Maier began taking names. But lordie lordie the names in the book I did hear!

A collective sigh of relief nows comes from the Ms. Maier’s rich, powerful and famous former johns.

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Slabbed goes under the covers and plunges into USA v Maier: Judge Lemelle declares open season on the Canal Street Madam's "black book". Is the speculation about Diaper David Vitter being a bad shot premature?

Initially I thought this post would be of the wham, bam, thank you ma’am variety where I could upload a few PACER docs and call it a day.  Instead, reading one court filing lead to another and then the googling commenced in earnest and this despite the fact I followed the Canal Street Madam case real time including the post Katrina introduction of Louisiana’s most famous whore hopper, Diaper David Vitter into the saga by Mark Moseley aka Oyster at Your Right Hand Thief, a blog which graced our original blogroll until Mark scored a gig at The Lens, an investigative blog which we now feature on our list of links.

Complicating matters is the introduction of new players to the saga and they had to be checked as well.  Throw in the fact a movie featuring Miss Maier’s story is being released as we speak and while I’ve had a consistent interest in this case we’re not interested in being an unwitting part of a viral marketing campaign in support of other people’s for profit endeavors, no matter how compelling the story. I satisfied myself such was not the case with the tips given us.

With that bit of background in place I’ll go ahead and put in a plug for the movie so our readers that are not so familiar with the Canal Street Madam case can catch up.

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The CBS investigative news magazine 48 hours also covered the case in depth in a 3 part report which can be found here. Continue reading “Slabbed goes under the covers and plunges into USA v Maier: Judge Lemelle declares open season on the Canal Street Madam's "black book". Is the speculation about Diaper David Vitter being a bad shot premature?”