"Discrimination & hatred": The Slabbed Nation's anti-gay hate speech -Updated-

"In addition in the case at hand, the blogs contain comments based on the actual or perceived sexual orientation of the intended targets. Those comments are clearly meant to be derogatory and insulting. I will not reproduce them here. It is the type of expression that engenders harmful results such as discrimination and hatred. It is not the type of free expression that deserves protection and fostering."

Justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court

commenting on Doug K. Handshoe's

"Slabbed" in 2011

Though Doug Handshoe is infamous for referring to Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret as "the girls," the words he has published on Slabbed--both his own and what are purportedly those of others--go far beyond that simple misogynistic slur. That's simply what the media picked up on.

After being found liable for defamation in Nova Scotia in 2012, Doug tried to explain his hate-mongering homophobic publications: 

So this brings us to the question of the day and one that has been asked of me by tweeps such as Beth and our own Bellesouth, who both registered their displeasure at me for using the term “girls” to describe Leary and Perret.  After all Slabbed is supposed to be a liberal blog as we have repeatedly called out right wing nuts that scapegoat Hispanics and the poor.  Slabbed is known for supporting the little people aka the common man aka the 99%.  It was so out of character so I well understood why the question was being asked.

Mr. Doug answers why he called Leary & Perret "the girls": "The answer is my eyes have been on a larger prize and using the term helped facilitate the process." That's right, Doug is a good, liberal blogger, supporter of the "little people," and he's not really hateful towards gays. Mr. Doug says: "I have lifelong gay friends that are considered family more than friends. God says hate the sin, not the sinner."

Handshoe is responsible for each comment published on Slabbed. He says his anti-gay speech serves a purpose, and there's no over-arching anti-gay theme to his blog. He says he's not motivated by homophobia and anti-gay hatred for his 3 year campaign to damage Leary & Perret by making false criminal accusations against them across the Internet. 

You decide. 

* * *

A selection of anti-gay speech from posts and comments published by Doug K. Handshoe on Slabbed:

  first up: a comment from Unslabbed:

"Welcome to Slabbed Danny and Carlie and Charlie and Vaughnie and any of you other Special Guys of Trout Point and Wild West.

Now I am VERY curious and inquisitive about you…and ALL your BUDS.

May I suggest BOYS that you all huddle quickly and decide if the Inquisition sure to follow continued attempts to GAG the Slabbed Nation is worth the information which will be elicted [sic] in protracted legal battles on all continents. Please remember that many of us enjoy Dual Nationalities, Counsulate Immunities, and have LONG REACHING tentacles … perhaps longer than yours , although size is not really that important unless you are on the receiving end.

If I were you BOYS I would keep my head down, not bend over to pick up the soap and ride my horses into the sunset on Brokeback Mountain.

I, one Slabbed Nation member, vow to search you all out to the ends of the earth ( Yes in Switzerland, Hawaii, France, Italy, Canada and Spain ) anywhere any of you have any connections.

I have the time, temperament and now the impetus to set myself to this task. Hold on, it may be a bumpy ride for some of you.

See ya soon, Cowboys."

 Followed by a random selection of choice words:

"Damn! Queer (as in goofy as hell) fag (as in deviant perverts) scum (as in lawyers): again, queer fag scum!"

"It’s not untruthful… I wish those two were dead. /malicecontained."[referring to Perret & Leary]

"My comments are admittedly “politically incorrect”, but true. Society would be much better off if “queers” were precluded from donating blood and blood products (the blood supply is NOT AIDS-free, because they’re not precluded), than by “pasturizing” the raw oysters legally harvested in this country, which will benefit ONLY the already-infected, who probably won’t (and shouldn’t) eat raw oysters , anyway. I sincerely hope that none of us require a blood transfusion before we die, which may “hasten” our deaths, from AIDS, due to contamination of the blood supply."

"Whoops! How’d I forget about Drago’s (?) although I’ve never had “raws” there, only “char-broiled”, which I assume KILLS any bacteria. (How about shaking hands with a “queer”?). And make that “violent, unprotected anal sex, which draws blood, and exchange of bodily fluids, which were infected before the event, and have NOTHING to do with eating raw oysters, only each other”."

 "I would think that the Federal Government should use its assets and power to “regulate” things like “unprotected anal sex by homosexuals” which result in things like hepatitis, immune deficiency syndrome and AIDS, which I believe are contagious. Keep the “queers” away from each other, me and oysters, and “Every little thing will be allright”."

 "that didn’t stop Perret from sending his bottom bitch Charles Leary out to mislead and threaten."

 "WTF were these fish-head faggots thinking"

  "I cannot imagine a US Court giving credence to this faggot farce"

 "If these punk-ass fucking faggots think they are going to take up from where TheRiot ran away from they are more fucked up then they have shown themselves to be so far."

"FYI: What "some people" identify as "fever blisters" or "canker sores" may REALLY be pus-oozing bacterial and/or viral eruptions caused by GENITAL HERPES, which has been transferred (or "transmitted") from the genitalia and/or anus, orally, to the mouth, in oral-to-genital-and/or oral-to-anal sexual contact. This type of PATHOLOGY is exponentially more prevalent in the non-heterosexual segment of Society, and its incidence is found more in homosexual males than in homosexual females. This is but one reason why our fighting men should not be required to share a foxhole or a canteen, much less bodily fluids, with a QUEER. The subject of battlefield blood transfusions, and the risks inherent thereto, will be dealt with in a separate Chapter to this Series."

"he, his wife Vaughn Perret and their sugar daddy Danny Abel"

 "Leary and his wife Vaughn Perret, owners of the Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia"

 "Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret and their Canadian Do Bitch Judge Pierre Muise."

  "I purposely satarized [sic] Leary, Perret and Abel by using terms like "bitches" a few times, Like we say down here "if the shoe fits…." Free Speech US style means on occasion things get ugly as does the search for the truth or in colloquial terms "keeping it real"."

"there has been place for every faggot & maggot in three parishes round the campfire! Some like bannana-boy steroided into eunuchdom, some like wiggly-quiggley got to stay with the kiddies at Recreation, a whole nest of ‘em at the Water Dept. from the director -in-drag in his biker leather on down, and let us not forget chrissy-the-sissy who is rumoured to have undergone three failed sex-changes: trying to become a man!!
Any wonder that their favorite R&R is at Grand Isle: home of the jackoffs and jellyfish, mullets and suckers?"

"It is for true folks as Jimbo sez to bend over and grab yer ankles."

"Otherwise bend over and grab the lube, because they are going keep ramming it up there as long as they are able to breathe"

"becum the local distributor for Carmex and to live at 69 Donut Glaze Lane which runs perpen'dick'ular to Ferry Place and Tutti Frutti Freeway"

"That ain't donut glaze on David Vitter's diaper"

"That ain't doughnut glaze on Judge Ross LaDart's Chin! Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeals bitch slaps the inept judge"

" That ain't doughnut glaze on Tony Lawrence's chin!"

" That ain't donut glaze on Tom Wilkinson's chin!"

" The good mens at State Farm squeezed Merlin's balls until he gave them what they wanted and that's not donut glaze on the floor!"

" That ain't doughnut glaze on Costner's (or Magnum's) chin."

"" Talk about “that ain't doughnut glaze on your backside matey.”"

 "Apparently there was a storm in Nova Scotia last May…The fags were flying high!"

"But I've HAD IT with this character "Tom From Mobile". He is switching the subject from alleged CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR to fruit, queer dick-sucking and fudge-packing, and people may be falling for it, because he is so "glib-tongued" (maybe he's had a lot of practice). So I have a proposition for this "TomFrom Moblie" character: I'll release my medical records if you, "Tom From Mobile", and Leary, Perret, Able, Gonzo, Rotary, Jordan and Craig, release YOUR medical records. What say you, "Tom From Moblie"? Now perhaps can we get back to who owned property in Nova Scotia, and who used it, and why and for what, and what they paid for the use of it, and to whom, and leave all of this FRUIT, QUEER oral and anal homosexual SEX behind (no pun intended) us?"

The Slabbed Nation Part 1(d): "unslabbed" Vandenweghe, Doug Handshoe, motive, means, and opportunity

"unslabbed" Vandenweghe has been a regular, though largely anonymous, fixture on Slabbed since slightly before the Jefferson Parish and River Birch scandals came to the fore of public consciousness. And, coincidentally, Slabbed has only targeted Jefferson Parish precisely since those scandals started to become public. How and why does a Mississippi blog on insurance matters so suddenly come to focus on Jefferson Parish, Louisiana corruption? That's about like a small town Mississippi accountant showing up liquidating the assets of a forfeit criminal RICO corporation in Baton Rouge bankruptcy court.

Is it any surprise Vandenweghe and Handshoe have particularly targeted topics directly relevant to Vandenweghe's "whistleblower" lawsuit under Louisiana state law, while also regularly attacking people like "the goatherders" (men previously referred to as "the girls") whose actions in legitimately fighting defamation from their home jurisdictions might interfere with Handshoe & Vandenweghe's plans and vendettas? 

What does Vandenweghe stand to gain if she wins the whistleblower claims? 

Louisiana RS 23:967

. . . the plaintiff may recover from the employer damages, reasonable attorney's fees, and court costs.

C...For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the definitions ascribed below. . . .

(2).."Damages" include compensatory damages, back pay, benefits, reinstatement, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs resulting from the reprisal.

Likewise, if Vandenweghe reported ethical violations to her supervisor or the Louisiana Ethics Board under RS 42:1169 she would be "entitled to receive any lost income and benefits for the period of any suspension, demotion, or dismissal."

On January 2, 2013, Handshoe published a post referring to why blogger "Ignatius Jeff Reilly" had purportedly just left WordPress.com to move to his own domain. (Trouble is, he very well might be Doug Handshoe as well). Handshoe writes on Slabbed of people invading the privacy of his commenters, including "unslabbed" Vandenweghe:

What he [Reilly] is taking about is Charles Leary of Trout Point Lodge swearing false affidavits in Canada for the purpose of invading the privacy of American internet commenters discussing the massive political corruption scandal in New Orleans on Slabbed when we were hosted on WordPress. According to the Concrete Busters lawsuit Leary, Perret and Danny Abel are working on behalf of Fred Heebe, the target of the massive Federal investigation to silence public discourse on the matter and retaliate against those blowing the whistle on the systemic corruption that plagues this area.

Mr. Handshoe apparently followed up by faxing a letter further accusing Leary of perjury and misleading the court to a Nova Scotia judge on February 6.  He just recently published the letter on Slabbed. There was a hearing involving scheduling for a copyright infringement lawsuit against Handshoe on February 7, and Mr. Handshoe must have thought this would be the judge presiding at that hearing. Nothing like trying to extra-judicially influence judges against the other side!

Yet again, there Mr. Handshoe goes falsely acusing Charles Leary of perjury, but this time he and his partners aren't purportedly working for Aaron Broussard, they're all working for Frederick Heebe. Amazing how that happens--the "goatherders" in Nova Scotia are somehow always connected to whatever is the scandal of the day in metro New Orleans.

Once again, there is Mr. Handshoe in his "good citizen" pose, fighting corruption and crime he ironically knows a lot about.

Yes, yet again there is Mr. Handshoe hypocritically railing on about "the privacy of American internet commenters."

Now, in this case, Handshoe has unproven and unfounded allegations in an actual lawsuit to refer to as "evidence," the "Concrete Busters lawsuit." Such a memorable name! He referenced Concrete Busters again in that letter to the Nova Scotia judge:

To the extent it has been alleged in a civil suit filed with the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana that Mssrs. Leary, Perret and Abel have been acting on behalf of organized crime figures in New Orleans, the impact of the of your courtroom being used in furtherance of a American organized crime conspiracy cannot be understated.

Indeed, Handshoe has made a lot of hay out of the civil claim captioned "Concrete Busters," and though Leary & Perret's own recent civil lawsuit accused him of conspiring with that lawsuit's attorney, Randall A. "Randy" Smith, Handshoe has publicly denied certain things:

I’d like to note that I have never spoken with Smith or communicated with him nor did I have any advance knowledge of the amended complaint Concrete Busters filed against River Birch which mentioned Trout Point Lodge and Cerro Coyote as Heebe co-conspirators and I have no problem saying that.

Let's examine those assertions.

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It behooves anyone reading thus far to review the persons who keep popping up in research into Mr. Handshoe, Ms. Vandenweghe, and the little project named "Slabbed":

• Defamation Defendant Doug K. Handshoe – corporate officer (Treasurer) with Fred H. Goodson in Slidell Motel, Inc. and other Goodson corporations in Mississippi and Louisiana starting in 1992 (the same year video poker became legal) – accountant for Goodson enterprises – incorporator of new Goodson company “Interstate Management” in Mississippi in 1997, after Fred Goodson's conviction
• Fred H. Goodson – represented in federal bribery, money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering criminal trial by Michael Fawer, whose law partner was Randall A. Smith - convicted felon – prosecuted and sentenced in Louisiana by a team that included James B. Letten in 1997
• Randall A. Smith – Michael Fawer's law partner since 1995 – attorney for Greg Meffert, who was cooperating with U.S. Attorney Jim Letten in New Orleans & Jefferson Parish corruption investigations – attorney for Waste Remediation of Plaquemines
• Smith & Fawer, LLC – law firm for the Lauricella business interests, including but not limited to Waste Remediation of Plaquemines
• Anne-Marie Vandenweghe – minister in Marion Lauricella's church – “Jane Doe” co-defendant of Doug Handshoe explicitly outed by him as "unslabbed" in September, 2012 – plaintiff in whistleblower lawsuit involving fraud in River Birch Landfill contract award – former Asst. Jefferson Parish Attorney in charge of Public Record Requests – self-proclaimed FBI informant – law school classmate of James Letten and Jan Maselli Mann – former gambling consultant - former wife of Ray Valdes
• Marion Lauricella – first cousin of Hank Lauricella - former backroom gambling operator
• Hank Lauricella – former Louisiana state senator implicated but never indicted in wide-ranging gambling/bribery investigation in which Fred Goodson was indicted and convicted – represented Harahan at the same time as Anne-Marie Vandenweghe reresented Harahan on Jefferson Parish Council - beneficial owner of Waste Remediation of Plaquemines
• Waste Remediation of Plaquemines – plaintiff in civil RICO lawsuit against Frederick Heebe and River Birch Landfill

Now, Mr. Handshoe claims he didn't have "any advance knowledge of the amended complaint Concrete Busters filed."

What did that amended civil complaint allege? For one prominent thing, that there was a criminal racketeering conspiracy involving a multimillion dollar waste disposal RFP: "co-conspirators included numerous shell corporations and limited liability companies [LLCs] owned and/or controlled by the Defendants and/or their co-conspirators." Smith then listed more than 28 companies, including a lot of LLCs. Who was an alleged co-conspirator and alleged member of many of the LLCs? Of course: former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. That amended complaint was filed with the court at 10:54 am on October 4, 2012.

Attorney Randy Smith knows a lot about racketeering and bribery. Among other things, he represented Greg Meffert and Frank Fradella, two persons involved in the alleged bribery scheme of former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin. As the Times-Picayune reported on June 26, 2012, in an article entitled "Mayor Ray Nagin implicated in new document charging Covington businessman":

Until Monday, Fradella had steadfastly maintained his innocence even as Meffert and other Nagin associates pleaded guilty to various white-collar crimes -- and even though Fradella also faced daunting securities-fraud charges in Dallas. Those charges could have carried more than $20 million in fines and scores of years in prison.

But presented with a chance to slash the charges against him in the Dallas and New Orleans cases down to two felonies, Fradella's attorney, Randy Smith, said his client would become "another Team USA volunteer" and plead guilty today at 10 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, "unless he changes his mind overnight."

Although "Public Official A" is not named, there is no confusion about his identity. The document describes him as an agent of the city of New Orleans from May 2002 through May 2010. That coincides with Nagin's tenure as mayor.

Asked whether the public official mentioned in the documents was Nagin, Smith declined to answer directly, saying only: "Let's put it this way. He served from May 2002 to May 2010. It's not my right to name him. But if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's probably a duck."

(Wasn't it news about Meffert's plea deal that Handshoe says he was tipped off by "The Wino" about before it was made public?)

In early October, 2012, a federal judge in Mississippi was considering submissions from both sides in the $427,000 defamation judgment enforcement action against Handshoe. Handshoe had argued that a lot should turn on whether Handshoe could even remotely justify his multiple criminal allegations against "the goatherders" on Slabbed, including prominently their purported collusion with Aaron Broussard in a criminal enterprise involving bribery and money laundering. Handshoe stood to loose the $427,000 if he did not prevail. PACER shows that submissions to the judge had closed in late August, 2012.

On October 2--two days before Smith & Fawer filed the Concrete Busters amended complaint--Handshoe published a Tweet in response to another Twitter post quoting a twist on a particular and strangely familiar saying, and referring to Slabbed:

 
Now that's quite a coincidence! Ducks and LLCs. Wonder who Ponchartrain Pete is? Looks like maybe Handshoe wasn't really forthcoming when he said that about no prior knowledge of the Concrete Busters amended complaint.

Of course, there's more to tell.  

Magically, Mississippi resident Handshoe got his hands on the Concrete Busters/Waste Remediation complaint the same day it was filed in Louisiana state court. In fact, Handshoe "broke" the story at 4:41 pm with a scanned pdf of the entire amended complaint. Now, in the Louisiana courts, there is no system like PACER where you can instantly get scans of court filings online. So how did Handshoe get the Concrete Busters/Waste Remediation suit so fast? How did he know about it at all? Even the Times-Picayune didn't publish about it on nola.com until 6:23 pm that day, including its own scanned pdf file of the lawsuit. 

Handshoe's very proud of his cyber sleuthing capacities. Mr. Handshoe has a B.S. degree from the University of Southern Mississippi (1986) and wrote a thesis entitled “The drive to make comuters [i.e. computers] talk to each other : the micro-mainframe connection.” He says he's succesfully identified the U.S. Department of Justice and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police looking at his blog. He stated in February, 2013:

I aver that I have visitor logs that indicate Mr Leary and his husband Vaughn Perret were closely monitoring Slabbed in January, 2010 when the allegations involving their roles in Broussard’s criminal enterprise first surfaced in the local media.

So, Mr. Doug knows exactly who's who in the Slabbed audience. 

Where did the Times-Picayune get it's copy of the amended Concrete Busters/Lauricella lawsuit?

Let's take a look at Google results for the two pdf files: one published on Slabbed, and the other one nola.com. Here's Google's take on the Slabbed pdf:

And here's what Google saw about nola.com's pdf:

 
Now that's funny--both titles are exactly identical! Maybe reporter Manuel Torres at the Times-Picayune was provided with a pdf copy of that lawsuit by some interested party promoting an agenda? That must just be a coincidence, no?

Here is how Google itself says it analyzes pdf file titles posted on the Internet:

The anchor text of links pointing to the Concrete Busters pdf file did not contain the word "Slabbed" on either nola.com or slabbed.org. So, it must be that "title metadata within the file" said "Slabbed" for both the Slabbed pdf and the nola.com pdf. Hmmm.

Handshoe and Vandenweghe might indeed hope that wide distribution of the unfounded allegation that Leary, Perret, and Trout Point Lodge were criminal co-conspirators of Aaron Broussard might  influence influential persons making important decisions about Mr. Handshoe's fate . . . including people in courthouses.

----

"unslabbed" Vandenweghe's own federal lawsuit makes for interesting reading, as does the May, 2012, decision of Judge Barbier, especially when compared with anonymous comments published on Slabbed by viewfromhell, unslabbed, Whitmergate, and others in early 2010. Judge Barbier threw out the bulk of Vandenweghe's allegations on a motion to dismiss, including her defamation claim:

Finally, relying on the same technique utilized to escape dismissal of her other claims, Plaintiff mistakenly contends that her claim is not prescribed to the extent it is based upon her November 2, 2010 termination, which she characterizes as the “ultimate defamation to [her] reputation and character.” However, standing alone, the fact that Defendants terminated Plaintiff’s employment cannot be defamatory because this is conduct, and not words.

The judge dismissed Vandenweghe's defamation claim without prejudice, allowing Covington lawyer Mr. Truitt to re-plead defamation, however he never did so and let all such potential claims expire. Louisiana-licensed lawyer Mr. Truitt would then also end up representing Handshoe pro hac vice in Mississippi federal court to fight enforcement of that Canadian defamation judgment against Handshoe, a judgment in a lawsuit that also named his other client, "Jane Doe" Vandenweghe as a defendant. Only, no one but Handshoe & Vandenweghe knew Vandenweghe was "unslabbed" until Handshoe admitted it online in September, 2012, after submissions to that Mississippi federal judge had closed. Mr. Truitt certainly never let the Mississippi federal court know that he also represented Handshoe's Jane Doe co-defendant. Must all just be a big coincidence, no?

In his decision, Judge Barbier had dismissed all claims except the Louisiana state law whistleblower claim. So proving "reprisal" by Jefferson Parish officials based on her alleged whistleblowing activities remained a prime motivator for Ms. Vandenweghe. That whistleblowing included the River Birch RFP. 

Despite the dismissal, and the missed chance to continue her defamation claims, Vandenweghe's allegations would then magically appear again on October 4, 2012, in that amended Concrete Busters lawsuit about that pesky River Birch waste disposal contract brought by the Lauricella's company Waste Remediation of Plaquemines against River Birch, filed by attorney Randy Smith of Smith & Fawer, LLC. Smith explicitly "adopted and alleged" the Vandenweghe allegations--including ones by then already long dismissed by the federal judge in Louisiana--reviving them as part of far-ranging conspiracy allegations in the Lauricella/Waste Remediation lawsuit that also mentioned Trout Point Lodge and another Abel, Leary, & Perret business as criminal co-conspirators of Aaron Broussard in racketerring.

Wow! Now that's quite a coincidence!

Is this just a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend?" 

Perhaps.  

Probably not.

---

Attorney Smith was part of a triumvirate of lawyers who in 1991 were sanctioned by a federal judge over a RICO suit. The Baton Rouge Advocate reported:

U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola has ordered three New Orleans attorneys and their former client to pay $323,532 in sanctions for filing and prosecuting a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations suit against a local hospital.

The attorneys -- Phillip A. Wittman, John M. Landis and Randall A. Smith of Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann & Hutchinson -- and their former client, Dr. Prentiss E. Smith, "have openly and flagrantly abused the judicial system," Polozola wrote in an opinion signed on Tuesday.

The attorneys and Smith made "scandalous, unjustified and unsupported allegations in their pleadings, abusing the discovery procedures of the federal court and proceeding in an improper and frivolous manner with callous disregard of the judicial system," the judge wrote. "Their actions must and shall come to an abrupt end."

Campbell Hutchinson, chairman of Stone Pigman's management committee, said Tuesday his firm will immediately appeal the judge's decision to issue sanctions to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.

"We strongly disagree with Judge Polozola's ruling in the case," Hutchinson said. "We do not believe that sanctions were warranted in this case, and we believe when it is reviewed upon appeal, it will be reversed."

Polozola also ordered that a fourth Stone Pigman attorney, Marc D. Winsberg, attend a "continuing legal education program on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Practice." He was also ordered to attend five Inns of Court meetings, which are regular education sessions conducted by the court.

The judge also ordered each of the four attorneys be given a public reprimand.
The suit was filed in 1987 when Smith lost his staff privileges at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center because the number of his patients who had died was "unacceptably high," according to court documents.

Lawyers for the hospital and other defendants had asked Polozola to sanction Smith and his attorneys in the amount of $375,419, the cost of the defendant attorneys' defense against the lawsuit.

In his 42-page opinion that includes 75 footnotes, Polozola said the "impermissible, misleading and half-truth pleadings, briefs and oral arguments made by the plaintiff and his counsel cannot be tolerated.

"The court shall not allow a party to use hired guns to make allegations of fraud and criminal activity on the basis of speculation and implausible inferences which are not only inconsistent with the facts but could or should have been discovered from the slightest investigation of the facts," the judge wrote.

However, Hutchinson said his firm agreed to file the suit only after investigating Smith's claims.

"Before we filed the lawsuit, we investigated the facts," said Hutchinson, who pointed out that Smith still is pursuing a state lawsuit against the hospital.

Polozola wrote that he "must question the real purpose for which the plaintiff filed this RICO suit. The evidence suggests it was to be used as a vehicle to develop facts for an antitrust suit or for use in the state court suit."

The district court decision was appealed and reversed, though the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal noted that "we doubt the merits of Smith's suit" and concluded its decision with a "continued warning regarding baseless RICO claims" that "should not be taken lightly."

This would not be Smith's last encounter with RICO and controversy. In HENDRICK v. ABC INS. CO. 760 So.2d 650 (2000), the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal was reviewing a legal malpractice judgment against, among others, Randall A. Smith for $2,867,547.00, plus interest. The plaintiff, named Hendrick, "testified that he had numerous meetings and telephone conversations with attorneys of Stone, Pigman. Specifically, he had various conversations with Randall Smith ("Mr. Smith"), the Stone, Pigman associate who did a large portion of the work associated with the Hendrick matter."

"Mr. Smith," according to the court, was "the attorney who did much of the initial work and legal research after Stone, Pigman was retained as special counsel." Smith was the attorney charged with "determining the facts of the case and doing some research on possible RICO and fraud claims."

The decision continued:

At trial, Mr. Triche was asked his opinion as to whether Stone, Pigman's handling of the matters at issue met the standard of care required of counsel. According to Mr. Triche,
... the investigation and the inquiry in the earlier of the case fell below the standard of care.... [I]t's a lawyer's obligation to review the antecedent proceedings that bring the case to him. All of this case dealt with transactions, fraud, or otherwise that led to the sale of Mr. Hendrick's stock in February of 1985, all of that. Somebody says they saw—somebody in the law firm says they saw a minute entry. I think Mr. Randy Smith says I thought the minute entry was the judgment, that's not appropriate. Mr. Landis—excuse me. Mr. Smith should have sought out the judgment in the bankruptcy court, should have reviewed it with his associations that were reviewing that file, and should have been alerted that they had a time bar problem, and that should have been alerted to them in the early stages of the case. I saw the testimony that well, we looked at—in the deposition— well, we looked at the minute entry. Mr. Smith says I thought the minute entry was a judgment, that's elementary. A minute entry is not a judgment.

The Court of Appeal ultimately affirmed the plaintiff's victory, "failure to conform to the requisite standard of care required for competent attorneys." However, damages as apportioned to Stone Pigman were reduced substantially.

Thus Randall A. Smith knew all about sensational RICO allegations when Smith & Fawer, LLC filed suit on behalf of the Lauricella's company, included a laundry list of alleged co-conspirators in criminal corruption without making them parties, and added Anne-Marie Vandenweghe's allegations to his amended claim.

The Louisiana Supreme Court reversed the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in the Hendrick case, but based on prescription. Mr. Smith did not stay at Stone, Pigman for long--he was in business with Fred Goodson's lawyer Michal Fawer in 1995, one year before he started to represent "Sixty" Rayburn and Handshoe's fellow corporate officer in the Slidell Motel gaming operation, Fred H. Goodson.  

To sum up, both Handshoe and Vandenweghe had apparent social links to the Concrete Busters lawsuit. Vandenweghe through the Lauricellas, and Handshoe through Smith & Fawer. Everybody had links to the gambling/bribery/mafia investigations that snagged Handshoe's business partner Fred H. Goodson and former Senator Larry Bankston in the late 1990s. (Vandenweghe did legal work for gambling interest Grand Palais in 1994, while serving as a Councilwoman and while her law license was suspended. William Broadhurst was indicted for skimming money from Grand Palais project River City, as part of the broader investigation. He was later acquitted.) This was the self-same investigation in which Senator Hank Lauricella's name also popped up, after which he did not seek re-election. 

Handshoe denies advance knowledge of the Concrete Busters/Lauricella lawsuit, but there's pretty strong evidence to suggest otherwise.  Both Handshoe and Vandenweghe would have been quite well motivated to defeat the $427,000 defamation judgment against Handshoe, as they were actually co-defendants and alleged "joint concurrent tortfeasors." By placing false and completely unfounded allegations of criminal conspiracy involving Trout Point Lodge and Aaron Broussard inside privileged civil RICO pleadings, and then publicizing those allegations as extensively as possible, including getting the suit published on nola.com, Handshoe and Vandenweghe might even have more than hoped that certain people they knew were looking at the blog Slabbed might just take notice . . . 

Douglas K. Handshoe: Liquidating assets

Douglas K. Handshoe had a few comments to make recently on his involvement in the Bankston/Goodson bribery, racketeering, and money laundering scandal:

So, according to Mr. Handshoe, he was simply always a "liquidating agent" working with U.S. Attorneys from Baton Rouge. He was in charge of selling assets; that's interesting. From his comment you'd think he was just a disinterested "good guy," court-appointed accountant. But what's a Mississippi CPA doing in a bankruptcy proceeding in the Western District of Louisiana, with the Department of Justice as an interested party?

This started in 1997, and as already reviewed, he appears alongside Maria and Alex Goodson on the bankruptcy court docket as the accountant for Truck Stop Gaming, Ltd., a company forfeit as part of a criminal RICO enterprise. What's more he was a fellow corporate officer with the man convicted in that trial, Fred H. Goodson, in a company at the center of the scandal involving misleading the Louisiana State Police and the questionable transfer of assets from a soon-to-be bankrupt company (F.H.G.) to the one Handshoe was Treasurer for in the early 90s, Slidell Motel, Inc., part of Slidell's "O'Aces Casino" a dba name. The Times-Picayune had clarified: "Before filing Chapter 11, however, F.H.G. sold the truck stop franchise to a new company called Slidell 76 Auto Truck Plaza, and the hotel to a new company called Slidell Motel, Inc. Both companies are also owned by Goodson , his wife and in-laws."

The Las Vegas Sun took an interest in the trial testimony in May, 1997:

Goodson's lawyer, Carl Cleveland, and his accountant, Joe Morgan, also are on trial, accused of devising a fraudulent business scheme to form O'Aces and conceal $1.3 million in profits.

Prosecutors allege that Goodson's adult children were made paper owners of O'Aces to hide the real owners, Cleveland and Fred Goodson. Defense attorneys say it was done only so the younger Goodsons would not have to pay estate taxes if their father died.

Two former employees of the Goodsons were questioned briefly and let off without any cross examination by the defense.

L.C. Duff said he worked at the O'Aces video poker lounge in Slidell, and described his jobs. He said Maria Goodson managed the parlor while her brother, co-owner Alex Goodson, showed up about twice in two years.

Katherine Lindsley, a bartender and machine technician for the O'Aces lounge, said that on her shift alone - the 4 p.m. to midnight shift - the machines probably brought in $4,000 to $13,000 a day.

The whole Goodson/Bankston trial was, of course, part of a massive Department of Justice effort against the mafia infiltration of video gaming in Louisiana. On June 4, 1994, the New York Times reported:

Since video poker was legalized in Louisiana in 1991, the blinking electronic machines have swept the state, showing up in barrooms, hotels, crayfish restaurants in the swamps and even at huge truck stops, where the main business is not refueling but playing video poker.

That week 17 persons in both New York and Louisiana were indicted. The Times continued:

The indictment accuses the Genovese and Gambino families in New York and the Marcello family in New Orleans of engaging in a pattern of racketeering by forming an enterprise to profit from video poker operations while hiding their connections to organized crime.

. . . .

Among those arrested in New Orleans were Anthony S. Carollo of Slidell, La., who was named in the indictment as the boss of the Marcello crime family, and Joseph Paul Marcello Jr., brother of the late Carlos Marcello, who was long regarded as the head of the Mafia in Louisiana.

How did the mafia infiltrate the video gaming industry? By using 2 Louisiana companies to place "about 15,000 machines" they got from Bally Gaming on a line of credit "in more than 2,000 bars and truck stops across the state." Wonder where Handshoe and Goodson's Slidell Motel, Inc. got its video poker machines? The sales started to occur in 1992, the same year Handshoe joined Slidell Motel, according to corporate records. It's interesting, too, that Mr. Handshoe has bragged about how his grandfather was a bag man for Carlos Marcello and was indicted but kept silent; also how his partner in blogging Anne-Marie Vandenweghe was in business with Victor J. Trapani, Jr., son of Carlos Marcello's business partner in a Jefferson Parish casino. 

Now, it is clear that Handshoe knows about liquidating things and use of corporations, as public records in Mississippi and court recrods in Louisiana show he has just recently sold his home in Bay St. Louis; he was served with the federal defamation lawsuit against him in a rental; and he has transferred his vehicle titles into a corporate name. Interesting move for a man purportedly not legitimately liable for a $425,000 defamation judgment.

It is indeed true, as Mr. Handshoe says above, that he was approved "liquidating agent" by the bankruptcy court in 1999, but that was done at the request of Truck Stop Gaming, Ltd., not the Baton Rouge U.S. Attorney's Office.

In addition, the rest of his chronology is a bit off. The trouble is that for nearly 2 years before that, he acted as the paid accountant for Truck Stop Gaming, alongside its attorneys, in an attempted Chapter 11 reorganization of the company, paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now why did Mr. Handshoe leave that detail out?

 
As Mr. Handshoe was working to sell off the assets of Maria and Alex Goodson's Truck Stop Gaming, Ltd. in western Louisiana, the Mississippi Secretary of State shows he was also forming a new corporation with Alex Goodson--Fred Gooson's son--in Mississippi. "Interstate Management Services, Inc." The papers bearing Handshoe's signature alongside that of Goodson were filed on September 23, 1997, a time at which Fred Goodson had not yet started to serve his prison sentence.

It was in September, 1997, that Truck Stop Gaming appears to have tried to ramp up efforts to liquidate assets, paying out monies to creditors. Indeed, Alex's father Fred Goodson somehow had the means to keep fighting his conviction through the 1990s, as did his former attorney Cleveland, whose law firm was also a creditor in the bankruptcy proceeding, but Goodson couldn't shake the multiple counts. On May 25, 2000 the Baton Rouge Advocate reported:

Goodson's attorney, Paul Enzinna of Washington, D.C., likewise tried to convince Vance on Wednesday that, if the Supreme Court throws out Goodson's mail-fraud conviction, some of his most serious felony charges also could be reversed. Like Cleveland, Goodson began serving his 121-month sentence in December 1997. 

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Boitmann argued that Goodson played a leading role in the video-poker-related racketeering and bribery scheme. 

Vance agreed with the prosecutor and rejected Enzinna's arguments, noting that Goodson was convicted of bribing state lawmakers. 

"I think it's pretty serious to bribe some legislators," the judge said at the end of a brief hearing. "I'm going to deny your motion."Goodson was convicted in June 1997 on 12 total counts of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, interstate communications in aid of racketeering, and mail fraud. Cleveland, who was Goodson's longtime attorney, was found guilty on 10 counts of racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, tax conspiracy, aiding and abetting the filing of a false tax return, and mail fraud. Both were sentenced to 10 years and one month. 

Bankston was convicted on two counts of interstate communications in aid of racketeering and sentenced to 41 months. He started serving that term in November 1997. The racketeering-related charges involved what prosecutors called Bankston's "sham" rental of his Alabama beachfront condominium to Goodson. Goodson paid a $1,555 rental fee for the condo but did not stay there. Prosecutors called the payment a bribe. 

Goodson's daughter Maria, who ran her father's O'Aces video poker parlor in Slidell, was found guilty on one count of mail fraud and sentenced to six months in a halfway house and six months of home detention. Maria Goodson has completed that sentence. 

Last July, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals let all convictions in the case stand. 

In addition to sending them to prison, Vance ordered Fred Goodson and Cleveland to forfeit a combined $2.5 million in video poker profits to the federal government. Prosecutors claimed that Goodson and Cleveland, because of tax and other problems, disguised their actual ownership of Truck Stop Gaming Inc., which did business as O'Aces, by putting the business in Maria and Alex Goodson 's names. Alex is Fred Goodson's son.

Now does all this look like the actions of a disinterested accountant simply working "to settle a complex forfeiture case" for the government?

Then there's the fact that Handshoe spent time with indicted Louisiana State Senator B. B. "Sixty" Rayburn, a Goodson co-defendant, around the time of the trial. Here's what Mr. Handshoe says on Slabbed:

Would that mean Handshoe was at the criminal trial, too? Why?

Again, there's nothing yet suggesting Handshoe was a federal criminal target. But, too, Mr. Handshoe doesn't seem to be very forthcoming with a clear picture of his place within this huge corruption scandal, and his role as cross-border incorporator for the Goodsons between Louisiana and Mississippi. A reasonable observer looking at this fact pattern from the outside might say there was a mystery and a coverup underway, just like Handshoe has contrived a false coverup and conspiracy with regards to Leary, Perret, Abel, and Trout Point Lodge. Indeed, he's now accusing them of "a coordinated campaign to unmask and otherwise harass internet commenters sharing information on the political scandal in Jefferson Parish" alongside Frederick Heebe and Steve Theriot!

Why does he feel the need to pro-actively deny involvement with the New Orleans U. S. Attorney's Office? 

Handshoe published a "Rocheblave" comment quoting from the Baton Rouge Advocate:

Federal prosecutors say the scheme to infiltrate Louisiana’s video poker industry was the brainchild of New York’s powerful Gambino organized-crime family and the Genovese family. The reputed Marcello organized-crime family of New Orleans was a partner-in-crime of the Gambino and Genovese families, according to prosecutors.

“This was a New York-driven operation,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Salvador Perricone, one of three Worldwide/LRO prosecutors and a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s organized-crime strike force unit in New Orleans.

“This was truly a classic partnership between the upper echelon of the New Orleans mob and an active captain of the Gambino family, as well as an associate of the Genovese family,” added First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, the lead Worldwide/LRO prosecutor and the strike force’s former chief.

Likewise, he said, the Worldwide/LRO probe was a partnership between the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Orleans and the Louisiana State Police.

Letten said the upper echelon of the Marcello family included alleged “boss” Anthony Carollo of Slidell; alleged “underboss” Frank Gagliano Sr. of Metairie; Sebastian “Buster” Salvatore of Metairie; Joseph Marcello Jr. of New Orleans, brother of the late reputed crime lord Carlos Marcello; and Joseph Gagliano of Kenner, son of Frank Gagliano Sr.

All five men were convicted in the case and sent to prison.

The alleged Gambino captain to whom Letten referred is Joseph Corozzo of New York City, and the alleged Genovese associate is Eugene Gilpin of New York City. They, too, were convicted and given prison terms.

This was the crime families’ financial arrangement: The New York families would split 40 percent of the profits, another 40 percent would go to the Marcello family, and the remaining 20 percent was reserved for Bolson and Tanfield, prosecutors said.

Perricone said the New York families recruited Bolson – a Tulane University alumnus – because his credentials would “lend legitimacy” to the operation. Tanfield reported directly to Gilpin, he said.

Together, Bolson, Tanfield and former New Orleans furniture store executive Aaron Mintz fooled state regulators into giving Worldwide a license to distribute video poker machines and LRO a license to own and operate video poker machines. Worldwide and LRO received those licenses in May 1992.

Federal prosecutors say Bolson and Tanfield hand-picked Mintz – a long-time friend of then-Gov. Edwin Edwards – to front as the companies’ majority stockholder because neither Bolson nor Tanfield, who was living in Florida at the time, met Louisiana residency requirements to hold video poker licenses.

Bolson, Tanfield and Mintz viewed the state gambling licenses as licenses to steal, prosecutors said, and they did just that.

In July 1992, the trio duped Bally Gaming Inc. of Las Vegas into naming Worldwide as the exclusive Louisiana distributor of Bally video poker machines. Louisiana law prohibited Bally from distributing its own machines.

The first video poker machines did not go on-line in Louisiana until July 1992.

Bally ultimately loaned Worldwide $3.5 million in cash and roughly $16 million worth of video poker machines.

Worldwide had hoped to sell 8,000 Bally machines in Louisiana, but only 2,100 Bally machines were in operation in the state when Worldwide collapsed.

Still, those machines took in more than $67 million between July 1, 1992, and May 31, 1993, when Worldwide filed for federal bankruptcy protection.

Prosecutors said they believe the organized-crime scheme netted some $16 million in illegal profits.

Letten said he believes the financial gain would have been “astronomical,” and the damage much worse – not only to the video poker industry but to the state’s entire gambling industry and related businesses – had federal authorities not stopped the scheme when they did.

“Had this venture been successful, it’s only a matter of our wildest speculation how bad the mob influence would have been in this town,” Letten said. “This would have thoroughly become, within five years, a mobbed-up town.”

Rafael Goyeneche, head of the private watchdog Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans, agrees.

“The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are owed a debt of gratitude by not only the city of New Orleans but also the entire state,” he said, adding that organized crime’s “tentacles” would have wrapped themselves around Louisiana’s entire gambling industry if the video poker scheme had gone undetected.

 
Was there a deal between Handshoe and the U.S. Attorney's Office? Was he a whistleblower, with knowledge of the mob involvement, bribery, and  fraud? What was his role as incorporator, officer, and accountant of Goodson companies?  Why the silence on these salient issues?

According to Handshoe's own standards, if knowing Aaron Broussard makes one guilty of money laundering, what does being the officer and/or accountant of a corporation involved in a RICO enterprise mean?

Documents are coming.