Cops post draws flack

A Houma police officer’s Facebook post perceived as a bashing of the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office is causing discomfort among some deputies who work the street and routinely back up city cops.

The public post by Wayne Anderson, himself a former deputy, is in response to a WWL-TV news story about federal officials raiding the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“Hopefully the next TPSO they raid is Terrebonne and not Tangipahoa,” the post states, above the WWL story titled “BREAKING: FBI agents are currently inside the Hammond Police Department and Tangipahoa Sheriff’s Office headquarters.”

Two Tangipahoa deputies are known targets of an investigation concerning proceeds from drug raids, according to statements from law enforcement and multiple media reports. The investigation regarding Tangipahoa is ongoing and not yet complete.

That investigation has no connection to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.

That Anderson would feel less than charitable toward the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office should not come as a surprise. His home was the site of a raid conducted by the Terrebonne Sheriff last summer in connection with a criminal defamation complaint brought by Houma insurance broker Tony Alford. The internet server at the residence was found through a separate check of records to be connected with postings on a website called ExposeDat. The warrant used to seize the computers on the premises was thrown out by an appeals court, which said the law’s application was faulty. The matter was then dropped.

Neither Anderson nor his wife, Jennifer, has been arrested or charged in connection with that.

The ExposeDat site purported to show corrupt links between Alford, Parish President Gordon Dove and Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, whose wife, Priscilla, works for Alford.

Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman offered no comment when asked if he had knowledge that one of his officers might have information about criminal action by the TPSO.

“I don’t have Facebook,” Coleman said.

The post was visible Thursday and Friday, but has since been removed, however, screenshots of it continue to circulate among law enforcement, raising mixed reactions.

Jerri Smitko, Anderson’s attorney, was advised of the post, and the contention, by The Times. Smitko declined to comment on the post at this time.

Officers who were offended by the post could not be quoted by name because they are not authorized to speak to the news media. But several who attended a holiday function last week said they were appalled and that in their own department they would have likely faced investigations for the same behavior.

“It’s one thing if you have a beef with one person, whether it’s the sheriff or somebody who investigated with you,” one veteran officer said. “But when you say something like that about a whole department it’s wrong.”

City police and sheriff’s deputies work closely together in high risk situations, particularly some involving arrests for drug activity.

Some deputies who know Anderson said they did not share the concerns. They said that they have faith in him, and that they are certain the post was prompted by pique concerning the sheriff and the ExposeDat affair.

City police work for Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government and are civil service employees. Sheriff’s deputies serve at the pleasure of the sheriff and are more immediately subject to subjective discipline for behavior deemed inappropriate for officers.

While court proceedings were conducted concerning the seizure of his electronic equipment earlier this year, Anderson was suspended with pay. But during that time, according to department rules, he was ineligible to work extra-duty details, which provide an important income supplement for deputies.

Larpenter said he was not overly offended by the post, but understood how it could raise concerns among his own officers.

“I don’t really understand any of this behavior,” Larpenter said. •

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