In The Ind's July 20 cover story, CONVICTed, we introduced Mike Wyatt, a car customizer and small business owner who's been indicted on major federal drug conspiracy charges despite never possessing drugs or trafficking them across state lines.
Wyatt is facing 10-plus years in prison and up to $4 million in fines because the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District in Louisiana has accused him of installing a few secret compartments in vehicles that the government claims he knew would be used to transport mass amounts of contraband.
What Wyatt's story reveals is that secret compartments are legal to install and possess in vehicles, but the false testimony of an admitted drug kingpin, the questionable conduct of a federal prosecutor and haphazard federal drug laws have put Wyatt at-risk of losing his business and, more importantly, his freedom.
Eric Alexander, the drug ring's leader whose damning testimony against Wyatt has been proven false, has been housed in parish jails since at least January 2007, though he pleaded guilty to a lengthy list of federal drug conspiracy and money laundering charges in December 2008.
As part of his plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to delay Alexander's sentencing until he offers "substantial assistance" in testifying against Wyatt and two other co-defendants who have refused to accept a plea agreement from the government. But coincidentally, less than two weeks after The Ind's cover story hit the stands, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Grayson has asked that Alexander's sentencing take place as soon as possible, before Wyatt's trial in February 2012.
Grayson says in his motion that housing Alexander in a St. Martin Parish jail is straining the budget of the U.S. Marshal's Service, which pays parish jails a fairly high per diem to keep federal detainees behind local bars.
At a $41-per-day fee to house Alexander for more than four years instead of sending him to the budget of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, it's only about $8,500 more than the almost $70,000 the federal government has already paid to keep Alexander close to home — all to ensure the conviction of a family man with no criminal record who was never charged with drug possession.
But whether or not the motive for Alexander's early sentencing request really is about the roughly $8,500, even if Alexander is sent away before Wyatt's trial without first satisfying the government, he can still testify against Wyatt after he's been sentenced and knock off a substantial amount of prison time for doing so.
Wyatt's saga and Alexander's lies under oath are part of what one former federal prosecutor calls an "inherent problem" with a federal criminal justice system that relies on convicts, most of whom are criminals by their own admission.
Read more about it here.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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I compiled allus the numbers, but nevah hit send Author Unknown