One of the properties of Rock Bordelon and Allegiance Health Care in Ruston has reportedly been sold at a sheriff’s sale for unpaid taxes of nearly $19,000 to a resident of Alabama who is an officer in a newly formed multi-regional electric utility company.
Northside Family Practice, formerly Northside Green Clinic at 1402 Celebrity Drive in Ruston was reported purchased by BECKY WALDING of Hoover, Alabama.
BECKY WALDING
Walding worked for Southern Company, an American gas and electric utility holding company based in Atlanta, with offices in Birmingham. According to her Linkedin profile, she worked for Southern Company for nearly 17 years, more than four years as Transmission Planning Manager. She then worked for Southern Power for two-and-a-half years as director of Transmission & Market Policy before spending three years as Senior Director of Business Management at NextEra Energy Transmission and then three years as Chief Development Officer for VIRIDON, a three-year multi-regional electric utility out of Chicago that builds, buys and manages transmission assets.
It was unclear what her intentions are in purchasing a defunct medical clinic founded by two physicians who have since signed on to practice with Willis Knighton, which is building a facility in Ruston. The building reportedly cost $800,000 to build. Also unclear was her connection, if any, to Bordelon.
A provision of the sale gives Bordelon the opportunity to reacquire ownership of the property if he pays the tas liability of $18,926.76 within three years of the purchase by Walding.
Meanwhile, tension continues to build between Bordelon and his Allegiance Health which runs North Louisiana Medical Center, the subject of a scathing 84-page report by the Louisiana Department of Hospitals which found NLMC falling far short in a number of areas of required services.
Bordelon has engaged in exchanges with Ruston critics of his administration of medical facilities in an online web service called Ruston Rants:
In keeping with our policy of chronicling the arrests of those so-called Christians who use their positions to abuse children for the satisfaction of their sick sexual urges even as evangelicals accuse others such as gays and drag queens of grooming children, LouisianaVoice is reporting that a former member of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s church in Benton has been arrested on 90 counts of child molestation, dating back nearly 40 years.
David Mercer, 72, of Folsom in St. Tammany Parish, WAS ARRESTED by Bossier Parish sheriff’s deputies, with assistance from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, following an investigation of four child victims between 1989 and 1995 while he was serving as youth minister at Cypress Baptist Church of Benton. He resigned in 1995.
Mercer was employed as a youth pastor at a local Folsom church at the time of his arrest.
He is just the latest in a string of literally hundreds of Protestant ministers and Catholic priests who have been arrested over the years for child sexual molestation, many of whom are identified by name in my book, The Dinosaur Club, which also names judges, cops, politicians and celebrities who have been identified as child sexual predators.
In Mercer’s case, he was returned to Bossier Parish where he was taken to the parish’s maximum security facility bond was set at $2.5 million.
Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington said the investigation in ongoing and additional charges and victims are expected.
“Although nearly 40 years have passed, the passage of time does not lessen the seriousness of these crimes or the impact they have had on those affected,” Whittington said. “I want to encourage anyone who may have been a victim or witnessed these actions to come forward and contact the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office. We are committed to thoroughly investigating these allegations and seeking justice for those who may have been impacted.”
Among the many self-perpetuated myths of Donald J. Trump, the Grand Pooh-bah of Superficial Unctuousness, is his oft-repeated claim of being pro-law and order, tough-on-crime and otherwise a harsh opponent of those who would scheme to lie, cheat, steal, scam, defraud, riot, deal drugs or otherwise harm the American citizenry.
The truth is far different as evidence by his disdain for the Capital Police officers injured in the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, or by his propensity to pardon or commute the sentences of the very ones who have committed of any of the aforementioned atrocities.
One of those Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump subsequently was arrested of her threat to kill Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
In other words, like the claim of stolen elections, a “vandalized” Reflecting Pool, the Epstein files, his IQ, weight, tax returns, grades at Wharton and literally everything else, he lies.
And just as all his other lies are so easily refuted by the record—with the exceptions being his tax returns, his grades and the Epstein files, all of which he stubbornly refuses to release—his dedication to law and order is easy to debunk, perhaps even easier.
The sad truth is Trump is not only a serial liar; he also is a willing participant in a major criminal enterprise—an abettor, an accomplice.
Take for example Ross Ulbricht, Larry Hoover, Garnett Gilbert Smith and Juan Orlando Hernández. Even as his administration was bombing boats he accused of smuggling drugs, he was granting pardons to Silk Road founder Ulbricht who was convicted of creating the largest online black market of its time for illicit goods, including illegal drugs; Chicago gang leader Hoover, Baltimore drug kingpin Smith and Honduran president Hernández who had received a 45-year prison sentence for running a widespread “narco-state” in his native Honduras that helped to move some 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
As for the victims of criminal activity, there is this: Last December, Mr. Law and Order pardoned convicted securities and wire fraudster Tervor Milton. It’s bad enough Milton had received only a four-year federal prison sentence, a sentence for which he never served a day, but the $660 million in restitution to defrauded investors prosecutors had requested was wiped clean in a single stroke of Trump’s Sharpie. Milton and his wife, by the way, donated more than $2.5 to Trump’s campaign but insisted he did nothing wrong.
Trevor Milton
But it was the pardon of ADAM KIDAN, a former business partner of Abramoff, who seems to have flown under the radar. Kidan pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and conspiracy in connection with his purchase of a fleet of gambling boars which was connected in turn to a wider investigation of the lobbying scandal involving Abramoff, the Interior Department of members of President George W. Bush’s administration. The following year, he was sentenced to almost six years in prison. Kidan, was released from prison in 2009 and last March, he was among the hosts of a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which was probably a mere coincidence.
Milton wasn’t the only beneficiary of Trump’s compassion that not only restored their civil rights after imprisonment or allowed them to avoid prison altogether, but who also were allowed to walk away from tens of millions of dollars in financial penalties. Marian Morgan was one of those. He was sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison in 2013 for running a Ponzi scheme and was ordered to repay $17.5 to investors. Trump commuted her sentence “to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation or other conditions.”
Earlier this month, on July 5, Trump issued pardons to a former partner of lobbyist/swindler Jack Abramoff and nine others convicted of violating vehicle emissions controls but who Trump said were merely trying to “repair their automobiles.”
But it was the pardon of ADAM KIDAN, a former business partner of Abramoff, who seems to have flown under the radar. Kidan pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and conspiracy in connection with his purchase of a fleet of gambling boars which was connected in turn to a wider investigation of the lobbying scandal involving Abramoff, the Interior Department of members of President George W. Bush’s administration. The following year, he was sentenced to almost six years in prison. Kidan, was released from prison in 2009 and last March, he was among the hosts of a fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which was probably a mere coincidence.
Paul Walezak was a health care executive who was ordered to pay more than $4 million to the IRS after he pleaded guilty to tax crimes. His pardon miraculously came through only 12 days after his sentencing, relieving him of the obligation of his plea bargain agreement.
There is also Leonard Glenn “Fat Leonard” Francis, the con man who plied Naval personnel with booze, bribes and prostitutes on the way to defrauding U.S. taxpayers of $35 million before fleeing the country only to be recaptured. Now, he’s asking for a pardon. The Justice Department has opposed his overtures but with Trump in the Oval Office, don’t be surprised if DOJ has a sudden change of heart.
Besides the damaged inflicted on the victims who, with the pardons, lost all hope of ever recovering any of their investments, there is the cost that went into the process of investigating and prosecuting the criminals only to see Trump award them with a Get Out of Jail Free card as if he were playing a high-stakes game of Monopoly.
After an investment of hours spent prepping witnesses in a case against Culpeper County, Virginia, Sheriff Scott Jenkins for accepting $75,000 in bribes from wealthy business owners and undercover agents, Trump pardoned him one day before he was scheduled to begin his sentence and the restitution he had been ordered to pay was…you guess it, eliminated.
Nursing home magnate Joseph Schwartz pleaded guilty to failure to pay more than $38 million in employment taxes and then laundering the money by moving it from account to account after an extensive investigation into his complicated case. He was sentenced to three years—another slap on the wrist– only to have Trump to wipe out the investment of time and money when he pardoned Schwartz and a host of other criminals, many of whom were politically connected.
In Schwartz’s case, $960,000 paid to two lobbyists to advocate for a pardon, may have greased the skids just a little, though Trump, of course, denied any such link.
Former U.S. pardon attorney Liz Oyer, who was fired by Trump, said there was concern that there is “a special tier of justice for people who can afford to pay.”
“The president has the authority to grant a pardon, but when you have a strong case, and it is a good case, and you are holding elected officials accountable for wrongdoing, it is frustrating,” said prosecutor Melanie Smith
Complex cases can take years to investigate before charges are filed. Prosecutors interview dozens of witnesses before grand juries to build their cases. Typically, years can pass before those cases reach a trial date. Once the trial date arrives, prosecutors may spend upward of 80 hours a week preparing witnesses and getting exhibits ready. A lengthy trial can involve more than 1,000 exhibits that need to be prepped and reviewed.
“To bring a case to trial is just an incredible effort and use of department resources,” John Keller, the former acting head of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, said. “There’s an intensity of experience and effort and emotion that doesn’t come at any other stage of the case. It’s the pinnacle of the practice.”
All that expense and preparation appear to matter little to Trump who somehow saw fit to even issued a commutation of sentence of disgraced former congressman George Santos (R-New York), who was expelled from the House after being accused of financial misconduct and for spewing an endless stream of lies about his background. He was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. He served less than three months of his sentence before Trump, describing him as “somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” ordered his release.
And then there are the brothers Andrew and Tristen Tate, mysteriously pardoned from sex trafficking charges in Romania. Though Trump was not the one who issued the pardons of the two, a pair of New York Times reporters quoted a text message by Andrew Tate from Jan. 14, 2025 in which he said, “I had word from the Trump admin that theyre on top of things. Ive been told ill be free soon but Trump needs to see me in Miami.
The very next month, The Times reporters wrote, “an extraordinary order came down from the highest levels of the Romanian government. The prosecutors were told to find a compromise with the Tates. Despite their misgivings, they lifted the travel restrictions, a move that Romania’s prime minister thought would appease the Trump administration.”
In his current term of office, Trump granted executive clemency to more than 1700 INDIVIDUALS charged or convicted of federal criminal offenses. That number includes some 1,500 persons arrested and charged in the Jan. 6 coup attempt but does not include those arrested in connection with alleged vandalism of the Reflecting Pool. It also does not include new reporters and others who have been subpoenaed because Trump was pissed at something said or written.
When all is said and done, the bottom line is:
If you can still support those who have defrauded widows and other innocent investors of hundreds of millions of dollars;
If you can overlook the pardoning of sex traffickers;
If you can look the other way as drug kingpins go free;
If you still insist on saying, “But whatabout Obama or whatabout Biden…
…then you are no better than the very worst traits of a ruthless tyrant named Donald Trump and it is you who is afflicted with TDS.
LouisianaVoice told you back on JUNE 30 that the running dispute between Rev. Tony Spell and his neighbors, Scott Sherwin and son Toby was the gift that keeps on giving, that it should be a soap opera called As the Tony Spell Turns.
Actually, maybe it should have been billed as a Netflix series called simply Hooper Road or perhaps The Life and Times of Life Tabernacle Church.
First, back in 2020, Snell sued Scott Sherwin for installing security cameras on Sherwin’s own property. The minister of Life Tabernacle’s flock said the cameras were installed so that Sherwin could spy on Snell, though it was never made quite clear what Sherwin was seeking to learn by spying church property.
Back on July 20, 2025, Toby was accosted by someone in a pickup truck whom he identified as Vance Gossett, a former resident of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, and smacked around a bit before Gossett got back in his truck and drove away.
Then, nearly a year later, on June 23 of this year, Spell took it upon himself to conduct his own version of tough love by running across Hooper Road onto the Sherwin property where he pounced upon the younger man and struck him nearly three dozen times.
Two days after that, the good reverend was going about mowing the church’s grass—at 400 a.m. when the elder Sherwin called the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office out because…well, who mows grass at 4:00 a.m., anyway?
So, what’s the latest in this sordid display of don-do-as-I-do, do-as-I-say-do?
A protective order has now been issued against Spell on Toby Sherwin’s behalf that says Spell is forbidden to contact Toby or his family directly or electronically, including through the medium of social media and also orders Spell to maintain a distance of at least 50 yards from the Sherwins’ residence except for checking his mailbox.
Depending on how for the church property line is from the Sherwin property line, there could be a strip along Hooper Road where the grass is going to be growing a little taller from neglect—unless, that is, some devoted church member can be persuaded to mow as Spell’s proxy.
We’ll keep you posted on any subsequent episodes of this tacky little drama.
Donald Trump was not at all empathetic with the financial plight of the typical American when he defended profiting some $2.2 billion during the first year of his second term of office.
In fact, he was downright arrogant about it all when asked if he might be using his presidency to enrich himself. “You know why I’m profiting, because the stock market’s going up, everybody’s profiting,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on July 1.
He then addressed one reporter, saying, “Do you have a 401(k)? How much did you make?” Then, apparently not waiting for an answer, he quipped in the mocking voice that has become his trademark, “Thank you, President Trump.
But let’s fact-check that claim that the increases in 401(k) retirement plan balances” HAVE MADE AMERICANS WEALTHIER.
While the super-wealthy have realized substantial wealth gains, many working-class families are facing declining household budgets as prices of just about everything have increased while wages have remained stagnant. We have most assuredly NOT profited.
Nearly a million Americans lost nearly $3.8 billion cumulatively on Trump’s cryptocurrency and memecoin ventures—all while he has pulled in millions in fees for processing investments by ordinary, trusting, loyalists—as the bottom dropped out by some 97 percent from their peaks. (Of that $2.2 billion in earnings for Trump, $1.1 billion came from his crypto businesses even as his investors were taking a bath.)
THE GUARDIAN quoted one person who would seem to represent the consensus thinking of typical Americans: “I’m one of the lucky ones, and I’m still counting pennies while my president is earning billions while stomping on the backs of Americans.”
Another was even more blunt, calling Trump’s grifting “blatant corruption.”
A third found the contrast between Trump’s extreme wealth and the difficulty many Americans are experiencing in affording things like healthcare “obscene.”
“It is an embarrassment that our system allows such corruption and wealth to be exploited by the top 1%, upon the backs of children who are not receiving proper education and healthcare,” said the man, a retired pediatrician.
And while tye typical MAGHAT will refuse to acknowledge it, he and the rest of working America are most certainly NOT better off than they were before the Rapepublicans took control of the White House, the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court, the fact is, Americans as a society, are far worse off than ever before.
But fear not. As one dedicated and loyal MAGHAT confidently observed when she was confronted with facts about rapist/grifter/autocrat/liar Trump’s utter failure to deliver on any of his grandiose promises:
Russia/Ukraine war solved within 24 hours;
Release of the Epstein files;
No wars;
Deliverance of a better economy;
Deportation of only illegal immigrant;
Eradicate government waste (see ballroom, Reflecting pool, arch, etc.);
Better healthcare;
$2,000 stimulus checks;
Work non-stop (see naps, golf outings)
The response from that true-blue MAGHAT: “He has a plan.”
It would certainly be nice if he’d let the rest of us in on that wonderful plan.
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