COURTHOUSE HAS NEW SECURITY PLAN

The task of guarding public entrances to the Terrebonne courthouse will fall to a company that already is low-bid approved through the state of Louisiana, Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove said Monday.

A change was made because a contract with Weiser Security of New Orleans was canceled, following the arrest in the courthouse of one of its guards for possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Dove confirmed that Weiser had conducted only a local background check on the guard, 32-year-old Anthony Travis, in New Orleans court files.

Still unanswered is the question of why the Houma Police Department, which conducts its own checks of civilian security personnel working for companies contracted to the parish, did not perform such a check on Travis and relied wholly on Weisner.

“We are still in the process of evaluating what happened,” said Parish Manager Mike Toups.

Travis was found out when a Terrebonne Parish deputy recognized him from the time he had served in the parish jail years ago, as a trusty. The officer notified Maj. Malcolm Wolfe, Terrebonne’s chief of detectives, who notified Houma City Police.

They found Travis in possession of a rusted .38 revolver loaded with rounds of varying sizes. Although deputies provide security in courtrooms, and the sheriff’s office is in the courthouse, the building is in HPD’s jurisdiction.

Convicted in 2005 for possession of a Schedule II drug and aggravated flight from an officer, Travis completed his parole in 2011. But state law bars him from possessing a weapon before 2021.

Terrebonne Parish has been doing business with the Weiser firm since at least 2010, when records show a contract entered into as a result of a bid.

The contract with Weiser was made after Sheriff Jerry Larpenter took his deputies off the guard detail because of his own budgetary and manpower problems.

Needing to act quickly, Dove said, the parish awarded the contract to Weiser because their guards are armed.

Another guard service which has a parish contract, Vinson Security, does not supply armed guards.

After canceling the Weiser contract, Dove went back to Vinson, hoping to recruit the company to provide unarmed service with an armed Houma PD officer supervising.

But Vinson did not have enough personnel at that point to be able to handle the assignment, Dove said.

Working closely with Police Chief Dana Coleman, Dove has chosen North Atlantic Security, which holds a state contract for guard services as a lowest bidder.

“We will use the unarmed security guards which will be cheaper, and a Houma PD officer will have a gun at each location,” Dove said. “The main thing is for having the company guards in the morning when e get this big ruh of people. One person can’t handle it. Having the unarmed guards will lower our cost drastically.”

The parish, Dove said, will conduct additional background checks.

“We have requested that they provide us with a list of potential guards they could offer for that location and the police department will run an additional background check,” Dove said.

The parish will pay the company $13.59 per hour for each of its supervisors and $12.49 for a standard guard, with a routine 40-hour workweek.

“It was inexcusable.” Dove said of the incident overall. “And it and it will not happen again that we did not in house do the background check on these guys.”.