By Mike Perlstein | WWL-TV | April 6, 2023 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS — Long before controversy gripped the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office over the decision to get hotel rooms for 13 top deputies while they helped with Carnival security, acrimony had been brewing among the agency’s top executives. In fact, according to multiple sources and…
By Natasha Robin | WVUE | April 4, 2023 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – After New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell refused to allow city employees to speak at public hearings on the consent decree without her permission, a federal judge has ordered the presence of several of the city’s top officials. In a court…
By Amy Russo | WGNO | April 4, 2023 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The federal judge overseeing the NOPD consent decree is ordering several high-ranking city leaders to court next week. Some of those include Police Chief Michelle Woodfork and Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano. The order comes after Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s…
Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Louisiana Friday, March 31, 2023 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that, on March 29, 2023, U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance sentenced TROYLYNN BROWN (“BROWN”), age 35, after she pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud in violation of Title 18, United States…
By Rob Masson | WVUE| March 29, 2023 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she opposes any changes to her use of the city-owned Upper Pontalba apartment. In a routine press conference on Wednesday (March 29) Mayor Cantrell also said there is nothing inappropriate about her security team…
By Mike Perlstein | WWL-TV | March 29, 2023 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS — While Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson explained that her dismissal of four of her top executives was already in the works as part of a transition as she approaches the one-year mark of her time in office, one of those employees…
By Mike Perlstein | WWL-TV | March 23, 2023 CLICK FOR VIDEO NEW ORLEANS — This is Part 3 of “Room Service,” an ongoing investigation into the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s use of high-end hotel rooms for top commanders during Carnival. You can read the first and second parts here. Responding to criticism over the use of public money to…
Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Louisiana Wednesday, March 22, 2023 NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – MARVEL FRANCOIS (“FRANCOIS”), age 54, of Houma, Louisiana, was sentenced today for Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, arising out of staged automobile accidents with tractor-trailers occurring in New…
By Ken Daley & Natasha Robin | WVUE | March 22, 2023 CLICK FOR INTERVIEW NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A defiant Mayor LaToya Cantrell called an investigation into timesheet irregularities involving members of her executive protection team a “witch hunt,” and said she felt vindicated by the failure of a petition seeking to force her…
By Nick Chrastil | The Lens | March 22, 2023 Earlier this month, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams announced that he was going back on his campaign promise to never utilize or threaten to use the state’s habitual offender law, which can dramatically increase prison sentences for people who have been convicted of prior felonies.…