Louisiana Voice

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

In the high-visibility work of news reporting, particularly investigative reporting, we get a lot of leads that turn out to be a nothingburger. They’re either sour grapes or wildly exaggerated in their scope, so a lot of what we hear never sees the light of day. That’s the nature of a business that operates as much in the glare of the public spotlight as ours.

But when we start hearing repetition after repetition of the same general story or problem, we begin to understand there may be more to a story than meets the eye so, we start digging.

That’s exactly what happened when we started getting reports of a screwed-up family court system. At first, we dismissed the early complaints as nothing more than a he-said, she-said dispute between couples who had grown to hate each other.

But gradually, the stories began to grow in number and similarity—not from the same person or even the same place, but enough to know there was more than just smoke coming from the smoldering ashes of a failed marriage.

In most of the cases we’ve heard and read about thus far, it’s the husband or father who holds the cards—or financial advantage—in courtroom disputes over child custody and far too often, we’re getting reports of evidence of sexually abusive fathers being awarded CUSTODY of a child a man fathered by RAPE—when the mother herself was only a child of 12.

Nor is it entirely clear why a judge in West Feliciana Parish would remove a “no contact” bond condition for a man accused of sexually abusing a child—and another judge would inexplicably award the same man temporary SOLE CUSTODY of three children.

East Baton Rouge Parish has come under a barrage of criticism for the way women—mothers—fare in family court as men—fathers—with control of the bank account and with far more financial resources, bury former spouses with paper, false charges and legal delays, in many cases bankrupting the mothers of their children as if it all was some variation of the Game of Thrones.

Nor is the damage limited to the mothers. The story of a father’s plight in St. Tammany Parish defies all logic.

He ended up in 22^nd JDC Judge Dawn Amacker’s court in St. Tammany Parish (more about her in subsequent stories). He has asked that his identity not be revealed and that request is being honored.

JUDGE DAWN AMACKER

“When my daughter turned six, the state asked me to take a DNA test,” said. He said he complied with the request “within days” to take the test. “[I] waited and waited but never got any results. [I] figured [it] wasn’t mine and kept going.”

He said a year went by before a supervisor called him into the office at work to explain his employer had received paperwork to garnish his wages. “I took the paperwork and called the office (presumably the court) and that’s when I was told I was a father.”

A court date was set and he attended. “They took us into the back, talked finances and they told me how much I had to pay. That was it. No talk about custody or visitation or me even being able to see my daughter. Court was over. I talked about it with several people and the general response was I should get a lawyer. Except it was hard enough to cover rent and I wasn’t always good about paying support on time as it was. How was I going to afford a lawyer? It sucked and I just kind of accepted it. I have seen her four times her entire life.

Last year, about two months before the case was going to close, he made his final legally-required child support payment, paying in advance to cover the rest of the [support] time.

“A month later, with only a month left before she turned 18 (11 years after first being informed he was a father) and the state closed the case, I got my first-ever letter explaining my rights. I had the right to request visitation and everything else.

“I may not the best person but I try to be the best father. I feel the court robbed me of that chance with her.

“That’s just my quick story. I’m sure there is some far worse.”

Was this a case of just sloppy work on the part of the court or was something more sinister at play?

Jackson Parish interim Sheriff (and candidate for the full-time job) Brent Barnett must think he is FAJITA, the latest acronym for el Presidente.

FAJITA, we’ve learned, stands for “Forget About Jurisprudence If Trump’s Around” and that appears to be the position that Barnett has taken with a woman named Jeanne Ray.

Ms. Ray, it seems, is the mother of a former Jackson Parish jail employee who is opposing Barnett’s election bid—and, just as with TAMALE (Trump Always Makes America Look Embarrassing), there’s a price to pay for disloyalty.

According to her son, Corey Ray, Jeanne Ray likes to hit the hootch a little too much, as does (again, according to Corey) her brother, Jason Ponder, and when they do, sparks tend to fly since they live in proximity to each other.

So, in their latest dust-up, Ponder, took out a warrant for her arrest but soon changed his mind and attempted (unsuccessfully, it turns out) to have it recalled. Corey said it was commonplace for them to squabble, call the cops and then opt not to pursue charges.

But this time, the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office executed the warrant and last Thursday, she was arrested and taken to what was thought to be an overnight stay in jail.

Not only was it not an overnight visit—she’s still in jail at last check—but she is being held at the Jackson Parish Men’s Jail, a violation of state regulations that require segregation of men and women prisoners not only by sight but by sound, as well.

Moreover, she is being confined to a booking holding cell for more than 23 hours per day with no opportunity for exercise or for showers. Most critically, her son said she is being deprived of her required medications.

“All this is a deviation from standard protocol,” Corey Ray says—and he should know having previously worked at both the Jackson Parish and Lincoln Parish detention centers. “Historically, female detainees in this jurisdiction are transferred to an appropriate women’s facility,” he said. “Keeping her isolated in a male booking facility under these conditions appears to be a deliberate punitive measure.”

That’s because, he said, both he and his brother opposed Barnett prior to last Saturday’s primary election in which Barnett, running more or less as an incumbent since his elevation to interim sheriff after the retirement of former Sheriff Andy Brown, led the five-man field with 47 percent of the vote. Israel Smith was a distant second with 18 percent.

“We have strong reason to believe the timing of the arrest was retaliatory,” said Corey Ray. “My brother and I have been publicly campaigning against the interim sheriff, Brent Barnett. Hours prior to my mother’s arrest on May 14, I posted statements on social media alleging unethical behavior within the department (as well as reposting LouisianaVoice stories). Furthermore, the arresting officer noted she had seen my mother at her workplace multiple times prior to that day but chose not to act on the warrant until immediately after my public posts. Since the arrest, my family has faced targeted harassment, threats of violence from individuals associated with the interim sheriff, and the unauthorized public release of a sealed juvenile record involving my brother.”

“We believe these conditions violate her Fourteenth Amendment rights regarding the treatment of pretrial detainees, specifically the deliberate indifference to serious medical needs and the imposition of conditions that amount to punishment before trial,” he said.

​“My mother is under extreme psychological distress due to this prolonged isolation and lack of medical care. We are seeking immediate intervention from a civil rights attorney or advocacy group to ensure her safety, medical compliance, and transfer to an appropriate facility.”