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Folks I was headed out the door when I found out. I have read Judge Barbier’s order (on the quick) and sent out an inquiry. The whistleblower claim survives. I’ll have the order and reasons when I get back.
Update – the 27 page Order and Reasons.
sop
Old ways die hard folks but Friday I received word that the Louisiana Supreme Court denied writs in the matter of the Parish’s appeal of the bitch slap given crooked 24th JDC Judge in Ross LaDart in the matter involving whistleblower Anne Marie Vandenweghe’s public records request for her own emails. This means the case comes back to LaDart, who was pretty much mandated on exactly how to rule in it by the Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The denial of writs was a loss for the Parish’s law firm Phelps Dunbar who simply can seem to win a public records case unless it is fixed in advance. Also losers are the taxpayers of Jefferson parish who see their hard earned tax dollars squandered in legal fees fighting an open and shut case.
Stay tuned folks.
sop
1. That Phelps Dumbar has indeed filed writs with the Louisiana Supreme Court on the public records suit against the Parish by Anne Marie Vandenweghe. Look for more monster legal bills folks.
2. President Obama’s latest choice for LAED judge, Susie Morgan is a very bad one. Then again most Continue reading “We have received confirmation…..”
As Lawyer X can well explain, corporate and insurance clients routinely pick apart billing statements and do not pay what is billed. It’s even more deplorable if the Parish does not have someone audit these bills and seek reduction.
So wrote a menber of the Slabbed legal team that saw the vender detail report detailing how much money the Parish has spent with the firm of Phelps Dunbar for handling 2 matters in suing the blogosphere for TheRiot and preventing access to public records. Our readers may recall things aren’t working out so well on the public records front as Phelps Dumbar got their asses kicked on appeal along with the taxpayer funded, Sandestin vacationing Judge Ross LaDart, who homecooked the case for the Team Young/Theriot. I believe the Parish will end up paying for both sides of the legal bill on this case before this is done.
So what did Lawyer X have to say? For context purposes Lawyer X is a noted civil defense lawyer that has done lots of works for insurers and other corporate clients:
Yep. Yep.
and
Why did they not produce the actual bill and only produced the payment ledger?
Frankly the payment ledger is bad enough. So how much taxpayer money has Teams TheRiot/Young squandered fighting the now fired whistleblower Anne Marie Vandenweghe? Click the pic below the fold for the one page pdf. Hat tip Citizens for Good Government. ~ sop Continue reading “Your Jefferson Parish Tax Dollars at Work: Parish pays Phelps Dumbar over $97,000 to sue bloggers and prevent access to public records.”
OK folks if you want to catch up on the myriad of ways Jefferson Parish strives to continue doing business in smoke-filled rooms with no accountability or transparency you can catch up by clicking here. The long and short of it is that former Assistant Parish Attorney Anne Marie Vandenweghe sued to make the Parish honor her public records request for her own emails generated before she was fired for whistleblowing on corruption in the Jefferson Parish Attorney’s office. The case was assigned to Judge Ross LaDart, a jurist that either incredibly lazy, inept, corrupt or a combination of the three because his swift opinion kicking the case to the curb was just kicked back to him via appeal in a published opinion released today that is not kind to the Judge.
So today Team Vandenweghe wins big and the Parish will likely be forced to give her own emails, which rumor holds contains evidence of additional criminal activity in the Parish Attorney’s office as it relates to the payroll fraud portion of the political corruption scandal. This in turn explains why the perpetrators still employed by the Parish have fought Team Vandenweghe tooth and nail on this. We shall see before this is done IMHO.
There are several clear losers today. First is the firm of Phelps Dumbar and their lawyers assigned to the case who evidently can’t win in the courtroom unless the fix is in via Judges like LaDart. The taxpayers of Jefferson Parish lose because not only are there still alleged criminal perpetrators on the Parish payroll, they also get stuck with the legal tab defending shithouse double dealing on part of parish employees and certain elected officials. John Young loses too Continue reading “That ain't doughnut glaze on Judge Ross LaDart's Chin! Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals bitch slaps the inept judge, reverses shithouse public records opinion. A Jefferson Parish Political Corruption Scandal update.”
Folks, Anne Marie was home cooked by Ross LaDart IMHO on her public records request case. Now we get to see what the 5th Circuit does with LaDart’s legal fart. Frankly with such legal luminaries like Susan Chehardy populating the joint, I’d be lying if I didn’t add I also wonder whether ol’ Nann with Phelphs Dumbar will be getting an advance copy of the “random” panel assignment. I mean hell, we might as well talk about everything that goes on up there in the appellate circuits, especially the 4th and the 5th circuits. We’ve been keeping that dirty little secret for too long.
For those so interested Team Vandenweghe’s appellant brief can be found here.
sop
Anne Marie Vandenweghe is appealing Judge Ross LaDart’s curious public records decision to the court of appeals. A little birdie tells me Team AMV will go all the way to the Supremes if need be.
[scribd id=42993225 key=key-772cfns5ka4ezqxx785 mode=list]
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate publication
Yesterday, newly-elected Jefferson Parish President John Young terminated longtime Assistant Parish Attorney Anne Marie Vandenweghe. Despite being out on temporary leave for medical reasons, Ms. Vandenweghe was not afforded the opportunity of any hearing by Mr. Young or the Parish Attorney, Peggy Barton.
Ms. Vandenweghe had been the subject of unfounded allegations that she was “blogging” while at work, and past Interim Parish President Steve Theriot had suspended Ms. Vandenweghe, only to later re-instate her when the claims proved not to be true. No apology was ever offered to her, she was moved to a different job not involving public records release, and her name and reputation were damaged.
Since then, Ms. Vandenweghe has been the subject of harassment on the job and her job has been made much more difficult. Ms. Vandenweghe exposed many scandals in the Parish Attorney’s Office and was cooperating with the FBI in its request for documents. This recent job action against her is nothing more than a continuation of an effort by the Parish to silence Ms. Vandenweghe. Continue reading “BREAKING: We have a press release from Team Vandenweghe.”
The letter below tells the tale folks. ~ sop
There have been several area news stories which touched upon topics we cover, including 2 stories we broke this past week in the request for resignations from unclassified Parish employees and Anne Marie Vandenweghe’s disappointing day in court. In going back through the week in news I thought WWL TV (Channel 4) was “there with the most” on these news items so it is with them we stop first. Dominic Massa filed a report on Anne Marie’s day in Ross LaDart’s courtroom which was very good. This story ran at 5 last Tuesday but unfortunately the companion video was not posted online. It contains one good nugget of information, Anne Marie has lawyered up with Northshore attorney Bobby Truitt. Truitt’s selection is meaningful, especially as it relates to LaDart and his curious public records rulings, as it appears he was instrumental in bringing down crooked 24th Judicial district court judge Alan Green of Operation Wrinkled Robe infamy. My own opinion is that AMV’s tastes in lawyers is very good. I’d be remiss if I did not add that the women of Truitt Law not only appear to be highly intelligent, professional and “sophisticated” but also are hotties too.
On the same topic Rich Rainey at the Times Picayune filed a short report Friday which falls into the category of several days late and relies upon their own prior stories on this general topic as illustrated by the fact that neither Mr. Truitt’s name or the fact AMV now has outside council is not mentioned. I’ll add this appears to be round 1 of a 3 round fight and to that extent the headline over Rainey’s story is a bit misleading IMHO. I suspect we have not heard the last of AMV and her public records suit against the Parish.
Finally I’ll add the file photos of AMV used in both reports are hideous. I’ll see if I can get the Slabbed Nation a better pic besides wind blown AMV and car door AMV. Continue reading “Slabbed News Miscellany: A week’s worth of Jefferson Parish news we broke on Slabbed plus the continued fight against conflicts of interest.”