Naomi
LaChance
AFTER
A WATCHDOG BLOG repeatedly linked him and other local officials to corruption and fraud, the Sheriff of
Terrebone Parish in Louisiana on Tuesday sent six deputies to raid a police
officer’s home to seize computers and other electronic devices.
Sheriff
Jerry Larpenter’s deputies submitted affidavits alleging criminal defamation
against the anonymous author of the ExposeDAT blog, and obtained search
warrants to seize evidence in the officer’s house and from Facebook.
The
officer, Wayne Anderson, works for the police department of Houma, the county
seat of Terrebone Parish — and according to New Orleans’ WWL-TV, formerly
worked as a Terrebone Sheriff’s deputy.
Anderson
was placed on paid leave about an hour and a half after the raid on his house,
Jerri Smitko, one of his attorneys, told The Intercept. She said that he has
not yet been officially notified about why.
Smitko
said Anderson denies that he is the author of ExposeDat.
But
free speech advocates say the blogger — whoever he or she is — is protected by
the First Amendment.
“The
law is very clear that somebody in their private capacity, on private time, on
their own equipment, has a First Amendment right to post about things of public
concern,” Marjorie Esman, director of the ACLU of Louisiana, told The
Intercept.
Larpenter
told WWL: “If you’re gonna lie about me and make it under a fictitious name,
I’m gonna come after you.”
Esman
said the Sheriff and his deputies were forgetting something. “The laws that they’re sworn to uphold
include the right to criticize and protest. Somehow there’s a piece in the
training that leads to them missing that.”
ExposeDAT
calls itself a “watchdog group,” posting articles that use public records to
identify institutional corruption in the Parish. Since it launched in late
June, it has accused various public officials and business owners of nepotism,
tax evasion, polluting and misuse of government funds.
It
promises to “introduce articles that explore the relationship between certain
Public Officials and the flow of money in South Louisiana.”
The
Sheriff’s office, in order to obtain the warrants, said the blog had criminally
defamed the Parish’s new insurance agent, Tony Alford, WWL reported.
One
ExposeDAT blog post titled “Gordon Dove and Tony Alford’s Radioactive Waste
Dumping,” briefly describes the relationship between Alford and the parish’s
president, who jointly own a Montana trucking company that has been cited for
dumping radioactive waste in Montana. That citation was originally reported in
the Missoula, Mont., newspaper The Missoulian.
In
a post titled “You Scratch Mine and I’ll Scratch Yours,” the blog uses public
records to call attention to the fact that Sheriff Larpenter gave Alford a
parish contract despite that fact that his wife manages Alford’s office.
“When
decent, law abiding citizens try to speak out on matters of public importance,
they’re treated like criminals,” Smitko said. “If this is what happens to a
police officer with 12 year of impeccable service what the hell kind of justice
do criminals get?”
The
Sheriff’s office, the police department and the district attorney’s office did
not return requests for comment.
This
isn’t the first time that Louisiana law enforcement officers have challenged
those who criticize them. In 2012, Bobby Simmons, a former police officer, was
arrested and jailed on a charge of criminal defamation for a letter he wrote to
a newspaper regarding another police officer. The charge was later dropped, and
Simmons filed a civil suit alleging that his civil rights were violated.
