According to sources with knowledge of the federal extortion and bribery investigation, which involves OWI and other criminal cases prosecuted by 15th Judicial Attorney Mike Harson, Luke Edwards is one of an unknown number of local attorneys being targeted by the feds. Two sources tell IND Monthly Edwards received an Oct. 12 “target letter” from U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley’s office, giving him an opportunity to cooperate in exchange for reduced charges. KLFY obtained a copy of one of the letters Finley's office sent out (with the addressee redacted) and posted it here.
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| This photo of Luke Edwards was captured from a commercial promoting his law firm on YouTube. |
A number of guilty pleas are expected in the case, according to our sources, but it remains unclear who plans to cut a deal, whether any of them have been negotiated and when the pleas will be entered. No one has been charged in the case.
It is unknown what the feds have on Edwards in terms of the alleged bribery scheme, but what is clear is that his employment history in the 15th Judicial District — including stints with the district attorney and public defender’s offices — has been rocky.
Edwards’ first position within the 15th JDC was as an assistant district attorney. His departure from the office of District Attorney Mike Harson — who has yet to respond to a list of questions e-mailed by the IND Thursday — correlates with his arrest by Wildlife & Fisheries agents in July 2006 for operating a watercraft while intoxicated. That first OWI charge was eventually reduced in March 2007 to reckless operation by prosecutors in the 11th Judicial District (DeSoto and Sabine parishes).
Shortly after pleading, Edwards was contracted by the local public defender’s office in July 2007. Like his job under Harson, it too came to an abrupt end when in April 2012 he was arrested again for OWI, this time by Louisiana State Police while he was driving his BMW sedan, which he crashed into a ditch in St. Landry Parish.
During both arrests, Edwards refused field sobriety and Breathalyzer tests.
In an e-mail sent Friday afternoon, Paul Marx, head of the 15th Judicial District Public Defenders’ Office, tells the IND that Edwards was a contract worker assigned only to felony cases.
“He was not an employee,” writes Marx, “and his contract was terminated effective May 1 ... in a notice sent April 17, 2012. My recollection is he was not in compliance with performance required in the contract.”
Surprisingly, the April 2012 OWI arrest appears to have already been dismissed, expunged from Edwards’ record, according to 27th Judicial District Attorney Earl Taylor’s office.
On Friday Taylor could find no information on the case in his records.
“It’s not showing up in the felony system,” Taylor says. “It very well may have been dismissed. I just don’t show it in the record. I will have to get back to you next week.”
One IND Monthly source with a line on the federal investigation, a local attorney in private practice, wasn’t surprised that Taylor’s office can’t locate the case file on Edwards, noting lost case files are a problem within the district. Also, the attorney doubts there’s a connection between Edwards’ OWI arrests and Robert Williamson, the private investigator who is a top suspect in the federal extortion and bribery investigation. Read more about Williamson’s checkered past here.
“I don’t think you will find a causal link between any handling of Mr. Edwards’ criminal case in St. Landry parish and Robert Williamson,” says the Lafayette attorney. “The St. Landry parish criminal justice system can be quite dysfunctional. The district attorney’s office, the judges and the clerk of court are rarely on the same page. It is just as likely that someone simply lost the file. In my experience that has happened on more than one occasion.”
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
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