[Editor's Note: This morning, just before 15th Judicial District Judge Glennon Everett could render a decision on whether state prosecutors had enough evidence to move forward with the criminal case against Busted in Acadiana's Chris Hebert, his lawyer, Steven Spring, filed a motion for continuance. According to attorney Joy Rabalais, who represents Lafayette City Police in a civil suit filed by Hebert, that means the criminal case will now go to trial, which is tentatively set for March 27.]
Chris Hebert, the Busted in Acadiana Facebook page administrator and mastermind behind the BIA website indicted five months ago on charges of stalking and cyberstalking, has filed a lawsuit against his alleged victim.
He’s also suing the Lafayette Police Department, Police Chief Jim Craft and two LPD detectives for the “mental anguish” he claims to have suffered due to wrongful arrest, unlawful seizure of his computers and malicious prosecution.
Ironically, a preliminary hearing set for Thursday, which Hebert has requested for his criminal case, will likely determine whether the outrageous claims outlined in his civil suit have merit. Read the suit here.
Hebert first made headlines in September 2011 when IND Monthly identified him in a cover story as the mastermind of Busted in Acadiana, a controversial Facebook page that pooled mug shots from local law enforcement agencies and profited from public records.
The twisted administrator behind BIA was arrested less than a month later on one count each of stalking and cyberstalking for allegedly threatening a female victim, Erica Roberie, several times over the phone and online.
He faces a maximum of two years in prison and up to $3,000 in fines if convicted.
Hebert maintains his innocence in the lawsuit filed by his attorney, Stephen Spring, and accuses LPD Detective Stephen Bajat and another unidentified officer of conspiring with Roberie to falsely imprison Hebert and ruin his “good name.”
Allyson Prejean, an attorney with the Barry Sallinger Law Firm representing Roberie in her civil defense, said Judge Glennon Everett has granted a preliminary examination of Hebert’s criminal case and will decide Thursday whether the state has enough evidence to proceed with a criminal trial.
“If there’s probable cause on the criminal side, then you don’t really have grounds for a wrongful arrest lawsuit on the civil side,” Prejean says.
According to Prejean, the evidence will show that Hebert’s arrest came after detectives searched multiple electronic devices and hard drives they seized from Hebert’s home — “pursuant to search warrants that were signed by a judge.”
“He is truly a sociopath and he should be behind bars,” Roberie told The IND in an email she sent after the newspaper linked Hebert to BIA. “I know that I live in fear that he will some day really act out his threats. I just hope that he is caught and prosecuted before that happens.”
Prejean also says Hebert’s civil lawsuit and reported “other incidents of harassment” against Roberie since his arrest are in direct violation of the terms Hebert agreed to when he posted bond more than a year ago.
“It’s very clear that he is to have no contact with the victim, including contact through a third party which is what he did in this lawsuit,” Prejean says. “It's deplorable that the victim of stalking and cyberstalking is being sued. She's being revictimized. It's sick.”
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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