Civil rights attorney Daniel Abel prevails in Louisiana Supreme Court against "fabled Slabbed legal team," day after legal clown Doug Handshoe sues Loyola University and its legal clinic

Friday the 13th wasn't a very good day for "super lawyer" Jack Etherton Truitt and his client Douglas Handshoe. 

On February 13, the seven Justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously denied the appeal by "Bobby" Truitt of a New Orleans trial court decision that Trout Point Lodge co-owner Daniel Abel's lawsuit against Truitt, homophobic blogger Handshoe, and former Jefferson Parish Assistant Attorney Anne-Marie Vandenweghe was purportedly an anti-SLAPP suit. SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation." This decisively puts to rest any contention by the three defendants that Abel is suing in defamation over a matter of public interest or that he is a public figure. There is no public interest at issue in Abel's lawsuit, the trial court, the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, and now the Supreme Court have decided.

Truitt, who once ignorantly denied in a Twitter exchange with this blog that the prevailing party in a Louisiana CCP Article 971 (anti-SLAPP) motion is owed attorney's fees by the losing party, will now indeed owe Mr. Abel his fees, which could be substantial. Truitt has for some reason removed that tweet--where he also questioned where Randall Cajun went to law school--from publication.

Mr. Truitt attended law school at Loyola University in New Orleans, as did Mr. Abel.

Loyola University sued by Handshoe
The day before the Supreme Court handed down its decision, February 12, Handshoe had filed a motion to amend his Mississippi federal court lawsuit against Abel for alleged misrepresentation under the U.S. Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). The amendment asks to include as new defendants Loyola University of New Orleans, the Loyola legal clinic Associate Director Ramona Fernandez, legal student Janey Lamar, and process server Chris Yount. Handshoe alleges counts of "abuse of process" and "malicious prosecution." He goes to the extent of ironically stating that he is being "harassed" and "defamed" through legal process by the University's legal clinic and the others. He also accuses the new defendants and Abel of "cynically using a minor child that was a non-party to the litigation" to do so. There was "misuse of the legal process, incuding the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and Louisiana's defamation laws to silence reporting on a matter of public interest," Handshoe wrote in his brief for Judge Keith Starrett. 

Fernandez and the non-profit legal clinic are representing the minor child in an appeal of a trial court decision that Yount's defamation lawsuit against Handshoe and Jack Truitt was indeed an anti-SLAPP suit. Lamar is simply a law student who works at the clinic, which was appointed by court order to represent the child's interests in legal matters, including the divorce.

Unfortunately for Handshoe, the Chief Judge of New Orleans Civil District Court, the Court of Appeal, and now the Supreme Court have now said public interest is lacking with regards to Abel and Trout Point Lodge, undercutting Handshoe's conclusory allegations in Mississippi federal court. Handshoe has repeatedly referred to Abel and his associates as "SLAPP Happy Nut Jobs," an allegation now definitvely reputiated by three Louisiana courts. Handshoe will pay the consequences, but will he cease his blogging of falsehoods?

Notably, Handshoe is also now suing Yount and Abel for "abuse of process" and "malicious prosecution" in two courts at the same time, which appears far more than legally dubious. All of his legal adversaries, according to Handshoe's various legal filings, are part of a grand international conspiracy to silence his blogging, which a U.S. federal district court described in 2012 as a "campaign" to harass, damage, and embarass his targets. 

In addition, Handshoe's primary allegation that attorney Abel is guilty of "misrepresentation" under the DMCA looks like pure folly. Abel was the legal representative of the father of a minor child when a DMCA notice was served on Handshoe's web host. By law, the father was guardian of all intellectual property generated by the child, and therefore had legal standing to serve the DMCA notice regarding Handshoe's publication of the child's drawing on his web site "Slabbed." Handshoe's Mississippi brief also suggests, Abel had been ordered by the court in Louisiana to see that the drawing was removed from publication on Handshoe's web site. Handshoe claims that order was immaterial.

According to legal commentators, Abel, as the father's attorney, was fully within his rights to act as the father's agent in serving the notice; in fact, attorneys commonly draft and serve DMCA notices. In addition, over 5 months ago, Abel challenged the very jurisdiction of the Mississippi federal court over him. The judge in that case, however, has not issued any rulings since early September, 2014. 

As previously mentioned, in addition to being sued for defamation by Abel in New Orleans, Handshoe and attorney Truitt are also being sued for defamation in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana by Chris Yount, a process server and private investigator who has worked for Abel. According to Handshoe's web site and court documents, Yount served Handshoe with legal process on several occasions over the past few years. This included in two Nova Scotia Supreme Court cases where plaintiffs including Trout Point Lodge have won $817,000 in damages against Handshoe for defamation and copyright infringement. To many observers, Handshoe's publishing about Yount's child and now his lawsuit against Yount looks like payback, including using the legal system ironically in just the kind of abuse of legal process that Handshoe is now alleging against Loyola University and the others. 

There is currently an appeal pending in that case to the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, which will consider anti-SLAPP issues in Mr. Yount's case, where Ramona Fernandez represents the minor child, nearly identical to those Mr. Abel so succesfully litigated in Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans. The Supreme Court denial of Mr. Truitt's appeal could have serious positive implications for the pending Yount appeal. 

Abel's motion to compel Handshoe to answer discovery in Abel's lawsuit against him, Truitt, and Vandenweghe, will be heard next month; a hearing on attorney's fees can't be far behind.  Legal observers say Handshoe has little chance of winning, and will for the first time in all his various legal battles be subject to discocvery alongside Truitt and Vandenweghe. 

Notably, self-styled as the Gulf South's premier legal affairs blogger, Handshoe tried to have the enforcement of the Nova Scotia copyright infringement judgment against him in state court removed to the same federal court where he is suing Abel, but was miserably unsuccesful. Handshoe had argued for protection against the $180,000 judgment under the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage (SPEECH) Act, but failed last November when Chief Judge Louis Guirola determined that enforcing the copyright order had nothing to do with defamation.

Attorney Abel served his copyright notice on Handshoe's then-web host Dream Host because Handshoe was publishing on Slabbed a sexually explicit drawing authored by the minor child. (Handshoe admits to twice making such publications in his amended suit). Dream Host apparently had enough and dropped Handshoe, who now uses HostGator. According to the allegations in Yount's suit against Handshoe and Truitt (which appear in an appeal brief filed by Fernandez), they used Slabbed not only to publish the drawing after the court file was sealed by a judge in a Louisiana divorce proceeding, they also both published text on Slabbed to create the false and defamatory innuendo that Yount was sexually molesting his child. If true, that would be defamatory per se under Louisiana law. Courts in both the United States and Canada have repeatedly found that Handshoe publishes homophobic material on Slabbed.

In his amended legal complaint, Handshoe writes that the drawing shows "a minor child being sodomized by a line of robots." The divorce court apparetly did not agree with Handshoe's conclusions, as Mr. Yount has custody of his child, and the child has serious legal representation in the form of Ms. Fernandez and Loyola University. 

More news on the "no holds barred" Handshoe/Truitt legal circus coming soon . . .

SLAPPed down redux: Doug Handshoe loses his anti-SLAPP motion . . . twice . . . a legal jackassery update

Homophobic blogger Douglas K. Handshoe, a Mississippi accountant, has not once, but twice failed to get the Chief Judge of New Orleans Civil District Court (CDC) to accept his motion purporting that civil rights attorney Daniel G. Abel's damning defamation lawsuit against him is somehow designed to prevent public discourse on a matter of public interest. These types of motions are called "anti-SLAPP" (strategic lawsuit against public participation).

Handshoe has referred to his legal adversaries repeatedly as "SLAPP Happy Nut Jobs." Now it appears the only nut job is Handshoe and his dwindling coterie of followers. 

Inspection of CDC documents reveals that Handshoe first attempted his anti-SLAPP motion in October of last year, and when the court flatly denied it, he tried again a few months later, only to have the same result confront him. How the extremely litigious Mr. Handshoe could file two motions for the same relief in the same court is unknown, but it could be deemed an abuse of the New Orleans court's process. In the same hearing, Handshoe co-defendant and former attorney Bobby Truitt attempted to quash Abel's subpoenas, and failed:

Handshoe, however, apparently thought he knew better than the court, and attempted his at this point idiotic and ill-conceived motion again a few months later. On April 25, 2014. the judge again denied Handshoe's anti-SLAPP motion.

Douglas Handshoe, CPA

Legal Jackassery at its finest!

Handshoe owes some $817,000 in Canadian court judgments to Abel's business partners Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret as well as Trout Point Lodge. An effort to collect a copyright infringement judgment against Handshoe is currently winding its way through the Mississippi court system.

Handshoe's campaign to damage and embarrass those he has chosen to target using the Internet may be entering a new chapter as Abel's lawsuit moves inevitably forward.

CDC documents also show that Abel has applied for a default judgment against Handshoe and his co-defendant Vandenweghe. The court set a hearing to confirm the default on September 3, 2014.

Handshoe, who has claimed to be the premiere legal affairs blogger in the Gulf South, apparently will have some serious lessons to learn about legal process.

Stay tuned for more Douglas Handshoe legal jackassery from the federal courts of Mississippi . . . 

Slapping down Douglas Handshoe's and "Jack Etherton" Truitt's hilarious SLAPP motions: New Orleans Civil District Court

The "Slabbed Nation" is crumbling. The House of Handshoe teeters, fated to fall. "Super Lawyer" Bobby Truitt can't seem to BS his way out of this one, either for himself or his former client.

A now-erased comment left by former Douglas Handshoe attorney, financier, and alleged co-conspirator "Jack Etherton Truitt" on Handshoe's hate-filled blog "Slabbed" caused curious minds to wonder what exactly was going on in the year-old litigation brought by New Orleans civil rights attorney Daniel Abel against the alleged perpetrators of Slabbed's vicious and unceasing campaign to damage and injure others (including Abel) through the Internet. On July 2, Handshoe had published a check list of his blog's "accomplishments" and Truitt was adding to the list with his comment. Handshoe quickly removed the quip from publication. Now, why would he do that?

Turns out July 2, 2014, was the same day Chief Judge Piper Griffin of New Orleans Civil District Court considered various motions brought by Truitt trying to get out of the multi-count defamation lawsuit. Abel had opposed them all. Truitt denied that he was part and parcel of Handshoe's defamatory publishing activities. Too bad, at the end of the day, Truitt remains a defendant alongside Handshoe. Truitt's public showing of "having fun" using civil legal process might just backfire on him.

Also turns out, according to informed courthouse sources, Chief Judge Griffin has in fact flatly denied various motions by homophobic blogger Handshoe, slip-and-fall lawyer Truitt, and former Asst. Jefferson Parish Attorney Anne-Marie Vandenweghe in the defamation litigation against them. All three claimed that Abel's lawsuit was a "strategic lawsuit against public participation" or "SLAPP" suit. Some sources indicate Handshoe attempted to have his anti-SLAPP argument heard twice. Judge Griffin has repeatedly found no SLAPP, and that the lawsuit seeking redress from all three will go forward to trial in New Orleans. "Denied" is a simple word Handshoe, Truitt, and Vandenweghe do not appear to understand.

Judge Griffin also denied repeated motions by Truitt trying to change the venue out of New Orleans, and to dismiss the suit against him for being too "vague." In evidence presented by Abel, Truitt has admitted to giving money to Handshoe to publish the hate-filled and homophobic blog, and also frequently contributes to it.  

The consequences of Judge Griffin's decision for defendants Handshoe, Truitt, and Vandenweghe are serious. Handshoe has unceasingly crowed on his web site Slabbed that lawsuits from various individuals against him involving defamation were frivolous SLAPP suits and that he is being pursued by "SLAPP-happy nut jobs"; now a court of law has said decisively otherwise. In this case, purported "free speech" will meet head on with longstanding standards of civil decency and defamation in the Internet context.

Under Art. 971 of the Louisiana rules of civil procedure, Judge Griffin's decision has precedential value and can be used in later parts of the trial. This is not good news for Truitt and his pals Handshoe and Vandenweghe. In addition, Art. 971 mandates that any loosing party in a motion made under the article must pay attorney's fees to the prevailing party, in this case Mr. Abel.

Looks like Truitt will have to pony up for "having fun with Danny Abel."

SLAPP? Douglas Handshoe, Anne Marie Vandenweghe et. al. apparently unsuccessful in Louisiana court

Real Malice received an interesting email from an anonymous source.

Apparently the legal efforts of Douglas Handshoe, Anne Marie Vandenweghe aka Boudreaux, and others to have the Louisiana Civil District Court strike down the Daniel Abel defamation lawsuit against them did not work so well. Reports indicate Chief Judge Piper Griffin said that the Abel lawsuit was not a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation aka SLAPP. So much for SLAPP Happy Nut Jobs. She also reportedly denied the Vandenweghe claim of failure to state a claim and lack of personal jurisdiction. Real Malice cannot wait to see that Court Order. If true, this mean mandatory fees for Mr. Abel.

Not sure of all the details yet or when this happened. More information to come . . .  Why has Mr. Handshoe not mentioned this outcome on Slabbed, especially given his recent comments about the alleged bias of federal judge Suzie Morgan?

Anyone else have any details?

Attorneys for Concrete Busters amend lawsuit, dismiss allegations against Trout Point Lodge, others

Yesterday, the Smith & Fawer law firm amended its complaint on behalf of Concrete Busters of Louisiana and Waste Remediation of Plaquemines against Frederick Heebe, River Birch Landfill, and others, according to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system of the federal courts. This follows a bizarre move a couple of weeks ago when the law firm sent out a letter retracting allegations of involvement in criminal racketeering they had made against Trout Point Lodge and Cerro Coyote, stating that their information had come from Doug Handshoe's blog Slabbed, and was actually not true. Trout Point and Cerro Coyote--which operate small hotels and vacation properties--are owned by longtime business partners Daniel Abel, Charles Leary, and Vaughn Perret, who during the 1990s owned Chicory Farm and the Chicory Farm Cafe in Louisiana.

 

This can't be good news for homophobic blogger Handshoe, who is being sued by attorney Abel for defamation, including over allegations of involvement in organized crime first made by Handshoe and then repeated in the Concrete Busters lawsuit. Handshoe was also found liable for $427,000 in defamation damages and costs by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in February of 2012. Enforcement of that judgment in favor of Trout Point, Leary, and Perret is currently before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in New Orleans.

Trout Point and its chef/proprietors lost a summary judgment proceeding against Handshoe in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi last December. The about-face by Smith & Fawer and its clients is significant because in that decision, the federal court took judicial notice of the Concrete Busters lawsuit's allegations. The court also stated that former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard was a defendant in that Concrete Busters complaint, which was in fact not true, and that Mr. Abel was Broussard's law partner, which Abel has also sworn in an affidavit was never the case. No court filings in that case made such an allegation, which has only appeared on Slabbed itself.

Strangely, a look at PACER revealed the clerk for the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana--where the Concrete Busters complaint is filed--erroneously listed Aaron Broussard, Trout Point Lodge, and Cerro Coyote as defendants in that lawsuit. The error was later corrected, but only after the Mississippi court had made its decision in favor of Handshoe, citing the fact that Broussard was a defendant in a lawsuit also involving Trout Point and Cerro Coyote.

This action against Handshoe was the first disputed case in which a U.S. court applied the federal Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage (SPEECH) Act. Handshoe and blogger Anne-Marie Vandenweghe continued to blog about Abel, Perret, Leary, Trout Point, and Cerro Coyote while the court was making its decision, ramping up publishing about them, seemingly in an attempt to convince the court of the truth of their criminal accusations (which if false would be per se defamatory and actionable in Mississippi). The court's decision states that the court monitored Slabbed, taking note of the large number of posts referring to Trout Point, Perret, and Leary in 2012 alone. The fact that the court relied on the now-retracted Concrete Busters allegations as well as other questionable facts could be significant to the appeal. This is because the court was operating under Mississippi law's requirement that a plaintiff prove falsity in a defamation case, something at times very difficult to do. Abel, Leary, and Perret have always insisted they had nothing to do with the criminal activity alleged over and over by Handshoe. Both the Times-Picayune and Fox 8 WVUE have long ago retracted any erroneous identification of Trout Point Lodge belonging to Aaron Broussard. 

Handshoe says that the retractions were coerced from media as part of a conspiracy and coverup. The Concrete Busters lawsuit, in turn, said Trout Point and Cerro Coyote were "shell companies" used by Broussard and Heebe in a criminal conspiracy, and that Leary and Perret were working to silence a valid investigation through their suits against Handshoe and others, including WVUE. Those accusations have now been officially dismissed in addition to the earlier Smith & Fawer retraction.

In another remarkable twist, Abel wrote a letter to the same Mississippi federal court, attaching as an exhibit the letter from Smith & Fawer. The Mississippi federal judge chose to file Abel's letter and exhibit into the public record available on PACER. The Abel letter refers the court's attention to possible fraud by Team Handshoe. Abel's claim is based on the fact that Handshoe likely knew the Mississippi court was perusing Slabbed while deliberating. Handshoe has not denied the allegations.

 

 

Indeed, not everything went Handshoe's way. The federal court flatly denied Handshoe's motion for attorney's fees and an appeal bond, stating that there was no suggestion the appeal of its own decision by Trout Point Lodge, Leary, and Perret to the 5th Circuit was frivolous. This was despite the fact that the SPEECH Act allowed for Handshoe to recover reasonable attorney's fees. Handshoe attorney Bobby Truitt (who also represents Anne-Marie Vandenweghe) was asking for an extraordinary $60,000 in fees on the summary judgment motions. In its initial decision the federal court also agreed that Handshoe was on a "campaign to damage" Leary, Perret, and their business. 

Abel's lawsuit alleges that Handshoe and former Assistant Parish Attorney Vandenweghe conducted their multi-year campaign of defamation in an effort to sway public opinion in the New Orleans/Jefferson metro area at the same time as the federal criminal probe of Broussard, Heebe, and others was underway. This would have benefitted Vandenweghe's own whistleblower lawsuit as well as the criminal prosecutions. He says that Vandenweghe used multiple online personalities, engaging in sock puppetry on Slabbed and elsewhere. Abel has also pointed to an instance where former Assistant U.S. Attorney Salvadore Perricone (posting anonymously) cast doubt on the Times-Picayune's retraction regarding Trout Point Lodge. Perricone had also speculated that Vandenweghe was indeed Slabbed's alter-ego in the context of an article about Vandenweghe's lawsuit against Jefferson Parish, which remarkably just settled out of court this past week before there had been any deposition of Vandenweghe. Abel also claims someone from the New Orleans U.S. Attorney's Office called Trout Point Lodge and then hung up the phone just as Leary & Perret were first seeking to enforce their $427,000 judgment against Handshoe in the Mississippi court about a year ago.

Abel is currently fighting separate motions to dismiss his lawsuit made by Handshoe and Vandenweghe. Vandenweghe went to law school with both former U.S. Attorney James Letten and his top prosecutor former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Maselli-Mann. Both left the Department of Justice after a blogging scandal involving Heebe unmasking Perricone and Maselli-Mann as anonymous online commenters. Perricone had resigend his post a few months earlier. Abel's brief responding to Vandenweghe's motion unmasks some of her multiple online personae using literary and grammatical analysis, similar to the technique used by Heebe to shed light on Perricone and Maselli-Mann's online activities. Abel says he has an M.A. in English literature.

The suggestion is that Vandenweghe's used her position as Assistant Parish Attorney in charge of Public Record Requests, as well as her contacts, to resolve personal vendettas and gain a lawsuit victory, seriously injuring Abel and his partners as innocent bystanders in the proces.

As previously reported, Smith & Fawer client Waste Remediation of Plaquemines is owned by Hank Lauricella, who was a Louisiana state senator at the same time Vandenweghe was on Jefferson Parish Council. Both represented Harahan, the home of both Vandenweghe and Perricone. Smith & Fawer's predecessor law firm also represented Handshoe's business partner Fred H. Goodson in his criminal trial, in which he was convicted for racketeering, fraud, bribery, and money laundering involving truck stop gambling. Lauricella did not seek re-election after his name came up in the same federal criminal probe of video poker in Louisiana, termed "Operation Hardcrust." Handshoe was corporate secretary for Goodson's company Slidell Motel, Inc., a segment of the O'Aces Casino operation ordered forfeit as part of the criminal conspiracy by the federal court after Goodson's conviction. Checks from Slidell Motel were used to make contributions to Louisiana government officials, according to FBI wiretaps.

Handshoe & "Concrete Busters." Blogger's lies betrayed, no more hands to stand on for Handshoe -- An Easter Surprise!

An interesting letter from a court filing came to light today. Remember that coincidentally just as the Federal District Court in southern Mississippi was considering enforcing Trout Point Lodge's $427,000 Canadian defamation judgment against homophobic blogger Doug Handshoe, attorneys for Concrete Busters of Louisiana just happened to file an amended lawsuit against federal criminal probe target Frederick Heebe that just coincidentally mentioned Trout Point Lodge as well as that very Mississippi lawsuit?

Here's what Handshoe said at the time on Slabbed:
 

Civil District Court lawsuit filed by Concrete Busters against River Birch terms Trout Point Lodge Ltd. of Nova Scotia a “shell company”

They did folks. In fact Concrete Busters amended complaint filed Wednesday against The River Birch Landfill et al unifies several themes we’ve covered here on Slabbed through time. But alas those nasty Goatherders and I have an outstanding  matter in United States Federal District Court in Gulfport before Judge Louis Guirola that my lawyer, Bobby Truitt has me barred from commenting upon. But that does not mean that we can’t let Concrete Busters tell part of that story . . .

Handshoe published a scan of the entire lawsuit he somehow got the same day it was filed, and that self-same scan also just happened to end up published on nola.com too, giving it really wide exposure. The suit was later removed to federal court, and Handshoe published on that too:

Trout Point Lodge, Cerro Coyote, Aaron Broussard and others named as co-conspirators/defendants in federal racketeering suit.

The Concrete Busters suit really helped shore up Handshoe's credibility. The gist was: "If actual lawyers were making these serious allegations about Trout Point Lodge and its owners, there really must be something to it all." It gave Handshoe an excuse for lots of Slabbed posts full of real malice.

Unfortunately for Trout Point Lodge, Charles Leary, and Vaughn Perret, the federal district court in Gulfport, Mississippi, noticed the Concrete Busters amendment as well, and mentioned it's now clearly false allegations that they were involved with Aaron Broussard in criminal wrongdoing in the December, 2012, Order denying that important summary judgment motion--a case of first impression for the federal SPEECH Act. One might say it played an important role in the judge's decision.

Handshoe also used the Concrete Busters suit to accuse Leary & Perret of crimes in a letter he wrote to a Supreme Court justice in Nova Scotia in February, and has published extensively on it since then.

Well of course Handshoe wanted to let the Concerete Busters suit "tell the story"--because it was his own made-up conspiracy theory reproduced word for word in the lawsuit . . .  and now retracted, laying the blame at Handshoe's feet. Here's the astounding letter:

 

 

Talk about an about-face!!! Duping of others in self-interest might be called a theme here.

Concrete Busters was one mighty big piece of seeming justification in Mr. Handshoe's multi-year "campaign to damage" Leary, Perret, Trout Point Lodge, and others. (Those are the words of that Mississippi federal court, which recently also denied Handshoe's request for $60,000 in attorney's fees). Handshoe can probably be held liable for this republication of his false and injurious words too. Surely, Daniel G. Abel--who is suing Handshoe for defamation-- will find this all very intriguing & useful.

Former allegational ringmaster Anne-Marie Vandenweghe, her (sock) puppet Doug Handshoe, and their coincidentally mutual attorney Jack "Bobby" Truitt must not be too happy right now. No wonder Mr. Doug looks so grim . . .

 

Douglas Handshoe, CPA & blogger

Some say public official Vandenweghe had links to people in the U.S. Attorney's Office too, past and present, including some with Italian surnames. . . . including some who, it is said, were once investigating her then-husband Ray Valdes. This was coincidentally the same prosecutors' office pursuing Aaron Broussard and Frederick Heebe. Might she have been duping third parties as well, in the name of self interest?

Vandenweghe surely was connected to federal prosecutors in 2009-10. She was "cooperating" and "informing" for the USAO on alleged Jefferson Parish corruption, according to her own taping of Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot placing her on administrative leave for blogging on government time about the government back in that year. (As well as in comments made on Slabbed under pseudonyms like "unslabbed"). Vandenweghe's USAO contacts included prosecutors who just happened to also be spearheading the Aaron Broussard prosecution. Could the USAO have been misled and duped by Vandenweghe, just like Handshoe did with Concrete Busters?

Handshoe/Vandenweghe attorney Mr. Truitt was surely really looking forward to his $60,000 in supposed attorney's fees after Trout Point et. al. lost the summary judgement motion. Too bad he didn't get it. Guess that "win at all costs" attitude that federal Judge Englehardt wrote about in the context of the U.S. Attorney blogging scandal might just have transcended the boundaries of that office.