After more than a year of investigation, the state Attorney General's office last week handed down an indictment of Assistant District Attorney J. Floyd Johnson for allegedly abusing his wife, Lysandra, over a three-day period in May 2004.
Johnson has denied the allegations in news reports.
Police were called to a local hospital after Johnson brought his wife in for what he said were severe migraines, though she had swelling in her face and a red eye. Johnson offered to resign, but District Attorney Mike Harson instead suspended him for two weeks and ordered him to undergo anger management counseling.
Last year Harson told The Daily Advertiser that Johnson would likely keep his job even if convicted of the domestic abuse charge. The AG's office handled the investigation because Johnson works for Harson.
Since Johnson's arrest, he has continued to prosecute domestic violence cases, according to the daily paper, and is the lead prosecutor in the Alexuia Feast case, the October 2004 killing of a 13-year-old who had been removed from her Lafayette home by authorities because of allegations of abuse. ' LT
SEMINAR SCAM
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
The old adage is still taking time to sink in throughout Vermilion Parish, where Attorney General Charles Foti last week cracked down on an alleged scam that bilked 150 investors, including government officials and lawyers and judges, out of more than $1 million.
A Vermilion Parish grand jury indicted six men ' three from California and two actors with local roots (hired to conduct seminars to attract investors) ' for racketeering, criminal conspiracy and securities fraud.
Roland Peltier was one of the men indicted. A veteran officer with the Vermilion Parish Sheriff's Department, he still believes in the product at the heart of the alleged scam ' an oilfield cleanup concoction the AG's office says is nothing more than household chemicals. Peltier invested in the product, which was marketed by Environmental Soil Services.
Peltier and former Vermilion Parish Sheriff Ray Lemaire's company, RnR Environmental, also shared office space on Jefferson Street in Abbeville with ESS. He says the company never did any work as RnR, which he calls a "holding corporation" formed for potential ventures but not for the ESS. ' LT
TIMES OF ACADIANA FIRES DON ALLEN
Veteran Lafayette writer Don Allen, whose "Out of Bounds" sports column has been published in the Times of Acadiana for approximately 19 years, was fired by the paper last week.
Times Managing Editor Doug Gruse and Times General Manager Eric Benjamin declined comment on Allen's termination. Allen also declined comment.
Allen has been a fixture of the Acadiana sports scene for decades, first making his mark as a play-by-play announcer for UL Lafayette football. He began writing for the Times as a freelancer and was promoted to full-time staff writer in the fall of 2004. Allen has also hosted sports talk shows for radio stations KBOL and KPEL. In addition to his sports column and features for the Times, he co-authored the "He Said, She Said" movie review column with Patricia Gannon, which was recently discontinued and replaced with a syndicated column by a New York-based movie critic. ' SJ
IN NEED OF A LEASH
Dogs can be the bane of a mailman's existence, especially when a canine's bite turns out to be worse than its bark. But a Houma mailman got an unexpected surprise last week when a man bit him.
According to The Courier newspaper, the postman saw a dog chained in the yard, and figured the coast was clear to deliver the mail. But when he entered the property, a barking man ran up to the mail carrier, bit him on the shoulder, and ran back inside the house.
Police arrested 20-year-old Mark D. Plumb and charged him with simple battery. "I've never heard of something like this," Terrebone Parish Postmaster Bill Frye told The Courier. ' SJ
MAY 22 This post was written the day after the second line shooting in NOLA, by Brentin Mock. Mock is a friend of Deb "Big Red" Cotton, a blogger who was shot in the back and was seriously injured. It is a raw, emotional piece of writing, something the writer obviously felt he needed to get off his chest. But it raises questions that can't be easily dismissed, and might give some insight into where the source of these events truly is.
MAY 22 In this Baton Rouge Business Report post, Rolfe McCollister considers the privatization of bus service in Baton Rouge. After decades of under-funding, it is a mess, and although a tax (partially) passed last year, improvement hasn't happened yet. McCollister apparently feels it is time to let private business get in on the transit business.
MAY 22 This post on Bayou Buzz by Jeff Crouere urges the defeat of a bill that would grant modest pay increases over the next several years to the state's judges and clerks of court. The state is in no position to fund pay hikes, Crouere argues, with the pay increases costing a total of $9 million over several years. It sends the wrong message to the (proverbial) hard-working people of Louisiana, he says.
MAY 22 The Advocate reports here that State Treasurer John Kennedy is complaining about a meeting of the corporation that oversees the state's tobacco settlement. The Governor wanted it restructured, and he has some support, but not a lot. The corporation agreed with his plan, but Kennedy didn't, and it appears that the meeting was noticed in a manner completely different than that of all previous meetings. Kennedy's given to hyperbole, but in this case the fish don't smell too fresh.
MAY 22 In this Advocate story, Carencro Police Chief Carlos Stout says the recent federal indictment of a strip club owner is all wrong. The indictment alleges that drugs and prostitution went on with impunity because club staff made arrangements with "local" police. Stout says it never happened, and while his cops do work security in the parking lot, they're not allowed inside.
MAY 22 This amusing post in DIG Baton Rouge recounts an ad that ran on Craig's List recently; the advertiser was seeking tenants for a Beauregard Town house. He knew his market, and wrote an ad that the most ironical hipster couldn't resist. Apparently, he really did know his market, because the ad worked like a charm.
MAY 22 In this post in The Lens, Mark Moseley comments on the rhetoric Gov. Jindal employed in trying to save his tax "reform" package. One interesting point concerns Jindal's use of his brother, Nikesh, in a little story. Nikesh left Louisiana because of his inability to get a decent job, the story goes, but the story won't hold water: Nikesh lives in DC, which has an income tax level comparable to Louisiana, Moseley says. If income taxes caused the dismal situation, it should exist in DC too. Right?
MAY 22 This post by columnist John Maginnis traces the trajectory of the bill that would fund construction at community and technical colleges -- and bypass the Board of Regents and traditional higher ed funding mechanisms. Sure, it will bust the legislature's self-imposed debt limit, but some leges feel that there's more need (because there is more growth) in the community and technical college area than in the university area, he says.
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