Judge Who Signed 'Criminal Defamation' Warrant For Sheriff's Raid Of Blogger's House Says Warrant Perfectly Fine
from the I-only-sign-the-best-warrants! dept
Nothing's going to stop Louisiana sheriff Jerry Larpenter from defending his good name. If you "print lies" about the sheriff, he'll "come after you." He'll have to use a criminal complaint filed by someone else (insurance agent Tony Alford) and an unconstitutional law to do it... but he's still coming after you.
The "you" in this case is a local police officer who allegedly runs a blog that allegedly made defamatory comments with claims of corruption involving the sheriff, his wife, and the insurance agency she works for.
Defamation isn't normally a criminal offense. Louisiana, for some reason, still has a criminal defamation statute on the books, but it only applies to non-public figures, which the sheriff -- and the parish's insurance agent, Tony Alford -- are not. Alford, who filed the complaint, not only holds two government positions but his agency also secured a no-bid contract to provide insurance services to the parish.
Never mind all that, though. Sheriff Larpenter found an off-duty judge to sign a search warrant and raided Officer Wayne Anderson's home, seeking evidence that he was the author of the posts. Anderson denies having anything to do with the blog posts, not that it matters. Larpenter's deputies have already made off with five electronic devices, including a laptop belonging to the officer's kids.
It would seem that after the initial raid and seizure, cooler judicial heads might prevail. No luck here. Abusing power to oppress speech is something embraced by at least two-thirds of the governmental checks-and-balances system. The judge (Randall Bethancourt) presiding over the case is none other than the judge Larpenter sought to sign his questionable search warrant -- a judge who wasn't on duty for criminal cases when the sheriff pushed his affidavit through.
A Terrebonne Parish judge on Friday stood by his decision to authorize the sheriff's office to seize a Houma police officer's computers earlier this week under the theory they were used to post a blog that may have defamed the sheriff.
I'm sure the judge was in no hurry to invalidate a warrant he signed. Anderson's lawyer argued there was no basis for it because the statute used to obtain it is unconstitutional as applied to the allegedly-defamatory blog posts. Judge Bethancourt, however, feels none of this is really a big deal.
Bethancourt said [the sheriff] had to stay within the "four corners" of the warrant and affidavit and said he couldn't tell if Alford was a public official. Frustrated, Ardoin pointed out that Alford is on the Levee Board, but what's relevant is that the comments in the complaint were about public affairs and should be protected speech.
Apparently, Bethancourt will know whether or not the Constitution applies after the sheriff's office has already examined the devices. And why not, because the statute being used can be interpreted many ways, especially with Bethancourt reading it.
Bethancourt countered that Louisiana’s criminal defamation statute is "pretty broad" and said he would allow the state to "take a look-see at these computers that might have defamatory statements on them."
Gotta love that down-home spin on possible First and Fourth Amendment violations. Law enforcement will just be performing a "look-see" within the "four corners" of a likely-invalid search warrant… all with the blessing of a judge who was apparently in jeans and a T-shirt when approached by someone from the sheriff's office during his day off.
The DA's office isn't much help either, stating that the warrant is "presumed valid" until ruled otherwise and "speaks for itself." The DA did not elaborate on what the warrant said when speaking on its own behalf, but WWLTV notes District Attorney Joe Waitz, Jr. is also mentioned in the blog as being part of a parish-wide web of corruption.
At least one member of the parish government has decided to take the litigation route, as one normally does when confronted with possible defamation.
Alford owns multiple businesses with Parish President Gordon Dove, who, the parish acknowledges, engaged Alford as the parish’s new insurance agent-of-record without any public bid.
Dove told WWL-TV that he is considering suing whoever posted the website, in part because it mentions his daughter, who is married to an assistant district attorney. He also defended the hiring of Alford because his insurance agency is local and would replace an out-of-parish consulting firm.
This thicket of incestuous business/government intermingling, along with people marrying into the family business (and sometimes the "business" is government) isn't exactly going to persuade outsiders that the blog's allegations of government corruption are likely to be false. From the look of things, it will be almost impossible to find anyone without a conflict of interest to investigate, prosecute, or adjudicate this case.
Meanwhile, Officer Anderson has been suspended indefinitely by the Houma Police Department and his electronics remain in control of the clerk of courts while Bethancourt's assertion of warrant validity is taken up the judicial ladder by his lawyers. And Sheriff Larpenter continues to look like someone who's willing to interpret the laws he's paid to enforce as broadly as needed to silence criticism of him and his office.
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Filed Under: anonymity, defamation, jerry larpenter free speech, louisiana, randall bethancourt, wayne anderson
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Just as expected
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There's no possible way this survives a court challenge and these two morons are going to learn a valuable lesson. The judge? I doubt he'll get re-elected.
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Re: Just as expected
Decades? What was the American Civil War about?
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Uh, you are entertaining the theory that the blog post painting them all to be in cahoots delivering their local self-interested flavor of "justice" is factually wrong.
So far it looks quite spot-on. I don't see a witless sheriff and I don't see a scammed court. And unless there is a federal intervention, I do see a blogger spending a long time in jail.
This is one notable state where schools had to be desegregated by Eisenhower sending the army in. Because the Supreme Court of the United States' opinion (and the U.S. Constitution) was not considered binding by local authorities.
When you state
you clearly have lost sight of where you, or rather where they are.
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That's the thing with corrupt agents of the justice system, once they complete step 1 (arrest/impound), you are constantly playing catch-up and they hold all the cards.
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Boss Hogg owns multiple businesses with Parish President Cletus Hogg, who, the parish acknowledges, engaged Boss Hogg as the parish’s new insurance agent-of-record without any public bid.
Cletus told WWL-TV that he is considering suing whoever posted the website, in part because it mentions his daughter, who is married to an assistant district attorney. He also defended the hiring of Boss Hogg because his insurance agency is local and would replace an out-of-parish consulting firm.
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All war is only ever about 1 thing. Power!
Some say money, but Power/Money are interchangeable at that stage.
The Civil War was no different. The North wanted to control the Souths economy too much at the South said fuck no. Slavery was as indirectly responsible as saying Germany Started WWII over Poland not returning a used cup of sugar.
I really love all claims that attacks are not provoked... its kinda funny that logic fly against the "Principle of Causation"
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Home grown tyranny
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Biographical Directory of Federal JudgesI do indeed remember watching Mr Porteous' trial in the Senate. Not something you tend to forget.
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Failures and corruption top to bottom
You'd be hard pressed to make it more obvious that the entire system in that area is corrupt, and the best part is that while the blog posts might have hinted at possible corruption, the actions of those involved have made it pretty clear that those accusations are spot on, and if anything missed just how corrupt things are.
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At any rate, in your Louisiana link I found
and this like sounds like it would fit right into Trump's playbook with minor changes. Depending on the audience, maybe even without any changes.
These kind of messages appealing to primitive tribal urges incompatible with a civilization based on personal accountability and dignity will always work unless kept consciously in check, like greed, power lust, envy. They are natural urges that have to be kept under control if we want to survive as society.
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Bad pun
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Dogs
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