by Christopher Tidmore With the indictment of former New Orleans City Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt's on racketeering and money laundering charges, murmurs of discontent with U.S. Attorney Jim Letten have begun to emerge from several quarters in the local black community.   The accusation that the region’s senior prosecutor has disproportionately pursued corruption allegations in the African-American community continues to be levied.

            When Senator Mary Landrieu recommended the reappointment of Letten, a career prosecutor but also a GOP appointee of President George W. Bush, Danatus King, president of the New Orleans Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told Bayoubuzz and www.louisianaweekly.com that not enough consultation had been done with Black organizations over whether Letten served the needs of an area with such a large African-American population. “I think because of the makeup of the judicial district that Mr. Letten serves that would have been desirable, but it didn’t happen.”

            (The Eastern District of Louisiana is comprised of 13 parishes in South Louisiana: Orleans, Jefferson, Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Washington, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Lafourche, St. James, St. John, Assumption, Terrebonne and St. Charles.)
            “I don’t know who Sen. Landrieu reached out to as far as getting comments opinions and suggestions,” King continued, “but I know the NAACP was not one of those organizations that was reached out to.  It would have been wise for the senator to have done that outreach.  I don’t know what other community groups she reached out to, but those groups that are here doing civil rights work that I am aware of have not been consulted.”

            King is a long-time political ally of Congressman William Jefferson, by his own admission, and has joined others with critical attitudes on what several Black leaders have perceived as a “vendetta” against the Jefferson family and its political retainers.

            Renee Gill Pratt is a defacto member of the Jefferson political clan through her decade-long romantic companion, Mose Jefferson, the Congressman’s brother.   With the latest group of indictments, she joins her paramour and his sisters, New Orleans 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson and Brenda Jefferson Foster before the court.  

            A grand jury accused Ms. Gill Pratt of worked with the Jeffersons to run a "criminal enterprise" that looted publicly funded nonprofits purportedly created to help some of the city's poorest residents.  Instead of helping those residents, the groups allegedly served as a vehicle to enrich Ms. Gill Pratt and the Jefferson family members.

            Lawyers in Letten’s U.S. Attorney’s office accuse Ms. Gill Pratt of employing her former elected posts on the City Council and as a state representative to funnel money and vehicles to the Jefferson-controlled nonprofit organizations.  

            Much of the aid never got to the intended recipients, according to the indictment. Instead, Ms. Jefferson, her sister Brenda Jefferson Foster and others who ran the non-profits allegedly wrote checks to themselves, companies controlled by the Jefferson family and several unnamed family members. Ms. Jefferson Foster has confessed to the crimes.

            The Government maintains Gill Pratt abused her City Council post to have the city rent office space from Mose Jefferson.  In return, she got $5,000 in kickbacks and money for her Krewe of Muses dues.   As a state representative, Ms. Gill Pratt reportedly appropriated $300,000 in state money to buy software Mose Jefferson was selling, and for that she allegedly received $3,500.

             Ironically, the latest set of allegations have nothing to do with the upcoming trial of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson.  He faces a separate racketeering trial next month over allegations of bribery in Nigeria.  

            Which friends of Jim Letten note is being handled about of Northern Virginia, not by his office.  “The corruption of the Jefferson family ought to be blamed for the number of trials, not Jim.   He’s just doing his job,” one staffer noted, but asked not to comment on the record due to Justice Department regulations.

            Nor do the prosecutions of former School Board president Ellenese Brooks-Simms or former City Council president Oliver Thomas went to prison on bribery charges carry any water with Letten’s defenders.   Both were clear cases of corruption, they argue, no different than the U.S. Attorney’s prosecutions of white judges in Jefferson Parish during Operation Wrinkled Robe.

            The case uncovered a far-reaching bribery ring run by former Gretna bail bondsman Louis Marcotte III and led to the arrest and imprisonment of two judges, Ronald Bodenheimer and Alan Green, and nabbed a dozen other defendants, including several Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputies, mostly Caucasians.

            Senator Mary Landrieu was even more expressive about defending the U.S. Attorney, “Because the record is very balanced and the claim about [Letten] just targeting the African-American community I did not think held weight with the evidence that I reviewed, I was pressed to say that if the facts showed otherwise that having somebody to stay to bring continuity, somebody that was well-regarded inside the law enforcement community across the board would be the thing that I should do.”  
            “I know that there are some African-American leaders that are not happy, but I think the Black community generally wants the same thing that the white community wants,” Landrieu added. “They want the crime rate to go down, they want public corruption to be eliminated and they want people that they feel like they can trust to get the job done.
            Landrieu said that while Letten “has had some high-profile prosecutions of African-American elected officials,” he has also prosecuted a number of white elected officials as well, including the aforementioned Bodenheimer and St. Bernard Parish District Judge Wayne G. Cresap.

            Moreover, while his boss Eddie Jordan received the praise, it was Jim Letten who served as lead prosecutor on the now infamous Edwin Edwards trial, putting the former Governor in jail for the better part of a decade. 

            Perhaps, though, the best defense against racial motivation in prosecution that Letten has boils down to his prosecution of former KKK Grand Wizard and State Rep. David Duke.          

            It was a case that strangely involved the author of this article.   Duke had appeared on my radio show on WTIX AM.  My partner Jeff Crouere and I asked the former Klan leader several questions about the sale of mailing list to Gov. Mike Foster.  Almost as an afterthought, I posed the question, “How did you pay taxes on that money you received from Foster?”

            It was the first time that either Crouere or I had seen Duke speechless.  

            “I don’t think we paid taxes on it,” he said looking back at the aide he had with him.    “But we’ll fix that,” Duke quickly added.

            Crouere and Tidmore’s column hit the internet the next day highlighting Duke’s confession, yet tax experts that we consulted said that as long as Duke filed an amended return quickly, no wrongdoing could be proven.  The on-air conversation fell within the three year window of opportunity for amended returns.  

            Jim Letten undoubtedly knew this when he called Crouere and asked for a copy of the tape of that specific program.  However, Letten, who was then merely a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office under Jordan, vigorously began to argue to his superiors that the new information meant that Duke must have concealed other payments from taxation.  

            The hunch paid off.   The former Grand Wizard had literally been receiving bag fulls of checks from around the nation and the world for years, and reported only a fraction of the sums to the IRS.   Ultimately, Letten used Duke’s confession on our radio program to help justify the search warrants that revealed the Klan leader’s cache of monies at his St. Tammany home.  

            Journalists are not supposed to provide opinions, but as someone on the preferay of the story, it was easy to note that Letten could have simply dropped the investigation.  Instead he got creative, seeking out a means of proving corrupt acts by the greatest ideological enemy the African-American community had known for decades.

 Christopher Tidmore hosts The Political Roundtable on KKAY 1590 AM Donaldsonville/Baton Rouge from 4-5 PM weekdays and online at www..kkay1590.com.. 

His past columns for this year can be found at 
http://host1.bondware.com/~Louisiana_Weekly/news.php?NewsSectionId=56

Cell Phone Bill Restricts Freedom

Says Local Activist/Opponent

By Christopher Tidmore

            State Representative (and Mayoral candidate) Austin Badon has been on a campaign in the past couple of legislative sessions to ban the conventional use of cell phones while driving. 

            His House Bill 146 would allow the use of hands-free cell phones and electronic communications devices but would prohibit the use of the hand-held varieties for all drivers.
            Local attorney and political activist Richard Brown testified against the measure in committee and has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the measure and has claimed that Badon has been disingenuous about his bill. 

            An eleventh hour amendment on Thursday, May 28, 2009, HB 146 may have effectively killed the bill for this legislative session, but Brown warns there were problems before lobbyists in the cellular phone industry stepped in Thursday evening. 

            (The amendment by members of the house gutted the measure by making the violation a secondary offense, meaning even if a police officer sees someone driving and talking on a cell phone he cannot pull them over and write them up for that offense unless he sees them commit another offense like speeding or improper lane usage. The bill substantially weakened, goes to the Senate for consideration next week.)

            In an interview with Bayoubuzz and www.louisianaweekly.com, Brown vowed to keep up the fight there.  

            “This is one of my few "hot button" issues and I am very passionate about it,” The local lawyer explained.  “I have done extensive research on hand held vs hands free cell phone use for the past two or three years.  I testified against Badon's bill last year in the Senate Transportation Committee and this year in the House Transportation Committee.  I plan to be back when the Senate Transportation committee takes it up.”
            “There is NO evidence that hands free devices are any safer.  In fact, the National Safety Council, which usually advocates any measure that will increase safety, does NOT favor hands free cell phone bills.  The reasons are twofold.” 
            “First, they are aware of the many studies which show that the distraction of the conversation and dialing the phone are the true distracting factors...not the act of holding the phone to one's ear.  Second, they are afraid that the hands free bills will mislead and lull the public into thinking that it's ok to talk and drive all they want to as long as they use a hands free device....resulting in even more driving while talking....which will lead to MORE accidents, not fewer accidents.”
            Put simply, as Brown elaborated, “There is no evidence that hands free cell phone conversations are any safer than hand held phone conversations.  In short, it is a feel good bill that will do no good.  I agree with the position of the National Safety Council that such a bill may well cause MORE accidents.”

            “As to hands free devices, very few of us have bluetooth devices.  They are expensive and don't work all that well and are a nuisance.  Most people don't talk on their cell phones much while driving.  Younger people (teenagers) probably will refuse to use bluetooth devices because they look "nerdy".    I submit that when most people get in their car to go somewhere, they are not contemplating using their cell phone so leave it in their pocket or purse.”

            “With Badon's bill, when most drivers want to make a call or someone calls them, they first have to figure out where the little wired earpiece is.  Is it in the center compartment? The glove box?  The door pocket?  So, they are looking all over the car for it.  And they aren't looking at the road...they are looking for the earpiece.  They are weaving all over the road.”
            “Then when they find the earpiece, the wire is a tangled mess, so they start trying to untangle it...while still driving....and then have to plug it into the phone (which takes both hands), get the earpiece in their ear, and then answer the phone...but by then the caller has hung up and you have to call them back, resulting in still more distractions.”

            “Voice recognition (voice dialing, i.e. "call home" or "call the office" is available, but very few of us have it.  Universal use of that technology is still a few years down the road.”
            Ultimately, Brown noted, “Other distractions cause as many or more accidents than cell phones.  I'm not sure of the exact rankings, but I think that distractions inside and outside the car, looking into the back seat to talk to or discipline children, fiddling with the radio or CD player, lighting cigarettes, putting on makeup and eating and drinking all cause accidents.”

            “[Rep.] Badon keeps making references to people on cell phones driving slow or erratically...crossing the center line, etc.  However, holding the phone isn't the cause of the erratic driving....the distraction of the conversation is the cause of it..  Hands free devices do nothing to reduce that.”
            “In short, it is just a feel good bill that won't do anything but restrict our freedoms.”
 

Christopher Tidmore hosts The Political Roundtable on KKAY 1590 AM Donaldsonville/Baton Rouge from 4-5 PM weekdays and online at www.kkay1590.com. 

His past columns for this year can be found at 
http://host1.bondware.com/~Louisiana_Weekly/news.php?NewsSectionId=56