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.

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"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.

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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 . . . 

The Slabbed Nation Part 1(c): "unslabbed" Vandenweghe, 2010, and the Lauricellas

"Vandenweghe, who served on the Parish Council from 1992 to 1996, spearheaded efforts in recent months to make public records readily available to federal agents, lawyers, the news media and individuals as investigations into former Parish President Aaron Broussard's administration picked up steam." - Richard Rainey, Times-Picayune

Perhaps some of the seemingly independent voices on the Internet, in civil court filings, and even in the mainstream news media and criminal court filings, in the New Orleans metro area from at least 2009 until now were not so independent, random, and/or unconnected. Some of those voices were part of a seemingly concerted public relations campaign to shape public opinion and also to target certain persons or groups. There are questions of legal ethics, professional responsibility, and potentially prosecutorial (mis)conduct wrapped up in all of this, as Mark Moseley at The Lens has suggested.

During 2012, as a consequence of lawsuits filed by Frederick Heebe, the co-owner of the River Birch Landfill, two Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSA) in U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office admitted to blogging online regarding New Orleans & Jefferson Parish politics as well as criminal investigations & prosecutions then being conducted by the U.S. Attorney (USAO). AUSA Sal Perricone was the first. He insisted that he had acted alone in blogging, and that no one else in the USAO knew he was doing so. The aftermath of the 2nd suit against 1st AUSA Jan Maselli Mann put the lie to that assertion.

There had also been allegations made in 2012 by the defendants in two federal criminal prosecutions that Grand Jury & USAO leaks were coming from the USAO or Grand Jury—the Broussard-Wilkinson prosecution, and the Danziger Bridge shootings prosecution. Coincidentally, two federal judges—Judge Head and Judge Englehardt—had ordered Letten's office to conduct an investigation into such alleged leaks. Letten assigned Jan Maselli Mann—and apparently no one else—to conduct both investigations.

When the revelation came to light that Mann had been blogging under the pseudonym “eweman,” even as she "investigated" blogging and leaks, both judges took action.

Judge Englehardt issued a strongly worded opinion and called for an independent investigator. Judge Head sua sponte stated that he would consider submissions from Broussard and Wilkinson regarding the AUSA blogging scandal and published previously sealed communications in the court record. U.S. Attorney Letten resigned on December 6, 2012.

In his November 26, 2012, opinion, Judge Englehardt described what he saw as “the sophomoric antics” of federal prosecutors. He described a situation in which the AUSAs' “grandstanding comments” were “publicly available to those who were called as witnesses, or were to be called as witnesses in the future, including defense witnesses who were yet to testify, but may well have been monitoring media accounts of the trial, including those on nola.com and the accompanying flotsam set forth underneath in the form of 'comments.'”

The federal judge continued:

it must always be remembered that federal criminal prosecution of individuals is not a game; it is not a sport or some grand competition where “winning,” above all else, is everything. Rather, it is a search for the truth, following irrefutable evidence and reasonable logical inferences drawn from such evidence, while maintaining the high standards of professionalism and ethics expected of all lawyers across the country. It must also be remembered, with irony, that Defendants in this very case are criminally accused by the United States government, inter alia, of falsifying stories and reports, omitting the truth, misrepresenting facts, and giving false statements to authorities, including the FBI.

Judge Englehardt, after a review of facts and testimony, also came to the following conclusion: “no one, especially this Court, could reasonably find it credible that Perricone and former First AUSA Mann, while posting under the same nola.com articles, and responding to and echoing each other's posts, were unaware of the identity of the other.” The judge also said that “the activities of Perricone and former First AUSA Mann, both those of commission and those omission, might also constitute prosecutable criminal conduct,” referring specifically to “activities before this court.”

Though not framing it as such, Judge Englehardt found that Perricone and Mann acted in concert in their online blogging, splitting at least 5 online monikers between them (4 for Perricone). He also suggested that they conspired to cover up the extent and concurrent nature of their activities once Perricone was publicly unmasked, including misleading the court and the general public.

Under Jim Letten, the New Orleans USAO had become known and publicly acclaimed for rooting out political corruption.

The self-same fervent, “win at all costs,” attitude towards allegedly and actually corrupt politicos and government officials extended beyond Letten's office into the blogasphere, including prominently on Slabbed and nola.com, the 2 entities named in interim Jefferson Parish President Steve Theriot's perhaps prescient defamation lawsuit, in the context of which he publicly implicated Vandenweghe with blogging on government time. Slabbed's decisive turn to what Doug Handshoe termed & tagged as the “Jefferson Parish Political Corruption Scandal” occurred at exactly the same time as Letten's office was arguing before the Broussard/Wilkinson Grand Jury. Bloggers felt and believed they were part of the effort . . . and maybe they were.

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Consider, for a moment, the position in which "unslabbed" Vandenweghe found herself in late 2009. She was the Assistant Parish Attorney, presumably with access to every nook & cranny of Parish government due to her position as the official in charge of fulfilling Public Record Requests. Her father had just died. And she had failed to achieve either an important political or judicial position, which had been life goals in the 1990s and 2000s, as seen in earlier parts of this series. 

Embittering? Perhaps.

She clearly held animosity towards some of her colleagues and superiors. She perhaps felt mistreated by the Parish and believed that the corrupt political system in Jefferson had betrayed her, when it was supposed to have gone her way. Her salary was reportedly frozen--"redlined"--and she was not advancing within President Aaron Broussard's administration or that of his interim replacement. Her political allies who appear to have been Parish President Coulon and Sheriff Harry Lee were either out of office (Coulon) or had passed away (Lee). She was no longer married to un-indicted co-conspirator in federal crimes and powerful financier Ray Valdes, and had married former lawyer A. J. Boudreaux, who had "a mixed personality disorder with prominent narcissistic and other features," according to a decision in his lawsuit against his disability insurance company. He and Anne-Marie Vandenweghe declared bankruptcy in 2005, Chapter 7. Among other debts, they faced a federal tax lien.

Lots of facts point to "unslabbed" Vandenweghe thinking it might be time to take action.

Those who acts as gatekeepers or brokers of valuable or limited resources, including information, are often in very socially (if not politically or economically) powerful positions. They can wield that power with a vengeance, given opportunity and motive.  For instance:

In August 2009, plaintiff [Vandenweghe], the Assistant Parish Attorney in charge of responding to public records requests, received a Public Records Request (“PRR”) from legal counsel for Waste Management, the operator of the public landfill for the Parish, seeking the production of any contracts which may exist between River Birch Landfill (“River Birch”) and the Parish.

Vandenweghe had direct contact with the FBI, the USAO, and the media, and was also online blogging anonymously about Jefferson politics, seemingly using various anonymous handles besides "unslabbed." She also presumably had the capacity to know all about Jefferson Parish records and to steer those making inquiries in specific directions.

As Richard Rainey of the Times-Picayune wrote on February 23, 2010:

 Vandenweghe, who served on the Parish Council from 1992 to 1996, spearheaded efforts in recent months to make public records readily available to federal agents, lawyers, the news media and individuals as investigations into former Parish President Aaron Broussard's administration picked up steam. She is paid $64,717 a year.

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The concerted federal investigation by U.S. Attorney Letten's office into Jefferson Parish corruption appears to have started sometime in the last quarter of 2009. Remarkably, Vandenweghe's civil lawsuit against Jefferson Parish would almost totally mirror the USAO's investigation (or visa versa), with many of the allegations that subsequently appeared in the lawsuit first having been aired publicly in the Slabbed comment section months before. The Times-Picayune's Richard Rainey noted the similarities:

The suit touches on practically every aspect of alleged wrongdoing that prompted federal authorities to begin investigating the Broussard administration.

Along with Broussard, chief administrative officer Tim Whitmer and parish attorney Tom Wilkinson also resigned. And Theriot fired Broussard's wife, Karen Parker, on suspicion that she and Broussard were committing payroll fraud.

It was exactly simultaneous with the federal investigation that New Orleans metro area news media--prominently the Times-Picayune and Fox 8 News but also reporter Lee Zurick--also began investigations into Parish President Broussard's administration. Letten's office had the ultimate goal of proving fraud and corruption in the awarding of a multimillion dollar landfill contract to River Birch Landfill. Along the way, the USAO also pursued Broussard, his ex wife (Karen Parker), his Chief Administrative Officer (Timothy Whitmer), and the Parish Attorney, Wilkinson--the one who had publicly threatened to sue Vandenweghe over her phone bill.

Simultaneous with the ramping up of the Jefferson investigations, there were the Assistant U.S. Attorneys blogging online--particularly but not only at nola.com--about Broussard and his administration. The most famous examples are AUSA Sal Perricone and AUSA Jan Maselli Mann, who was Letten's right-hand until the longstanding Republican U.S. Attorney resigned amidst the blogging scandal. In January, 2010, the Slabbed blog--which had always focused on post-Hurricane Katrina insurance litigation, mostly in Mississippi--suddenly started publishing about the Jefferson scandal. At the same time, "unslabbed" Vandenweghe started to appear prominently in the Slabbed comment sections making the allegations that would later appear in her lawsuits, in federal investigations, and in Grand Jury indictments and USAO filings.

At least as early as November 10, 2009, the Times-Picayune as well as Fox 8 News and its investigative reporter Val Bracy were making Public Record Requests through Vandenweghe to Jefferson Parish. The Parish actually sued to halt such requests citing an ongoing federal criminal investigation and a Grand Jury subpoena. The lawsuit also named reporters Lee Zurick, Drew Broach, and Richard Rainey as well as the Times-Picayune newspaper itself. Vandenweghe was fulfilling PRRs for River Birch as early as August, 2009, and according to the Times-Picayune, federal prosecutors subpoenaed River Birch on December 20, 2009.

Vandenweghe states in her August, 2011, federal lawsuit that in January of 2010, there was a Public Record Request (PRR) from Channel 8 Fox News "inquiring about payroll irregularities." There was also a PRR from Fox 8 for the Jefferson Parish Attorney’s organizational chart. Finally, there was a "Channel 8 Fox News PRR regarding" three paralegals allegedly not working in the jobs they were being paid for, including Karen Parker-Broussard. It's unclear how in late 2009/early 2010 Val Bracy or anyone else at Fox 8 News would know exactly what to ask for in the PRRs that would result in damning revelations about governmental corruption, facilitating the Grand Jury investigation. 

Consider this "unslabbed" Vandenweghe comment published on Slabbed on February 6, 2010, which appears to have been one of Vandenweghe's first appearances as "unslabbed":

Where was Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson while these three were STEALTH PARALEGALS on his payroll ? Head of the Law Dept and he says and does nothing to stop this payroll fraud? He admitted he knew about [Karen Parker] Broussard and was ‘told’ she was on his payroll. If he suspected this was not right he of all people should have reported it. One oopsie-slipsie well maybe. But THREE illegals and he does nothing ? What is up with that? oh yeah Tom $$$$$$

And what about his Deputy Peggy Barton? She was listed on the Organizational Chart for the Parish Attorney’s office as the Administrator with Parker-Broussard directly under her supervision as late as May 2009 , Then when Val Bracy asks for a copy of the Organizational Chart Barton revises it twice within days of the request and POOF suddently the box with Karen Parker Broussard is gone. HMMM.

And why did Deano Bonano start playing hot potato with Barton when she fingered his Chief of Security Knopp as KPB’s supervisor? So many questions and so few answers.

Anyone out there following the penalty phase of messing with public records?

Hindering or attempting to hinder public access to public records is FELONY territory boys and girls.

Vandenweghe was blogging allegations including specific first-hand details that would surface in the press and in federal indictments later on. Conveniently, the reporter for Fox 8 News, Val Bracy, just happened to make a Public Record Request for precisely the information that would implicate Broussard & Wilkinson in illegalities like payroll fraud. Not surprisingly, "Whitmerate" appeared to lend moral support to "unslabbed" within 25 minutes of the "unslabbed" comment, chiming in with "So right."

Whitmergate then reappeared on Slabbed the next morning to re-publish a comment from nola.com by "Lettenhaveit," an obvious reference to the then-U.S. Attorney Jim Letten:

Posted by Lettenhaveit
February 07, 2010, 10:13AM
After reading the account of WILKINSON putting the x-wife of his good buddy BROUSSARD ( the same person he claims gave him $70,000 in raises over the last 34 months when it was most probably WHITMER who signed off on the raises )….ok, back to Karen being put under a bus going 2 miles an hour. What occurred to me was the similarity of events surrounding Debbie Villio’s resignation to run for Judge the first time and Karen’s resignation to campaign for BROUSSARD. Both Villio and Parker were employees of JEFFERSON PARISH ; both resigned to pursue political activities; upon their “re-hiring, both had there record of absence altered to Leave With Out Pay; and as a result of this “alteration”, both were able to claim continuous service, retroactively, so as not to interrupt benefit requirements (RETIREMENT). All this was done under the direction of WHITMER and the knowledge of WILKINSON. These two men created a criminal fiction to facilitate payroll fraud. CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES ARE PROHIBITED FROM TAKING A LWOP TO ENGAGE IN POLITICAL ACTIVITY. THIS PROHIBITION IS APPLICABLE TO OTHER EMPLOYEES AS WELL and is specifically set forth in the Personal Rules of Employment in Jefferson Parish. Period. No ands, ifs, or buts. WHITMER and WILKINSON and anyone else who conspired with them need to be held accountable in a court of law. Additionally, WILKINSON should be brought before the bar on an ethics complaint. WHITMER is gone and it way past time for WILKINSON to be fired or asked to resign. Come on THERIOT, do your job !

Whitmergate rarely re-posts material from nola.com, though notably, Whitmergate would later (August, 2011) go to Slabbed to republish nola.com comments of "dramatis personae," one of the identities used by then-AUSA Sal Perricone.

In early February, 2010, "lettenhaveit" as republished on Slabbed by "Whitmergate" as well as "unslabbed's" publications on Slabbed itself just happened to presage the federal indictments against Broussard and Wilkinson that would come down on December 2, 2011. Notably, "lettenhaveit" would be one of the identities sought in interim President Theriot's defamation lawsuit in May, 2010--the one in which he allegedly publicly aired his view that Vandenweghe was blogging on parish time.

Let's compare Vandenweghe's allegations with Richard Rainey's December 2, 2011, summary of the Broussard indictment for the Times-Picayune, some 22 months later:

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Broussard, 62, Parker, 46, and former parish attorney Tom Wilkinson, 53, on charges that they manipulated the payroll to the tune of $410,463, mostly in enhanced pay for Parker as a paralegal supervisor in Wilkinson's department. Each faces 33 felony counts of conspiracy to steal federal money, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.
. . . . .
The indictments are the first against Jefferson Parish officials in a sprawling federal investigation that metasticized after news media reports of possible corruption in Broussard's administration.
. . . . .
Despite the investigation's complexity, Friday's indictment focused only on payroll fraud, including $323,000 that Parker received while ostensibly working for Wilkinson.

Parker spent 11 years working for the Parish Council before she quit in July 2003 to help Broussard, then the council chairman, run for parish president. After he won, Wilkinson hired her as a "paralegal supervisor."

It was a job that she was neither trained nor certified to do, according to the indictment. Yet Wilkinson boosted her salary to $48,000 -- a $19,000 raise and $3,000 higher than her new job's salary cap, the indictment states. He also erased her 2003 resignation, reclassifying her time away as a leave of absence. That let her continue to collect pay raises, tenure bonuses and health care benefits that a break in her public work would have jeopardized.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, Broussard let Wilkinson keep his job as parish attorney, a post he had held since 1996. During Broussard's tenure, Wilkinson saw his annual pay jump seven times and increase by more than 80 percent. By February 2009, he was making $184,000.

It was a mutually beneficial relationship, according to the indictment.

At the same time she was blogging, in January & February, 2010, Vandenweghe was responding to federal subpoenas from the same Grand Jury that would later indict the Broussards & Wilkinson, and personally delivering documents to the courthouse in front of clued-in TV and newspaper cameras; she was also fulfilling PRRs for the garbage contract competitors of River Birch.

According to information appearing on Slabbed and elsewhere, in May, 2011, a judge in Nova Scotia was asked to look at apparent insider links between Fox 8 News (Louisiana Media Company)--who was the defendant in a Nova Scotia Supreme Court lawsuit--and the persons commenting on Slabbed. Plaintiffs in that case had noted that information privy only to Fox 8 ended up on Slabbed. The judge found: that information appearing on Slabbed was  "indicative of an insider connection or  association with Louisiana Media," including comment posts by "Whitmergate."

Remarkably, in early January, 2010, the Metropolitan Crime Commission (MCC) of New Orleans had filed a complaint with the Louisiana Ethics Administration about Broussard. (Coincidentally, 1st AUSA Jan Maselli Mann's father, Joe Maselli, sat on both boards--Ethics and MCC, and her brother subsequently sat on the MCC board). The complaint included an allegation that President Broussard had rented his "Nova Scotia lodge" to parish government contractors, implying unethical or even criminal activity. The allegation was based on privileged and confidential sources, "tips," received by the MCC. On September 18, 2010, "viewfromhell" posted the following comment on Slabbed:

It is important to point out that Anne Marie Vandenweghe put all the above on official notice about the Prohibited Political Activities of Villio and Wilkinson with her Personnel Board Whistleblower lawsuit. Word is she went to her superior, Louis Gruntz, who made some lame visit to the DA’s office and returned to tell her nothing could be done. Only when she investigated further and presented the evidence to the Personnel Board ( in several Executive Sessions per the TV accounts) and to Gruntz in front of them did anyone even pretend to take notice. Question: Who does she go to now with evidence of wrongdoing? Who does anyone in Jefferson Parish go to? If they are all in collusion no one can send anything to their superiors when their superiors are all in on the deal. And as for an Anonymous Tip Line— that only works if more than one person has access to the information about the illegal/unethical activity. If I am the only person with access to the incriminating evidence ( other than the bad guys/gals) and I can be identified because I am the only possible leak, an Anonymous Tip Line does me NO GOOD.

The MCC has a Anti-Public Corruption Program:

 
Anti-Public Corruption Program: Allows citizens and public employees to report criminal or unethical acts or acts of administrative wrongdoing committed in the course of public service or employment.  Callers can provide information in the strictest of confidence and may be eligible for rewards.

What's more, as alleged in discovery materials provided by Fox 8:

Beginning on January 4, 2010 through January 6, 2010 the Defendant’s "investigative" reporter Val Bracy exchanged 22 calls between her phone number and phone numbers identified by the Defendant [Fox 8] as belonging to Metropolitan Crime Commission President Raphael [sic] Goyeneche. This included at least 24 minutes in 4 distinct calls of more than 1 minute each on January 6, 2010 before 4:00 p.m.

Fox 8 News received a copy of the Ethics Board complaint--which was based on anonymous tips--the same day it was drafted, more than 24 hours before it was even received by the Louisiana Ethics Administration. This was a violation of Louisiana criminal statue, which states that all such complaints are to be kept strictly confidential.

Title 45 (12)(a)  It shall be a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, for any member of the board, its executive secretary, other employee, or any other person, to make public the testimony taken at a private investigation or private hearing of the board or to make any public statement or give out any information concerning a private investigation or private hearing of the board without the written request of the public servant or other person investigated.

Val Bracy had set up an interview with Broussard for the same day--January 6--but did not tell him she had the MCC complaint letter. She then conducted a "gotcha journalism" interview with Broussard, including broadcasting segments featuring Goyeneche roundly criticizing Broussard. The interview with Broussard mentioning the Ethics Board complaint was aired on the Fox 8 evening news that same day. Transcripts of the Broussard interview--including portions never aired by Fox 8--would later end up on Slabbed, posted there by "Whitmergate," which was just part of the evidence considered by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge in his fact finding.  

It is no secret that Jim Letten and Rafael Goyeneche, President of the MCC frequently worked together, and did so on the Jefferson Parish corruption investigation. As the Times-Picayune reported on the day of Aaron Broussard's guilty plea:

Besides Broussard and his attorney, Robert Jenkins, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche were also in the courtroom. Letten has credited commission [sic] with helping the investigation. (http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/09/aaron_broussard_arrives_at_fed.html)

That Nova Scotia judge would then issue an Order to Automattic, Inc., the parent company of the WordPress blogging site where Slabbed was located, to provide identifying information about "Whitmergate," "unslabbed," "Sop81_1" and others. Automattic of San Francisco, California, obeyed the court's Order, supplying email address and IP address information. As per the court record in Nova Scotia, Automattic stated that "unslabbed" provided the email address annemarieboudreaux@yahoo.com. (The email address Anne-Marie Vandenweghe currently uses to register with the Louisiana Bar Association is annemarieboudreaux@gmail.com.)

Ultimately, the Nova Scotia lawsuit was amended, this time to be against Doug Handshoe and a Jane Doe defendant identified by the above email address. That is, as later stated by Handshoe, Vandenweghe was Handshoe's co-defendant. 

Vandenweghe put in her federal lawsuit against Jefferson Parish that the sole named witness to her emotional distress and public embarrassment after President Theriot placed her on administrative leave was her Pastor, Marion Lauricella. Marion "Sugar" Lauricella died on August 19, 2010. The Times-Picayune published an article about him on August 20, 2010. Vandenweghe's defamation lawsuit listing him as the sole named witness was filed on August 25, 2010. He died 6 days before she filed the lawsuit naming him as a witness to defamation.

Indeed, Anne-Marie was ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church, where her online profile lists her church as the Harahan Christian Church where "Sugar" Lauricella was chief pastor. Who also got his minster's qualification from the Universal Life Church? Its current pastor and Sugar's grandson, David Lauricella, Jr. According to her public profile, Vandenweghe's services included Weddings, Bible Studies, Retreats, & Outreach in Community as a minister at Sugar Lauricella's church. 

As related in the Times-Picayune obituary, "Lauricella's father, Frank, was a farmer and a professional gambler who raised him to deal cards in the back room of their home. Lauricella eventually took over running the Saturday poker games." Sugar was the first cousin of Francis "Hank" Lauricella, a former Louisiana State Senator and a principal along with his son Louis Lauricella in the Lauricella Land Company, Colonial Finance, and Waste Remediation, LLC. Waste Remediation is in turn owner of Waste Remediation of Plaquemines, which partnered with a company named Concrete Busters of Louisiana to submit a waste disposal bid to Jefferson Parish in 2008.

On February 25, 2010, "Whitmergate" was again commenting on Slabbed, presaging public revelations the future federal criminal investigation into River Birch, seeming to speak as a first-hand witness to events:

The following is but one path in a turn in the River Birch landfill labyrinth. Wilkinson conspired in tandem with Whitmer to facilitate the promoting of an RFP. I can remember Whitmer’s infamous quip comparing the request for the RFP to a fishing trip for the best deal. The pond was stacked and Heebe was hooked. Rainey’s article in Jan. 14, 2009, Times Picayune sets up the story of this myriad of deception.

RFP No.176 is now in motion. A RFP evaluation committee is created. The voting members are: Tom Wilkinson, Parish Attorney and Secretary of the Evaluation Committee, Alan Gandolfi, the Council’s Budget guy; and John Fos ? . They elected not to afford Marnie Winter, Director of Environmental Affairs, a voting status. We now know from a recent article reporting on the Council’s call for a contract for a consultant to review the River Birch fiasco, that other than Ms. Winter, a PHD in the field, the three voting members had absolutely no expertise or experience to critique the RFPs in question. That’s lawyers for ya’… know everything about nothing.
On December 22, 2008, Mr. Wilkinson sends a letter to then Council Chairman John Young reporting the the final scores of the two companies, River Birch 274/300 and Concrete Busters 143/300. To date no one seems to be able to find the individual work sheets of these esteemed committee members. Hmmmmmmmmm

That early 2010 post on Slabbed looks eerily familiar to anyone reading Times-Picayune reporter Paul Rioux's September, 2012, article on River Birch summarizing the federal lawsuit that competitor Waste Management would file against River Birch in September, 2011:

Attorneys for Waste Management, which runs the parish dump, filed a civil racketeering lawsuit accusing Broussard's administration of essentially fishing in a stocked pond, knowing River Birch would take the bait and submit a sweeping proposal to handle all residential trash.