Louisiana Voice

If there’s anything to be learned by the Jackson and Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s departments, it’s you don’t piss off people by abducting or killing their pets.

In Calcasieu Parish, Justin and Christine Granger of Lake Charles have filed suit in federal court against the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Gary “Stitch” Guillory and Deputy Jordan Trahan after Trahan entered the Granger’s property on an unrelated call and ended up shooting and killing the family dog.

While no litigation has yet been filed in Jackson Parish, the possibility looms over the department after Tommy McDougald’s two pet cats were trapped and hauled away by the Village of Hodge and while the action was not taken specifically by the sheriff’s department, the Hodge mayor is a former deputy sheriff and McDougald is having a bit of trouble in getting the sheriff’s department to cooperate in investigating his complaint.

Trahan was responding to a “traffic complaint” last Aug. 1 but when he came upon the scene, there was no traffic violation observed, says the lawsuit. So, he pulled onto the Granger driveway and exited his patrol car to “leave a card.”

“For reasons unknown to [the Grangers], Trahan discharged his department-issued firearm and shot [the Granger’s] family dog affectionately named tank, killing him in his own yard.”

The lawsuit says Trahan entered the Granger property without cause “as there was no visible traffic violations subject to the complaint called in.” The lawsuit does not identify the person who initially reported the traffic violation.

“It was not until Christine Granger returned home that morning with numerous Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office units surrounding her home that she was told by a second deputy of the tragedy involving her family pet,” the petition says.

The Grangers made a public records request for both cam footage but the lawsuit says it is believed that deputies deliberately “turned off their respective body cameras and/or their audio and on that same day, Aug. 4, they were informed by the sheriff’s department that release of personal information on deputies, including home addresses, was prohibited—information for which the Grangers say they never asked.

The lawsuit says the five-year-old Rottweiler had never shown hostility toward other people and even if he had, Trahan “could have employed non-lethal methods to restrain Tank rather than shooting and killing, but neither attempted nor exhausted such methods.”

It’s not that unusual to find macho cops gunning down dogs as tiny as chihuahuas for no reason other than sport. A quick GOOGLE SEARCH found incidents in Little Rock, San Antonio and other locations. It’s obviously a case of gig game-hunter envy.

Meanwhile, back in Hodge, some 200 miles or so to the north central part of the state, Mayor Gerald Palmer, a retired Jackson Parish deputy who McDougald says has “a history of Civil Rights violations,” finds himself on the hot seat because of the village’s non-response to McDougald’s inquiries about his cats. The conflict between the sheriff’s office and the Hodge village attorney hasn’t helped assuage the feelings of McDougald.

He says when his wife left for work on April 8, she observed a town worker bating a life trap at the corner of their neighbor’s carport and when he and his wife returned home from work, their two pet cats were missing. It turns out, his neighbor told him, Mayor Palmer had requested permission to set the traps, baited with sardines only six feet from the McDougald property line, in order to catch “feral cats.”

When McDougald began trying to find his cats, he was told, “They were caught,” and Palmer told him, “We hauled them far off. You should have kept your pets in your yard.” (of course, when you bait a trap with sardines, you’re going to attract every cat in the neighborhood). McDougald also learned that the village was in violation of its own 1993 ordinance that requires the village to maintain a complete registry of every animal impounded.

Sheriff’s department Chief Deputy Stephen Watts, in response to McDougald’s inquiry about that registry, replied, “…[W]e are in the process of determining whether the referenced records exist and, if so, the appropriate steps for obtaining and reviewing them.”

But village attorney wrote McDougald on April 23 to say the village the “has no animal control or hold logs and Jackson Parish has no animal control or shelter” and “[T]here are no public emails dealing with animal control other than your email and people emailing the village because of your publication on Facebook of what you believe is the situation.”

In other words, take a hike.

The sheriff’s department, meanwhile, has been less than enthusiastic in following up on his complaint, waiting a full 21 days to load his sworn complaint into a departmental file. McDougald, meanwhile, has taken his complaint to the Louisiana Attorney General and the Louisiana Legislative Auditor.

He obviously doesn’t intend to let this matter of cat abduction go.

The Louisiana Legislature finally did something right but only after first doing it wrong two years ago.

Both the HOUSE (97-0, with eight abstentions) and the SENATE (33-0, six not voting) gave unanimous approval earlier this week to SB 208 by Sen. Stewart Cathey, Jr. (R-Monroe) that rectifies a 2024 bill, also authored by Cathey but ruled unconstitutional by a federal court. It’s scheduled for Conference Committee on Monday.

State Sen. Stewart Cathey, Jr.

The bill was submitted as an effort to protect disabled veterans from being charged fees unfairly by private services set up to assist them in obtaining benefits from the Veterans Administration.

While it does not completely prohibit the charging of fees for services, it does keep private unaccredited consultants from profiteering off initial disability claims filed by veterans, according to the LOUISIANA ILLUMINATOR.

Websites purporting to offer assistance to veterans began popping up in 2022 following President Joe Biden’s signing of the PACT Act into law which approved billions of dollars in additional benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic emissions hazards during their military service.

Those private entities were found to be charging EXORBITANT FEES to veterans who were already suffering from the effects of toxic exposure—in some cases amounts in excess of $20,000 (Louisiana, however, had capped those fees at a still pricey $12,500)—for many services that are available at no fee from VA-accredited organizations like DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS (DAV) and VETERANS OF FOREIGH WARS (VFW).

So, why would the Louisiana Legislature have even allowed fees as high as $12,500 for services that are available for free through non-profit organizations? Well, I’m just a jaded old newspaper reporter, but I would guess off the top of my gray old head that the answer is twofold: greedy lawyers and money. The plaintiffs’ bar has a lot of juice over in the House that Huey Built and they aren’t about to let an opportunity like that slip by.

A notable exception is Slidell attorney John B. Wells, who also happens to be a retired U.S. Navy commander, who filed suit against the fee practice and eventually won the ruling that Louisiana’s 2024 law was unconstitutional. Wells represents veterans in legal disputes over military benefits.

Attorney John B. Wells

The State of California went Louisiana one better by passing a law SIGNED BY GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM on Feb. 10 that prohibits unaccredited private companies for billing veterans for any help with VA claims and further ordered that those companies must shut down or revamp their business model in California by the end of the year.

It’s unfortunate but all too typical that unscrupulous people are standing by and ready to take advantage of the most vulnerable or less sophisticated among us. One only has to check his or her emails and text messages to find that a Nigerian prince wants to transfer millions to your checking account or you’re the unexpectantly unbelievably fortunate heir to some unknown relative who passed away abroad and left you a fortune—if you’ll only provide your account and routing numbers. Likewise, you probably should be sending the IRS or the DMV (depending upon the SCAM DU JOUR) a check lest you find yourself in handcuffs and heading off to the slammer.

It should give us all a warm fuzzy feeling to know that while we struggle, in the light of runaway inflation brought on by yet another political war, to put gas in our cars, pay rent, utilities, put food on our tables, pay medical bills and educate our children, our legislators are doing quite well, thank you very much.

It’s so nice to know our elected officials in Baton Rouge are free to dip into their campaign funds to pay for such things as travel to and lodging for the Washington Mardi Gras celebration while their constituents content themselves with watching highlights of the Eunice Courir de Mardi Gras & Chicken Run on TV.

And they don’t stay at Motel 6 or even that place with the two oak trees. No, they drop $1700 on a single night’s stay at the Waldorf Astoria or $1100 at the less pricey Hilton International. And that’s after spending more than $4000 on airfare to D.C. and back home.

But hey, it’s not their personal money. No, they made certain of that when they passed a bill last year that allows them to use campaign contributions for such things. They even think nothing of writing out checks of $5175 for New Orleans Saints tickets or $4000 on LSU athletic tickets, saying, of course, they’re for “constituents.” Sure, if you consider contractors, lobbyists or major contributors as “constituents.”

Of course, a few years ago, LouisianaVoice found one north Louisiana legislator who paid state ethics fines, car loan payments and even an IRS tax bill from campaign funds.

It’s a slush fund folks, a miniaturized version of America’s number-one crime family’s IRS $1.8 billion IRS lawsuit settlement—except that settlement also carried the proviso that the IRS is forevermore prohibited from ever even so much as investigating Dementia Don. Translation: he is now free to pursue any scam his little heart desires—as if he hasn’t already.

But again, worry not. FAJITA (Forget About Jurisprudence If Trump’s Around) Don says the increase in the price of gasoline is only a trifle, or in his words, “peanuts.” Of course, he has never pumped fuel a single time in his life, so he wouldn’t really know, now, would he?

Well, let’s just take a looky-look at what constitutes a trifle or peanuts in his rarified world: the Iran War has resulted in Americans spending an extra $42.6 billion on fuel costs—so far. Broken down, that’s $24.25 billion on gasoline and $19.35 on diesel.

Oil companies are pointing to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for the spike in fuel costs. If that was all there was to it, then the oil companies would also be feeling the financial pinch. Such, however, is just not the case.

Take Shell Oil Co. for example, reported first-quarter profits of $6.93 billion, a healthy jump of 24 percent from the same quarter of 2025.

Just thought you’d want to know that not everyone is suffering. Some take good care of themselves.

As is usually the case, the messenger is getting the blame for the debacle at Mt. Olive Christian School up in Claiborne Parish in which the school’s former principal, Nathan Jump, has been arrested for sexual misconduct involving students at the school.

The school’s administration, aka Jump’s in-laws who own and operate the school, are rolling out “witnesses” to the former principal’s good name while beginning the usual piling on of the accuser—and LouisianaVoice for having the audacity to report it. We’re okay with criticism. It ain’t our first rodeo, but it’s patently unfair to gang up on underage female sexual victims.

The latest development has one Megan Lindsey, who purportedly works or at least maintains a high profile at the school, claiming online that she “just happened” to be in Jump’s office at the time the sheriff’s office called on him to turn himself in.

Lindsey also claims that her own daughter, a student at the school, told her after the arrest of Jump that the same girl now accusing him also accused a coach at the school of inappropriate behavior more than a year before.

Now, that gives rise to a couple of obvious questions. First, if the young lady knew of this a year before, why is she only now informing her mother? Second, if a coach—or anyone on the school staff—is accused of any offense, anyone else with knowledge of the complaint is required by law to report same, so why didn’t Principal Jump report the offense a year ago and conduct an investigation or notify law enforcement?

Whether it was Nathan Jump or an unnamed coach, it nevertheless was not the first reports of sexual misconduct between a student and a teacher at the school. Seven years ago, almost to the day, a 25-year-old choir and fine arts teacher at Mt. Olive was arrested for “prohibited sexual conduct between educator and student.”

Of course, the Gantt family (parents of Nathan’s wife, Tammy Jump) wants to do everything they can to salvage their daughter’s current campaign for election as district attorney for the 2^nd JDC which is comprised of the parishes of Claiborne, Bienville and Jackson—and no one faults them for rallying to the support of their daughter; you do that with family.

But we’re curious to see who else comes forward as a character witness